I can’t pretend to know anything about the Monster Hunter series except that it’s big in Japan, role-playing game-lite, hard, and filled to the brim with cool giant monsters that don’t look like people in rubber suits. Monster Hunter 3, excuse me, Monster Hunter Tri is all of these things. Filled with giant, and I might add very cool, monsters and is hard. It also gives a nod to role-playing in that you’ve got to upgrade your equipment – not your character – to survive.

The game is brutal but the violence isn’t much above the level of that found in any PG-13 movie. Recommended for 13+, I’d say you could go as low as 10 if you don’t mind your kid seeing giant monster movies. I mean, that 40’s Tarantula and the classic Them! are much more nightmare inducing than the weird beasties here.

The game is very challenging, which is another way of saying it’s very frustrating. This, more than anything, makes it less suited for smaller kids who get frustrated a lot. Make a single error and your character is likely to die. The gameplay is worth “trying again and again” but your creativity in how you attack, and win, is a little too limited. I love hard games where you can win a fight multiple ways, and I think Monster Hunter should Tri (sorry about that) harder to allow creativity. But that’s probably not what fans of the series expect.

This one is exclusive for the Wii and I’m too lazy to check to see if ports are coming, but it makes good use of the Wii controls and graphics. It’s fun to swing a medieval weapon against a big evil giant and cool looking critters.

There’s a funny commercial online that I’m already sick of that shows a big Viking cutting into the show “Deadliest Catch” – and that sums up the game pretty well. It’s cool, safe, almost harmless monster killing fun that isn’t gory or scary but is thrilling and challenging enough to be worth a look. But the difficulty indicates that the game should be called “Monster Hunter 3 Try” – okay, that’s about as clever as I can be today.

Tags: Game Reviews