I have been playing Monster Hunter 4 since the Japanese release date. If this were a past iteration of Monster Hunter (let’s say, for example, Portable 3rd) my game clock would easily be over the 100 hour mark by now. My game clock in Monster Hunter 4 is just over 50 hours. As I’d mentioned in a previous article about my history with the Monster Hunter series, I’d gone through a bout of decreased interest with the series as of 3G/3 Ultimate on the 3DS/Wii U. However, I was really hoping that the changes brought about in 4 would spark my long held interest again. Well have they? I guess I can’t answer “yes” completely given what I just said, so the answer is more like “Sort of”. But I’ve begun to realize that it’s because of an aspect of Monster Hunter that I somehow managed to forget about over time and a changing life situation.
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Back in July of this year I started playing El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron. I’d heard nothing but fantastic things about it from plenty of sources that I trusted, and figured that I’d forgotten about it long enough. I’m happy to say that every bit of praise that had been heaped upon it was true: The game was fantastic. My understanding of it coming in was that it was sort of an arty 3D beat-em-up, which was completely fine with me. What I wasn’t expecting was all of the other elements from other game genres that were thrown in, and for the most part, very well executed. The 3D platform could be a bit frustrating at times (perhaps that’s due to me not being so great at 3D platforming sometimes), but I was thrilled with the 2D platforming and motorcycle stages. I would not hesitate to recommend this game to anyone.
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| 機動戦士Ζガンダム・ホットスクランブル | Mobile Suit Z Gundam - Hot Scramble |
- Released: 08/28/1986 (Japan)
- Developer: Game Studio
- Publisher: Bandai
- Copies Sold (Approximate): 400,000
In February of 1986 the Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam TV anime had just finished its fifty episode run of nearly one year in length. It received critical acclaim all around, garnered the highest ratings of any televised Gundam anime thus far and is widely regarded as one of Tomino Yoshiyuki’s (the creator of the Gundam franchise) best works. With Gundam fever spreading across Japan, it only made sense that the franchise should have a game on the Famicom.
It should be mentioned that before this there had already been other Gundam games released. The very first was on a system that Bandai themselves brought to Japan in 1983 called the Arcadia (a variant of the Emerson Arcadia). A couple of others were also released on home computers such as the MSX and FM-7.
The game’s plot is summed up with an opening story reel (which is strangely all in English) and follows the plot of the Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam series. You are piloting the Z Gundam (perhaps as Zeta Gundam main character Kamille Bidan, though that isn’t specifically mentioned) and taking on the Titans. The story reel isn’t shown until after the “EBI Warning” though, informing the player that they should most definitely not engage in acts of piracy. But even though the false warning is amazing in its own way, what may even be more amazing is the ridiculously detailed Mobile Suit bios that are shown afterward. They contain just about any piece of Mobile Suit data that an aficionado could want, including the weight of the Mobile Suit’s head. These things combined with a chip tune version of the Zeta Gundam anime’s first theme song (“Zeta – toki wo koete”) playing gives this game more of an anime-style intro than any other game up to this point.
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With a copy of Monster Hunter 4 arriving at my doorstep soon, I suspect I’ll be writing quite a bit about it in the coming months. In preparation for this, I thought it might be a good idea to briefly discuss my personal history with the Monster Hunter series as a whole. I’d like to do this completely independently of the individual series entry reviews that I’ve been working on, focusing more just on my personal experiences with them instead of analyses. I will also discuss why I’m so excited for a new Monster Hunter game when the series itself is so well known for not differentiating itself with each iteration.
Back when Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G (Monster Hunter Freedom Unite) was selling gang busters on the PSP in Japan, it was hard for an import savvy gamer to not notice the Monster Hunter phenomenon. After much prompting from my wife I decided to not pick up the latest and greatest entry in the series, but rather step back to the series roots (as I often do) and get Monster Hunter Portable (Monster Hunter Freedom) on the PSP. My story was not so different from that of a lot of other first time players: I kind of hated it. The controls were extremely odd and difficult to adapt to (though at the time I would constantly use the left trigger to center my camera, not having known about “the claw”) and many aspects of the game were archaic. On top of that, the level of challenge when I got to the first major monster (In this case Yian Kut-Ku) was just ridiculous. It was like everything that I had learned up until that point went right out the window when Kut-Ku did his tail whip and took away about half of my health. I did eventually struggle through beating Kut-Ku several times, and ultimately put down the game for good when I fought Rathalos. I was destroyed by him several times while barely managing to land a hit or two.
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Why did I decide I needed a Japanese XBox 360? I cite the plethora of shooters (or “shmups”, though I really do hate that word) that never made it out of Japan. One of the first things I wondered though, was just how the region locking worked exactly. Let’s face it, there are a lot of ways to play games on the 360: Physical discs, XBox Live Arcade, and Games on Demand being the most popular. I scoured many forum posts that attempted to explain the ins and outs of how points worked across regions, and what games could be played on which region of system. None of them had all of the answers, and often the information was incomplete or just plain wrong. My goal is to ensure that no one else seeking these answers has to go through the same process to find out what they can or can’t play on what and where.
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- Released: 12/16/1990 (Japan), 11/1991 (US), 1992 (PAL)
- Developer: Quintet
- Publisher: Enix
- Copies Sold (Approximate): 400,000
The launch period of the Super NES is a very nostalgic time for gamers of a certain age, largely because of the deluge of new and innovative titles that developers were producing at that time (not to mention the improved graphics and sound that came along with the movement into a new generation). ActRaiser is almost always held up as a shining example of this innovation, and it absolutely deserves to be. From the moment you see the game’s logo gradually flying onto the screen from a distance and hear the music that sounds as orchestral as can be on a piece of 16-bit hardware, you are shown just how wonderfully ActRaiser merges 16-bit technology with fantastic game design and presentation.
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- Released: 01/20/2005 (Japan)
- Developer: Capcom
- Publisher: Capcom
- Copies Sold (Approximate): 300,000
Less than one year after the release of the original Monster Hunter, Capcom released the expansion: Monster Hunter G. From the moment Puugii (the adorable little big that is present throughout the series from here on) comes walking across the title screen snorting, the game shows us that we are in for something slightly different. In fact Monster Hunter G does everything that a good expansion should: It improves on some of the original game’s flaws, introduces conveniences that make it easier to play, and adds a lot of new content.
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I was told when I started playing Lost Odyssey a couple of months ago that it was essentially a modern version of Final Fantasy 6, which is one of my favorite RPGs of all time. Now I’ve had many RPGs recommended to me over the years, and I’ve found that rarely do they ever live up to the strength of their recommendations. In this case, the game completely exceeded its recommendation beyond anything that I would have ever expected. As I write this I have finished Lost Odyssey completely: I’ve beaten all of the optional bosses and have gotten all of the achievements (I am not typically an achievement hunter by any means). I don’t mean to write a full fledged review for this game just yet, so let me tell you a little bit about what, in my opinion, is easily the best JRPG of the 360/PS3/Wii generation, if not even further back.
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In all honesty, New Super Mario Brothers U is definitely not the game that sold me on buying a Wii U shortly after the Japanese launch date. I had eyes only for the HD version of Monster Hunter 3G, with absolutely no intention of even buying this new entry in the Super Mario series until it dropped in price a bit. But then I heard the words that made my heart leap and brought back feelings of wonder once felt by my 11 year old self: “It’s like Super Mario World.”
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I’ve played a few sub-par Kinect titles on the XBox 360 at this point. Most of then have spotty motion detection at best, and many of them aren’t even much more fun playing with the Kinect instead of a regular controller. Though it’s hardly a must-play, or even worth spending much more than a couple of hours with, Dragon Ball Z for Kinect is neither spotty with its motion detection nor without its amusements while Kinect-ing it up.
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