Monster Hunter Tri Games

The story to Monsterf Hunter fighting games Tri is that there are some mysterious earthquakes happening on this little island, and nobody knows why. Instead of doing the reasonable thing of saying “oh the Earth’s crusts are moving.” The people of this tiny island turn around and say “there must be a giant monster somewhere that is going to kill us if we don’t stop it". So you play the role of an unnamed hero who must locate, and kill this mysterious monster.
To me it seems the creators of this game just tried to come up with some random story, put a few monsters in the mix, stuck it in a blender and tah-dah you have Monster Hunter Tri. Don’t get me wrong the game is fun but to me I think the story needs some more work to be done.


Game Play
Running, waking, dodging, swimming, slashing and stabbing. This game has all the good qualities of a regular sword and shield game except for one major issue. The lock on system, there just isn’t one. This means your blows have to be expertly timed and you need lightning quick reflexes. Now this isn’t as big of a problem as it sounds until you start fighting multiple monsters at the same time. The monsters double team you quite frequently, one monster can roar while the other attacks you and it will get frustrating. However there is an extreme amount of game play, completing both online and offline modes took me over 200 hours, and my game is still not one hundred percent complete.
There are three basic control schemes, Wii remote and Nunchuk, Wii remote and classic controller or Wii remote and classic controller pro. (Sold separately or as a bundle with the game) My favorite is the Wii remote and classic controller. Your left analog stick to move your character while the right analog stick controls your camera.
There are three game play modes, Single player offline, online multiplayer and either the solo or co-operative Arena game mode.

Online Functionality
The online to this is great, the constant updates for new weapons, quests, and armors will keep you busy for a long time. Plus I have not seen many hackers and cheating as in much other Wii titles. The online friends list is separate from your Wii friends codes, making it easier to add friends. You do not need to add these troublesome codes and you can chat freely via a USB mouse or the Wii speak accessory. (Sold separately)
There is a level system, also known as Hunter Rank, this separates the men from the boys. If your Hunter Rank is below 31 it will protect you from all the advanced quests, while when you are over 31 it stops cheaters from only doing easy quests to raise their Hunter Rank by not giving them as much experience from the lower leveled quests.
One major fault in this game is while playing online you may get disconnected, this happens quite frequently and this could be just as frustrating as the game itself. You might be close to completing a quest, a quest you may have tried 100 times to complete when BAM! All of a sudden you get disconnected. Luckily however the game automatically saves after every quest so you will return to your pre-quest state.



Arena
The only offline multiplayer mode is a game called the Arena, now the object is to hunt specific monsters in a coliseum type map with limited resources and time. This is monster hunters version of Time Trials. The better time you get the more monster “coins” you will unlock. These coins allow you to forge arena only armor sets and weapons in single player mode. Don’t think arena mode is easy, sometimes they give you horrible weapons and tell you to kill something insanely difficult in under ten minutes.
I recommend only playing Arena mode if you are familiar with the games controls, and with monsters.

Weapons
There are seven types of weapons, sword and shield, great sword, hammer, lance, switch axe, and a long sword. The sword and shield is just that, a sword with a small shield with can deflect most blows. However while using the shield you cannot move around. The great sword is a two handed weapon that deal a great amount of damage and can also be used as a shield. Like with the sword and shield you cannot move while blocking and because you’re deflecting blows with the blade you are dulling your weapon. The hammer is the heaviest weapon that deals the greatest amount of damage but has two major flaws; one, slow attack speed and two, no defense. The lance is a better version of the sword and shield because it has a greater attack, you can move with the shield and it can block almost every attack. The switch axe is a combination weapon between a large battle axe, and a fast moving sword. While in the battle axe mode it has a very slow attack rate but it is very powerful. However while in sword mode it is quicker but deals less damage. The final melee weapon is the long sword, this is the fastest weapon that is ideal for streaming together combos and deals moderate amounts of damage.

The only long range weapon is the bowgun, now this is one of the best weapons for shooting games just because of how much different types of ammunition there are. They range anywhere from healing, to explosions, to poison, to paralyzing. One of its faults is that it requires its own armor set, so it’s not a quick change like all the other weapons, you actually need to spend more money to buy specific armor for a gunner.

The edge: (no pun intended) The lance. My personal favorite weapon is the lance, with a great charge style attack, a large shield that defends you from most attacks and quick dodging are key factors in being a successful lance user.



Visuals
These stunning graphics are what the Wii’s expectations should be, this game proves that the Wii is capable of more than just cartoony and anime style games. The life like creatures and background details will keep you in awe, in awe enough to almost forget about the game at hand. These graphics would be shocking on any system, but nobody expected them from a Wii. The creators really went all out to test the Wii’s maximum graphics capacity, and let me tell you, they sure have reached the limit.