Konnichi wa, minna-san!

So yesterday, the demo for Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate for Wii U and 3DS was released. Now, this game is one of the primary reasons I got a Wii U early. I wanted it for Pikmin 3 and The Wonderful 101 as well but apparently those games aren't done yet... I should have known better than to trust Nintendo when it comes to ambiguous release dates. But anyway, back to the main topic.

To my dismay (believe it or not), the was no option to use the Wiimote/Nunchuck combination on Wii U. I had grown so accustomed to it over the past 2 years of playing Monster Hunter Tri that it was hard to go back to 'traditional' controls. The Wiimote/Nunchuck worked really well and I didn't have any issues with it at all. I had to re-learn all the controls again. Using the right analog stick to turn the camera is kind of awkward; I'm going to see if there's any way to change the controls. If I can't have my Wiimote/Nunchuck I can at least have the 'old' MH style of using the right analog stick to attack. Speaking of which, I'm not quite sure how to use different attacks outside of the basic combo yet. It's not like there's a tutorial or anything. I guess I'm going to have to either get used to these new controls or find a way to revert to the old controls. Anyway, so there's two monsters available to hunt in the demo. They're ranked easy and hard. I haven't tried the Plesioth (hard) yet since I need more time to get used to the controls. Plus, it's an underwater monster and those were fairly tough monsters in the Wii version (underwater parts are just hard in general). You do get two helpers when you hunt monsters: Cha-Cha and Kambayla. They're tiny little guys that can dance to give you buffs, help you recover from some status effects, and of course attack (although they don't exactly do a lot of damage). They're good for helping distract the monster from you in case you need to heal or sharpen your weapon (or reload if you're a bowman or gunner). The real fun of Monster Hunter comes from hunting with friends and strangers anyway so I'm looking forward to that.

The 3DS version is pretty much the same but the 3DS version can't go online. That's a real bummer for those who don't have a Wii U but apparently there will be some kind of way for 3DS owners to go online but you need to buy a seperate accessory. To my dismay (again), the 3DS version isn't compatible with the Circle Pad Pro. What the heck did I buy this thing for anyway...? So in order to turn the camera, you have to use the d-pad which is the reason why PSP owners weren't happy with the Monster Hunter games on PSP. You can center the camera using the L button (on both 3DS and Wii U) but that's the best you can do.

While it's a shame the controls are a little weird, I think I can make it through the game with it. This is one of my favourite gaming series after all. I'm just hoping the community for this game is a lot bigger on Wii U than it was on Wii. I'm looking forward to the hunt when the game comes out on March 19th!