I know I’m a little behind; but my wife and I finally got around to playing Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate on Wii U and 3DS. To be honest, I did play a little bit of Monster Hunter Freedom Unite when it came out; but it just wasn’t the type of game play I was interested at the time. This go around, we are both really getting into it and have been playing for a few weeks now.

Yes, I know we could be playing Monster Hunter World; however, we already owned Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate when it first came out. Just took us this long to finally playing it. Considering World is also supposed to be easier then previously releases, we figure once we get our fill with 3 Ultimate, we will be more then prepared for World. Case in point, I so hope the controls, namely with respect to swimming and camera are much more fluid. Good lord is swimming and managing the freaking camera annoying. I purposely try my best to avoid underwater battles if I can.

Now, excluding the camera controls (and yes I’m using the monster cam on feature to lock onto the larger monsters, still sucks) and swimming, there is just something about this game that keeps us playing. The fun of going out on the hunts, fighting larger and more dangerous monsters, and crafting insanely cool gear (switch axes are the best), the core of the game is just a blast. There is a story to help guide you into how the game plays, but it isn’t the deepest and that is perfectly fine with me. The variety of monsters, how much they differ with their behavior, attacks, and movements, keeps me wanting to fight that next large monster and figuring out how best to handle them. It is that right amount of fight/reward that makes me keep playing. Really looking forward to fighting the much larger and far more intimidating monsters.

If you haven’t played a Monster Hunter and don’t mind extended boss like fights. Kind of like Dark Souls but much more forgiving, less stressful, and more exciting (I loved Dark Souls, but that game took no prisoners with me). Likely going to look out for a good deal on World once the expansion releases and get both in one go.