Spot & Games - The Never Ending Battle

Here it is folks… a long awaited review from my blogs I used to do at spotacular.com. I should hopefully get things figured out to the point that I used to have it, however, this is a bit of a random blathering review on this game title. This game will be looked at in the view of how enjoyable was this game and why or why not, based on my opinions of playing far too many games with several wins and also several failing titles to my enjoyment. With that… here we go! (Hit the link to read anything else below)

This game is one of a series that I was introduced to late of its time. I started on the PSP with Monster Hunter: Freedom Unite which was a good title and very enjoyable, but more so when you have more people that you are playing with. This element held pretty true to the latest one that is exclusive to the Nintendo Wii.  The curious thing about this title is why they implemented a fairly interesting multiplayer universe with such a limited console such as the Wii. Not saying I haven’t been able to connect, find friends, and play, but it has been one of the more complicated connection methods for me. I’ve had a horrible experience with online as I was getting disconnected fairly regularly. After some research, it turned out that if you have the Wii 24/7 Connect option turned on from within the Wii settings, it could cause you to randomly get disconnected. So, after finding the option because I haven’t seriously played with the Wii in several years, I didn’t have one disconnection after that. Make sure that is unchecked. Now to the fun stuff:

Likes:

Now, let me say this… if you are using a Wii-Mote, stop it. Just stop it now. You look silly and you’re not being nearly as accurate as you could. Get a Classic Wii-Mote, it’s only $20, and help yourself become efficient and kick some serious monster ass. I was spoiled with Monster Hunter Freedom Unite as there was about any weapon type you could want. So I made the mistake of expecting that same weapon set. When I loaded up and only saw the 6 weapons, I was a little disappointed. In this game you have Sword & Shield, Greatsword, Lance, Bowgun, Longsword, and Switch-Axe. Now… of these weapons I favor the Switch-Axe and the Bowgun. Each have their own unique weapon set due to the significant amount of monsters to hunt. The Bowgun is, by far, the most versatile weapon as you can mix, match, and coordinate any build of it you want. You can pick the stock, barrel, and frame. For every major monster, there is a weapon & armor build. Back to combat. NO! There is a lock-on system. NO! There is not a way to magically always hit a monster by hitting a certain button every time. It is old school where it takes skill and actual aiming abilities. Now, with how spoiled we are with auto-aims, corrective help to adjust shots, and assistance with just combat in general, it’s a bit of work to get back to actually aiming and timing your shots. But it’s worth it, it all pays off in the long run and the feeling of everyone pooling together to take down these monsters is just epic. This reminds me a lot of most MMO’s when you have to work together to take down an epic mob. This game is an absolute blast to play online with some friends. The solo play is pretty fun and tells a decent idea of a story, but the bottom line is: Get quests, go hunt, repeat until you have the best possible gear ever. With a few online events that change randomly, it gets very interesting.

Dislikes:

Well, there is one thing that I already addressed but the online issue I had was with the Wii 24/Connect service that was complicating my online gameplay. The other curiosity is why they choose the Nintendo Wii for this when they knew that the stronger point of this game was going to be the online scene? It worked well with Nintendo as I went out and had to get a WiiSpeak and probably a headset so I don’t get feedback from their below par mic setup, but it’s just the start of something that could actually evolve the Nintendo online scene away from just Mario Kart. I really wish they would’ve went with either PS3 or XBox360 for this title, but what can I do? While the combat is old school, it doesn’t mean that it is not frustrating at times. When you are lining up that perfect shot only to realize you didn’t focus the camera correctly (aimed a little left or right from where you wanted) it does nothing but get you angry. There are several moments in the game where you will feel like tossing it aside. These occur in single player modes against creatures that are defining to the different strategies needed to become a good hunter. It would have been nice for something to curve the edge off of these battles, but some online play and better gear with the help of friends proved to make these issues no longer valid. Last gripe: Switch Axe & Longsword are not readily available until a bit into the game. You can go online and quest around to get the necessary parts immediately online, but the offline single player experience will not let these unlock until you are doing the Level 4 & 6 quests. 

Bottom Line:

I adore this game. It is far from perfect and there are things I wish were different, but I haven’t had this much fun with a unique game experience on the Wii. There’s always the Mario/Zelda games that bring me back, but this was a unique experience all in its own that had me hopping online, almost religiously, with some friends and going down to hunt the fearsome beasts that lay within. If you like MMO’s with the raiding/teamwork it takes to down a challenging creature, love JRPGs, or are just looking for something different, make sure you have a classic controller and give this a try.