Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate

Genre: Action-RPG

Players: 1-4 Co-Op (Local Wireless), StreetPass Support

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Review:

I feel like at this point any Monster Hunter review I write needs to start with a preface. I am not a Monster Hunter series fan. I have tried many times over the years to get into the series, and just could not do it. I generally find the series to be overly-complicated, clunky, and just simply not as fun as its premise seems like it should be. My review of Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate pointed largely to these issues (as well as an underwhelming presentation) as reasons why I found that game to be lacking.

Later, I would briefly play Monster Hunter World on other platforms, and while it didn’t quite suck me in, I found it to be a much better experience, one that put to shame prior entries in the series. However, it wasn’t until Monster Hunter Rise that this franchise truly “clicked” with me. The much-improved movement, streamlined game elements, and better controls all made it easier to appreciate the things this series has done right all along, and the outstanding graphics certainly didn’t hurt either. I was so impressed with Monster Hunter Rise that I named it my Game of the Year for 2021 (as well as giving it multiple other awards).

In the time since, I have tried looking back into Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate to see if perhaps now I could look at the game with a better insight in the series and gain a new appreciation for it… and no. My opinion on that game still stands – while I can understand why others might have been willing to tolerate its severe issues to get to the deep and rewarding gameplay underneath all of those issues, I just couldn’t, and now that Monster Hunter Rise exists, I don’t have to.

And that brings me to Monster Hunter 3. Also known by the title Monster Hunter Tri, this game was originally released on the Wii in 2010, and later ported to Nintendo 3DS and Wii U as Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate in 2013. It may seem somewhat unfair to review the game in 2022, over a decade after the game’s first release. However, I tend to think that a truly great game should be able to withstand the test of time, and I know there are many that truly swear by the Monster Hunter franchise as truly great games, so… let’s test that assertion.

At least in one area, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate still shines on the Nintendo 3DS, and that is the presentation. While it lacks the intricately-detailed character models and textures of more recent entries in the series, not to mention the same sort of massive seamless environments (though the environments here are still quite large), it’s still impressive that Capcom was able to shrink this game’s visuals to fit on the Nintendo 3DS. Even with lower detail, the character models for the monsters in particular still feature a lot of detail, personality, and animation.

However, possibly more impressive is the sound, which does a truly excellent job of making you feel like you’re in a wild natural environment filled with life and danger… at least until you challenge a larger monster, and have your fight backed by fittingly epic fanfare.

Unfortunately, my issues with the pre-World/Rise Monster Hunter games rear their ugly head here once again. It’s the same combination of issues I had with Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate – the controls are unnecessarily clunky, the game’s menus and mechanics are unnecessarily complicated, and overall the game just isn’t fun to play, even though I know there’s a wealth of strong mechanics underneath for those wanting to explore them.

I will say that the control issues this game has are despite a clear effort made to try to improve things for players – this was one of the first games to work with the Circle Pad Pro attachment (and subsequently the New Nintendo Switch’s second analog pad). Unfortunately, players using this to control the camera while moving won’t easily be able to use the attack, item, and dodge buttons, making its usefulness in the middle of combat unfortunately lacking.

I also have to credit this game for allowing players to customize the touchscreen how they like, allowing players to arrange a variety of widgets on the screen, not only giving them a fully-customizable display, but customizable touchscreen controls too. Make no mistake, this is an excellent addition to the game, but it doesn’t fix the underlying control issues.

And of course I have to mention the multiplayer play being limited by a lack of online play, though by this point the online servers would undoubtedly be empty anyway. At the very least you still have the option to play with others locally, and there’s even StreetPass support.

I really do appreciate that there was a real effort to address the core problems of the monster Hunter series in this release, but unfortunately it’s just not enough. Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate is just too compromised by its poor controls and convoluted game design to be worth going back to, especially when its much-improved successors, Monster Hunter World and Monster Hunter Rise, provide players with the same great deep gameplay without anywhere near the same level of hassle. If you absolutely need Monster Hunter on a Nintendo 3DS, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate does an admirable job of making it work, but most players are better off sticking with newer games in the franchise.

tl;dr – Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate is an admirable port of the Wii entry in the series to Nintendo 3DS, but it suffers from frustrating controls and convoluted game design. If you have any modern platform, stick with the newest Monster Hunter games in the series – they’re much better.

Grade: C

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