While the Monster Hunter games have proven to be one of the most popular videogame franchises in Japan, Capcom is hoping to capture the hearts of Western audiences when it introduces the third iteration of its action games to the Wii. 

As a novice Monster Hunter, you’ll begin your quest by choosing amongst several different weapon sets. There’s the spear-wielding archetype, sword and shield bearer and more. 

While the game initially looks like an Onimusha or God of War clone from its third-person camera angle, the game isn’t at all a simple button masher. As a matter of fact, because there is no auto targeting system or insane combos that hit everything on screen, players have to be really precise with their strikes. Players must therefore look directly at their opponents and gauge their distance and time their hits to deal out some damage. When I asked why Capcom didn’t go with an auto-targeting system for the game, a representative told me that the developer didn’t want the action to be mindless. 

As a monster hunter, players will face a wide variety of beasts. From what we saw in the demo, most of the monsters looked a lot like pre-existing dinosaurs. You have your T-rex look-a-likes, pterodactyls, saurolophus and more. While Capcom says these animals weren’t based on pre-existing archetypes, you can’t deny their eerie similarities. 

In the build that we played, we were allowed to pick between two missions; both dropped us off in the same forest-filled world. The first mission had us tracking down a big raptor-looking monster. The mission was rated 1 star in its difficulty (the easiest). While the beast was formidable, its little sidekick babies weren’t. As a matter of fact, since they were more of an annoyance than anything, I found my strategy of simply attacking the “mother raptor” working quite well. While this seems easy enough, the mother never stayed in place long enough for me to dole up any real damage. In addition, proved to be quite painful. When you are able to hurt the beast, you’ll find that it quickly runs away to another section of the world to heal up. 

The levels in Monster Hunter Tri are billed as “immense, living, breathing worlds” but from what I’ve played, the worlds are simply composed of large arena-like environments that are tied together with branching pathways. These pathways are segregated by invisible lines that trip short load times. Fighting near these invisible lines often lead to accidental level changes, which were quite annoying. 

In the second mission, we fought a level 3 beast who not only flew, but was able to chirp and call other beasts to the battlefield. Oddly enough, every creature has been designed to have a mind of its own and these summoned animals are often neutral in their alignment and will often even attack the monster that called it. While letting these minions do all the damage does seem like a good idea in preserving your health, there is a time limit to these missions and you’ll find that these beasts aren’t good enough by themselves to do the job.

Helping you fight these creatures are items that can heal your character, temporarily increase his stamina, tools that will re-sharpen your weapon, and more. In addition, the game promises fully customizable equipment and more.

Visually, it is hard to argue that this isn’t the best looking Monster Hunter game; however, nothing I saw of it ever told me it couldn’t be done on the now 10 year-old PlayStation 2. 

While the level we played took place in a jungle-like environment, Capcom is promising varied landscapes that include icy tundras, lava-filled worlds, and more. One new addition to this installment of Monster Hunter are sea battles. Players can now swim underwater and have epic battles under the sea. While there is a new oxygen meter, it seems to be pretty generous in that I never came close to drowning. 

Another new feature in Monster Hunter Tri is the inclusion of multiplayer. While we weren’t able to try this portion of the game out, Capcom is allowing up to four-players to play cooperatively online. 

Another new addition that will ship with select copies of Monster Hunter Tri is Nintendo’s new classic controller pro. The new controller is black and extremely lightweight. The controller features a d-pad, four shoulder buttons, dual analog sticks, four face buttons, and your usual array of start, select, and home buttons. The overall feel of the controller feels a lot like a slightly taller Super Nintendo controller.

You’ll be able to get your hands on this controller and game when Monster Hunter Tri launches April 20.