Nintendo Australia held an exclusive preview event for the upcoming Monster Hunter Tri in Sydney recently, and well, we made it! A-N's Mercury, Gookanheimer, Grubdog and that guy nobody likes - Infernal Monkey, attended by cleverly sneaking past the security ninjas. Or with invitations from other sites, it was something like that.
For your viewing pleasure, both Mercury and I will be teaming up to bring you this action-packed write-up - we were but a few that made it out alive.
Gathering at Circular Quay, we boarded our ferry - the fabled Regal II - to Cockatoo Island, an interesting industrial location filled with thousands of tents, no cockatoos, tunnels and mystery. During our trip over, we were hyped up by Lord Türrick, our incredibly entertaining guide dressed in pseudo-chainmail. I'll never forget that battle cry; "AOOGAH!"
After docking at the wrong port (it was all part of the plan), we eventually reached the right one, where we gathered to hear more about the dangers ahead. From there, we were led into a deep, dark tunnel.
So there we all were, 70 odd people being led into a dark cave on a massive uninhabited island, guided by Nintendo reps. My suspicions aroused, I wondered if this was Nintendo's way of 'dealing' with third party game consumers.
"Yep just go all the way down this here tunnel, we are right behind you! When you get to the end of it...um, just wait for a bit while we seal the entran... I MEAN! Get the entertainment ready!"
But alas, we continued to cautiously walk into darkness. Waiters handed us glasses of wine at the entrance, "This will dull the pain," one said to me.
Soon my companions handsome faces were nothing but blurry silhouettes. The cave was lined with neon lights, all conveniently placed to light up sections of the cave decorated with the 'remains' of all the others that Nintendo had locked down here. There were rusted suits of armor, shields and swords scattered about the cave, how long had Nintendo been doing this for?!
It was really atmospheric, and NAL did an amazing job setting the whole thing up. Monsters could be heard growling at you as you'd walk past a strobe lit alcoves, and bones could be seen hanging from chains attached to the walls.
Further in, along the left hand side of the tunnel were flat screen TV's mounted on the walls, each set up with a Black Wii, and a demo copy of Monster Hunter Tri playing on them. We continued down the tunnel until everybody stopped in front of yet another flat screen TV blocking the path.
At this point, Jamie from NAL welcomed us to our doom, and we all crushed together as he gave us a brief demonstration of how the game played. We witnessed the impressive enemy AI in action, with a boss character escaping from battle once it was heavily injured in search of fellow monsters to help out.
Traversing through Monster Hunter Tri is a breeze, each section of the overworld is broken up by a very quick loading screen. Underwater combat - a first for the series - was also shown off. After this, we were free to go try the game for ourselves. Some demo units were set up with two player split-screen arena battles, while four others were linked over a Wi-Fi connection for co-op play in the main adventure.
The game played fine with both the Wii Remote/Nunchuk or the Classic Controller. The new Classic Controller Pro (which comes bundled with Monster Hunter Tri) was pretty fancy; it felt nice and solid. I think we were all taken by surprise at just how difficult the game is, though. Many quests ended in miserable defeat, but we had a blast watching our characters keel over time and time again.
Teamwork is definitely the key, and Nintendo Australia confirmed that the game would be free to play online here just like America and Europe. As we played, food and drinks were plentiful, with people walking up and down the tunnel constantly offering the likes of party pies, obscure buckets of noodles, these adorable little mini hamburgers and more. Mercury made sure to leave a trail of pickles behind so we'd never lose our way, my hero. I'm still wondering who took my beer though, I put it down and only turned my back for a second! Gone!
Haha, the pickles! They came with the mini hamburgers, and while I usually I eat pickles with burgers, when the pickle is bigger then the burger itself. I have to think twice. Its like having a little bit of a burger with your pickle. I apologise to the person who had to rid the cave of all the pickles I left behind.
As mentioned, the game seemed pretty difficult, but they did seem to throw everyone into the deep end. There were 3 challenges to take on with the 4 played co-op. The challenges required you to slay a monstrous beast within a time limit, which was set to about 15 minutes.
You were basically thrown onto a map, all in one location. From here you could either split up to find the quickest route to the monster you had to defeat (depicted on the map as a small representation) or stick together to find the beast as one group. A few people got lost, and ended up on the other side of the map whilst the other 'team mates' fought the massive foe to no prevail. They needed you!
The controls take a bit of getting used to, but using the Classic Controller Pro seems like the way to go. I had good bash at it, and being able to control the camera with an analogue stick over the D-pad is a godsend. Jamie assured me that the game works you into the controls scheme at a good pace, and that you will pick it up easily within a couple of hours or so.
After a while, we decided that we'd venture out the back of the cave to see what was out there. The outside area was lovely, it had a great view of the city as the sun set. We got a bit too adventurous and Russell Grant ended up getting us in trouble.
Haha, ah yes, Russell Grant. Considering he's basically A-N's unofficial mascot (my apologies), it was only natural to bring him along for a few shots. Gookanheimer was awesome enough to scale up a rock wall with Russell Grant in the blink of an eye, but security kind of freaked out a bit and asked him to get down. Get down and party!
It was here we also received our goodie bags, containing a Monster Hunter hat, press release information and a black notepad with a white pen to go with it. Stylish. More and more people gathered outside to take a break from all the monster hunting, but we were eventually called back in, as Nintendo was about to announce three random winners for a brand new black Nintendo Wii. Merc's mate was one of the lucky three, so jealous!
After some more time with the game, a group shot with our guide for precious memories and further pickle chaos, it was time to leave the island. Four hours had gone by like that, and many corpses were left behind to distract the tent people (I believe there was some sort of school camp or something going on, seriously - tents were everywhere).
One tent in particular had been banished to the other side of the island, where it sat all by it's lonesome. It was most likely, a fat kid.
We all got pushed out of the cave by a bulldozer (driven by an enraged fat kid) coming in from the other end. Before Lord Türrick could lead us back to the Sea turtle, we all yelled a cry of victory, which, I assume, was to lift our spirits after doing so horribly with the game. Did anyone manage to kill anything? I managed to kill a few of the smaller, more pathetic monsters, and I am satisfied with that.
We all jumped on the ol' Regal, and sailed off into the distance, *fades to black*.
Overall It was a fun night, Nintendo pulled out all the stops for this, and I'm quite glad that I had the opportunity to attend, wouldn't you agree Lance?
Oh my yes, I love the Propeller Hat!
Monster Hunter Tri launches April 29 in Australia. You'll be able to pick it up as a standalone game (RRP $79.95) or bundled with the new black Classic Controller Pro (RRP $99.95). Happy hunting!
Written by Joshua Cortese (Mercury) and Lance McGill (Infernal Monkey)
The Stages of Game Anticipation
Simple 2000: The End
The sorry state of Australia's WiiWare/DSiWare service
