So I’m hunting my giant Clappy fire Bird, happily slapping it with a sword that is so large it defies logic  and then a bloody great big dragon turns up, nukes the bird and proceeds to eat me. Now, usually I would scream profanities at my Wii and vow to burn the disc but with Monster Hunter I laugh at the brutal murder of my character and vow to turn the dragon into rare – medium rare steaks.

I have been a casual gamer since I threw my wow character off a cliff in winter spring so, when I  picked up a copy of Monster hunter I naturally did so with some trepidation, but after a 4 hour period of being thoroughly confused by my characters mass monster Hunting tendencies and a back pack full of goodies like, “Dung”,” large Dung” and “Paramushrooms” (which makes your character violently throw up when eaten)   I  finally knew how to make  steak’s,  potion’s  and more weapons which is more or less the basics of the admin that needs to be done in-between beating up animals, taking their obscure parts and turning them into knick knacks like bombs and bug nets.  I now run around the wilderness of Monster land ducking and diving underneath fireballs like it was my calling in life.  Considering I play my Wii for only a few hours a week Monster Hunter Tri provides instant satisfaction, easily allowing the player to go heads up against the monster you wish to skin into extinction. I have already clocked up over 40 hours and am still not bored and haven’t even had a glimpse of the big bad Monsters yet. This is the beauty of Monster Hunter Tri.

The Battle system is beautiful and surprisingly intuitive. Once you have the hang of the game and understand how to make your character stop, drop, roll and decapitate, the battles become much like a ballet version of Jurassic Park. If you are facing a new monster just run around like a headless chicken evade its attacks until you know how it moves. Then move in for the kill exploiting its weakness’s. It’s as simple as that for nearly every monster but each time it feels fresh and fun.

This isn’t to say it’s not an ordeal of endurance at the same time. You can find yourself duelling with a Monster for up to 50 minutes before your timer runs out but that time flies by. I personally find that I care about your characters life and don’t want him to just crash and burn under your current foes many serrated teeth.

So remember, stop, drop and roll as much as possible so that you don’t end up as Velociraptor food.