By John Ancilotti, Staff Writer
On March 26, “Monster Hunter Rise,” the newest title in Capcom’s “Monster Hunter” series, was released on the Nintendo Switch.
Capcom announced they shipped four million units to retailers for the game’s first weekend. The series’ previous title, “Monster Hunter World,” shipped five million units for its opening weekend. Although “Rise” is currently exclusive to the Nintendo Switch, “World” was only launched on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
Rise is a timed exclusive, meaning it is only available on the Nintendo Switch for now, but it will eventually be brought to other platforms. Producer Ryozo Tsujimoto said they are developing a version for PC due to requests. The PC version of Rise is expected to release in 2022.
Reviews for the game show a promising reception. Metacritic gave the game an 87%, IGN awarded it eight out of 10 stars, Google users rated the game an average of four and half out of five stars and 97% of users liked the game.
New features of the game include Palamutes and Wirebugs. These new creatures help the player explore locales in new ways.
The Palamute is a dog version of the Palico, a cat which hunts alongside the player and longtime staple of the series. The Palamute also fights with the player, and the player can also ride on it to move across locales faster. The Palamute is not a replacement of the Palico, players can bring both cat and dog buddies with them on quests.
The Wirebugs are a new tool which can be used in various ways. The player can use Wirebug attacks, like hunter arts from older titles. Wirebugs can also be used like grappling hooks to reach higher areas of the map.
If a monster is in a mountable state, the player can ride on its back. Unlike previous games, while riding on a monster back, the player does not attack the monster. The player instead controls the monster’s actions for a short time, allowing the player to attack other monsters or run the mounted monster into a wall.
The game will continue to expand with free updates releasing in the future.
The free 2.0 update, coming at the end of April, will add the monsters Chameleos, Apex Rathalos and more. The update will also add unrevealed features and a new Hunter Rank cap.
Another free update is planned for later in the year. The 3.0 update will include more monsters and a new story ending.
“Monster Hunter” has been a popular series in Japan since early in its life. A Japanese company was receiving so many requests from employees for time off on Rise’s release day; the company gave everyone the day off to hunt monsters.
The series was niche in western markets until it burst into western mainstream with 2018’s “Monster Hunter: World.”
World became Capcom’s highest selling game with 16.8 million sales, dethroning the 1991 video game “Street Fighter II” which earned 15.5 million sales.
Capcom is a major video game company founded in 1979, known for their popular video game franchises “Street Fighter,” “Mega Man,” “Resident Evil,” “Devil May Cry,” “Monster Hunter” and more.
ancilljm19@bonaventure.edu
