Where to start with this epic game. Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate has so much content that in many ways it represents a celebration of the long-running series. As to why it took so long to come to the West is anyone’s guess, the original was released for the Nintendo 3DS years ago - 2015 to be exact - with this Ultimate incarnation finding its way to the Nintendo Switch library, in Japan at least, almost a year ago to the day. A situation that begins to feel stranger once you factor in the resounding success that Monster Hunter World found when it was released in January.

But where that game took full advantage of modern console and PC hardware, and in a lot of ways changed up the series’ look to match that of a more serious RPG, Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate is firmly rooted in its 3DS ancestry. For those unfamiliar with this version of the hunt, it’s essentially a ‘Best Of’ or ‘Ricky Martin’s Greatest Hits’ collection of Monster Hunter’s history - including regions and monsters from all the previous games. It’s development a celebration of a decade of Monster Hunter games - and a thank you its passionate fans that stood by the series from the word go.


Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate, or as we’ll refer to it from here on out MHGENU - okay, even that’s a mouthful - offers Switch owners the ability to transfer their save from the 3DS edition. A nice bonus for those of us that sunk countless hours into the Nintendo 3DS release and wanted to continue our quest to hunt all the monsters - but in the most Ultimate way possible. Which is a roundabout way of saying that if you’re new to the series, MHGENU doesn’t offer the smoothest first toe-dip into the pristine waters of the Monster Hunter franchise.

Which means, yeah, it can be overwhelming and there’s a steep learning curve. Even those that have come from Monster Hunter World, will notice a number of missing quality of life improvements. No doubt, it takes a bit of time getting used to the ‘old ways’ again.

But, let’s dive into what makes Monster Hunter different, special, and in a lot of cases more interesting than just about any other RPG that didn’t release a 50-minute gameplay walk-through the other day. With 14 different weapon types in MHGENU, in the parlance of RPG-speak they act pretty much in the same way that character classes do. Each weapon offers a unique play style, which can be further customised with Hunter styles and Hunter arts. Luckily there are extensive tutorial quests found throughout MHGENU, so if that description of the mechanics made as much sense as someone explaining how a purple magical robe can deflect fire in Dungeon Wizards 3: The Staff of Zulag - no need to worry.


Add in a steady stream of hunter notes, which give you loads of information on weapons, combos, hunter styles and arts - even though it’s steep, the learning curve is manageable. Like in previous hunts, there’s also extensive control customisation. The Ultimate in the Nintendo Switch edition also means new stuff too, which can be found with with two new Hunter styles to further customise the experience.

For yours truly, the only and correct weapon of choice is the charge blade. Chosen because it’s essentially the Danoz Direct of blades - two weapons for the price of one. Firstly, in its default form you have a sword and shield, which offers fast attacks and combos with the ability to block incoming attacks. Standard shield talk sure, but here’s where this combo proves to be better than any sword and board deal you’ve encountered before. With the ability to store the energy of your attack directly in your shield, you can combine your shield with your sword to create a massive axe! Slow, yet extremely powerful, you can do devastating Gimli-levels of damage to monsters.


As the aforementioned classes of the Monster Hunter universe, there’s a tonne to learn about each and every weapon, which adds a new layer to the very idea of mastering even the one style. On that front it’s worth checking out gaijin hunter on YouTube, who gives in-depth weapon tutorials which covers everything in far greater depth than the included notes.

In terms of performance MHGENU’s frame-rate is mostly solid on the Switch, a bit flakey at odd times, but runs in the 60fps-range at a high resolution - a huge and noticeable improvement over the 3DS version. Capcom seems to have also implemented a form of multi-sampled anti aliasing, which results in a very sharp ‘jaggi’ free image. Other visual updates include increased shadow resolution, which looks great when fighting monsters.


And speaking of monsters, the sheer amount of monsters in this version is insane - with the number of 93 floating around on reddit, making the line-up the most ever for a Monster Hunter game. Now, as to why this is an insane number is because each monster offers its own mats to farm and fighting strategies to learn. Not only that but the individuality between them is impressive, and 3DS port or not the monster animations, lighting, and texture work still hold holds up. Some have been given new animations and attacks too, and have seen their detail improved over the handheld version. Err, other handheld.

Fighting classic monsters like lagiacrus from Monster Hunter 3 is really cool and the nostalgia factor for fans of the series is certainly high. Even if lagiacrus feels a little nerfed as most of the original fight took place underwater - which this version wisely removes because those underwater battles were dreadful. That being said, some of the environments just look dated here and can feel very static. They don’t have much complexity shader-wise, so are a mixed bag of crummy to genuinely cool and surprising as seen with some of the later locations.


Now, something that irks most old-school Monster Hunter fans are the fetch quests - which were mostly absent from Monster Hunter World. Being tasked to collect 10 mushrooms gets tedious rather quickly, and with a plethora of these fetch-quests scattered in-between the real meaty monster quests - being a completionist might drive one to the brink of insanity. Of course, you don’t have to partake in every quest to advance - as most of the ‘key’ quests are monster fights. And getting back to those for a moment, having proper dual analogues this time round makes battling and traversing a lot easier.

In the end though it’s unfortunate this game took so long to come out, as no doubt Monster Hunter World stole some of MHGENU’s thunder while also serving as a shift in direction for the series. As the the only Monster Hunter for the Switch at the moment, it’s still fun and addictive in ways the series has always been. One could argue that Monster Hunter 4 is the better game, as its environments offered verticality plus it featured a story you actually cared about. Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate throws story out the window and trades it for a huge amount of monsters and content. In a way it feels like a send off, of the old Monster Hunter before we get a true version built for the Switch - from the ground up.