I first got into the series with Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate on Wii U. I tossed the game aside after an hour because I just didn't get it, and I didn't understand what was appealing about it. Hunting the monsters looked fun in the advertisements but it was just a lot of text boxes and gathering in the beginning. Thankfully a coworker who was a rabid Monster Hunter fan, convinced me the game was worth picking up again. He showed me the ropes and hunted with me every night. 600 hours later, I was knighted a veteran. They say your first MH is always the best, and I have to agree. I was so addicted to that game at the time I was calling into work and staying up 48 hours straight playing the game. And I'm not a kid anymore, so I never do stuff like that. But I did for that game.

Then came Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate on 3DS. I was so excited when that game released that I used a vacation day from work, and drove to Walmart at midnight to buy the game and a New 3DS XL. I got home around 1 o'clock in the morning and played until the sun was up. Gosh, that was such a great time. 400 hours later, and I had crossed the 1,000 hour mark for the series.

Then came Monster Hunter Generations. It released relatively soon after MH4U, and I think I was kinda feeling MH overload. It was the only game I never truly finished, although I did put 400 hours into it just like MH4U. I really liked the styles and arts, and the enormous amount of content in that game. But I was also starting to grow tired of playing on 3DS. I told myself that would be the last one. The 240p just got to be too much to bear.

Then came MHXX. And boy was I excited for that game! I imported it and I even studied Japanese for over 60 hours just to help me play the game. But the language barrier was an issue and eventually I set it down.

Then came MH World. Wow. I was so worried they were going to ruin the series by westernizing it, but they delivered 100%. Such a fantastic game and finally after all those years it was incredible playing a game that actually had a decent budget behind it and modernized. I put 150 hours into the game which was by far the smallest amount of time I had ever put into a Monster Hunter game. But it just didn't have the content or end game for more than that. And that is really my biggest complaint with the game. The endgame fell short, severely so.

And now, against all odds, we got Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate! This was all I wanted, and I'm so happy the game got localized. It's a fantastic final hurrah for the classic series approach, and appropriately has content from all 4 generations of MH up to that point. It's the first ever HD portable MH with a full button set and rumble and other features typically associated with home console gaming, while simultaneously offering a full console experience and portable console experience as well. It's the largest game in the series ever to release. And I cannot tell you how happy I am to be able to play MH wherever, whenever, without tolerating 240p. The local wireless multiplayer is also fantastic. I plan to play quite a bit with my brother when he visits. This will definitely be a game I can play on and off for years to come.

@SuperWeird

Glad to hear you liked it! It's typically been a fight to get new players into the series just because of the high barrier of entry with regard to the classic entries. It's hard to explain to somebody the appeal of the series until they "get it". But once you get it, you get it. I'm glad they finally made a modern game that's easy to get into, because it will serve as a great tool to recruit new players into the series moving forward. And I agree, it's worth buying a console for.

That said, I strongly recommend you check out Generations Ultimate as well. The game is phenomenal, and while it is a little more rough around the edges and rigid compared to World, it's not actually all that different as some people make it out to be. The combat is still 99% the same, the feel of the game and the movements are 99% the same, it's got all the same weapons, etc etc. Gathering takes a little longer, there's a separate areas on the maps. You have to search for the monster and paintball them, etc etc. But aside from half a dozen small things like that it's pretty much the same. I finally got my brother into Monster Hunter with World, after trying for years to get him into the series. The closest I came was with MH4U- I think he played 30 hours of that game before he gave it up. But I think the problem was just playing on the 3DS in 240p. The games themselves are fine, it was just the resolution and tiny screen and limited button set that was the real turn off for him, and I think a lot of others. But those issues are now resolved on Switch. The game actually looks a lot better then in the videos, surprisingly good actually. The colors really pop, which is one of my favorite aspects about the game. Just how colorful everything is. Anyways, I was going to say, I finally got my bro into the series with World, and he loved it so much that he immediately started playing MH4U on 3DS. He loved World so much he didn't even care if he had to play in 240p- he wanted more Monster Hunter. He kept saying how he wished they'd just localize MHXX. Which they did, and when the announcement came he was SO excited (as was I). If you got 250 hrs from World, you'll probably hit near 1,000 hours from MHGU. Not even kidding.

But ya, welcome to the fanbase. Maybe we'll see you in the forums sometime, if you ever want to play online in Gen Ultimate (which I think is a far more social game by the way- World was pretty bad for MP, with cut scenes locking out progression as a group, whereas Gen Ultimate has an entirely separate campaign just for MP that goes from Low Rank to High Rank to G Rank, and you can do all of it without ever touching the single player village quests, although I don't know why anyone would not touch the single player village quests, because it's half the game and it's tons of fun, and when you are playing solo it's the preferred mode since Monster HP isn't scaled up).

@AxeltheBuizel

Monster Hunter games have been notoriously hard to get into, and it's a running joke with in the community about the demos turning away more new players than they draw in.

But I can promise you the game is so incredibly amazing, that if you commit to invest the time to learn the game it will pay dividends many times over.

In times past I would have offered to explain how everything works and make myself available to answer any questions and to hunt with anyone who is trying to get into the series. And don't get me wrong I will still gladly do all of the above. But MH World was such a great progression for the series is far as explaining how the game works with well-designed tutorials, and an intriguing beginning that really hooks the player's interest. If you have access to play that game I would really recommend you try it first because it will get you into the series with relatively little effort.

That's not to say Generations Ultimate isn't worth playing though- it's absolutely fantastic, and tbh it's got a lot more to offer than World does. But admittedly it is a very hard game for newcomers to get into. People do do it though, I mean, I got into the series with MH3U. But I almost missed out. I played for an hour and got bored, and tossed to the game on my shelf never to play it again. It was only thanks to an Xbox loving coworker I had who bought a Wii U just to play MH3U, and kept going on and on about how he just wanted to play Monster Hunter. This got my attention and I decided to hunt with him online and it only took one hour of hunting with him before I was hooked like a drug.

So my advice is play world first if you have access to it and then once you're into the series come back and you will appreciate this game soooo much. But if you don't have access to the game, not to worry, you can still get into the series with this game, but it will require a little more effort and watching some weapon to tutorial videos from Gaijin Hunter on YouTube (I recommend Longsword to start out with). It's imperative that you get a weapon that you're comfortable with and learn how to use it properly. This means watching a tutorial video and then practicing. Is also imperative to learn all the mechanics such as the run button and how to sheath your weapon and how to dodge roll, etc. and then it just takes some practice to be honest.