I finally had the experience that I feel qualifies me to be a true Monster Hunter. A title I just made up for the sake of writing BUT it does stand that I finally experienced the thing that apparently drove the popularity of Monster Hunter in the first place.

And it’s local multiplayer – in public.

Back in the day when you would hear about the weird and wonderful gaming sensations in Japan, Monster Hunter was one that seemed to come up over and over again. Businessmen and school kids alike, huddled on public transport, playing. I even distinctly remember the Capcom Unity folks playing on their lunchbreaks, evangelising as to why Monster Hunter was so addictive when they had previously dismissed from afar.

That all worked on me. I bought the Monster Hunter Freedom Unite for PSP so that I could play, experience and enlist into the Gaming Cool Club of You Just Don’t Understand. I even downloaded the ad-hoc party app thing for PS3 so we could mimic local play over the internet.

I didn’t understand a fugging thing bruv. What do you mean I have to put my weapon away so that I can drink this bottle of spinach? Eating MEAT is for stamina? What?

Since then, I’ve grown into a Monster Hunter fan with 4U being the one that really educated me. Since then I’ve played a lot across platforms and thoroughly enjoyed the time I’ve spent with the series. To add – when I have played multiplayer, it’s been over the internet; friends and strangers helping me to punch them up. I even started my gaming clan, Stomp Out Crew, because of the wonderful people I’ve met along the way (shoutout Memphis).

But I was still missing that quintessential Monster Hunter experience: local multiplayer OUTSIDE. Which is difficult to organise, as you require friends to do so. All those that are close to me don’t even play the series.

Bar one.

So I stole that child for a Sunday galivanting around London.

He so happens to be my nephew who has become the biggest MHer (or should I shorten to Munter) this side of the world. If you want to know Deviljho’s favourite colour or the inside leg measurement of a Zinogre or how much a Rathalos weighs after their morning poo: he’s your guy.

As per the galivanting mentioned above, we thought we’d bring our 2DSs in the hopes of catching a street pass. That, of course, didn’t happen.

What did happen was the fact we capped the day off playing MH4U on the bus going home. A local multiplayer session, on the top deck of whatever double decker that was going to take us to Elephant & Castle. It had to be Rathalos we were hunting. For some reason, I thought it was wise to wipe my character on 4U so I’m armed with a basic hammer whilst No. 1 Munter is basically geared to the teeth with some overpowered weapon combo etc etc.

It’s hard going back to 4U after playing Wilds for so long. All the little changes that Capcom have made with each iteration has made me used to those luxuries. I’m rusty; the way the hammer works in Wilds certainly isn’t the same way as it does in MH4U. To put it plainly, if you want someone to swing and then miss: I gotchu.

I wipe because my gear is a string vest and y-fronts.

We slay the Rathalos. I saw we, it’s Munter that does the heavy lifting. I was busy at home base trying to leg it back.

One session on the bus and it was done. It was enough. Enough to understand why this became an absolute phenomenon in the first place.

2 Mates, chatting plop, carving up dinosaurs. What more could you need?