It speaks volumes about this game that there's a friendly reminder to take regular breaks, just going by my previous experiences with the previous entry where I amassed a good few hundred hours almost effortlessly I can completely understand why Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate - referred to as MH4U now for ease - comes with this warning as once you're hooked on its unique formula, it's genuinely worringly hard to stop playing. Being that Capcom have opted to go exclusively portable with the latest entry in their flagship franchise it just makes it so easy to pick up and play 'just one mission' which then can quickly become a whole day consumed by just going for that 'one item' needed in order to make that next weapon or piece of armour you've had your eye on, perhaps that terrible Tatsucabra needs putting in its place or the elusive 'This is it now! This is THE run where Gore Magala will yield to my sword and shield!' run which will often end in tears of either the Hunter or Monster variety; welcome to this wonderful world unlike any other.

If the mantra of most MMO's is to charge you a lot of money each month for incrimentally added content spread too thinly across a large world then Monster Hunter is the antithesis to that kind of practice, what you get is a phenomenal amount of content all included on the game card packed into a handful of sizable areas with sufficient depth to keep you going for a long time. The online is free plus you'll even get dlc distributed throughout the first year of the games release again for no extra charge, there's really not anything unlikable about it unless the game just doesn't 'click' with you and if that's the case then I can only convey how dismayed I am being a battle-harderned hunter of monsters since MH3U now; that's when the series 'clicked' for me, I'm eternally grateful for its existence now.  

Right from first switch on the intro will instantly bring a smile to the face of any long-term Monster Hunter, setting the scene for the epic hunts which are still to come. After you've created your character from some basic options - it's really not that important as you'll be covered by armour most of the time - along with your Palico it then puts you straight into the action, on a ship against a Dah'ren Mohran trying to stop it from reaching the village, you make it there and you're properly introduced to the Caravaneer who you were on the ship with moments before you helped him out, rescuing his red stetson hat in the process which becomes a major plot-point due to what he keeps under it.   

The new village hub named 'Val Habar' seems more streamlined, everything is within a few easy walking steps which is convenient, you can now scout for quests from the NPC's which increases the feeling of being part of a community, the first time you clear these quests you will be rewarded with Caravan Points which you can use to purchase things; as you keep completing quests both your level and standing will improve giving you a more natural feeling of progression. All of the quests are fun even the ones  which will be familiar to MH veterans such as gathering mushrooms or slaying some Jaggi, the game even pokes fun at this so the trademark humour is definitely still there; though there are some twists especially to the Egg fetch quest which will actively put obstacles in your way on the return trip in addition to making each path more perilous with each try, it left me with scrambled monster egg on more than one occasion even though I used to be able to hold my own - egg - on the similar quest in the late, great MH3U on the Wii U.

Although the New 3DS XL is a lot more comfortable, I still understand the frustrations of long-term monster hunters completely being that the previous title was my first proper Monster Hunter experience; it's great to be able to hunt on the go but for the online however the lack of voice chat will certainly hurt the experience, it is surely quite a blow for anyone who assumed that it would just be 'there' in some capacity. I can recall a time when the original DS was released every unit seemed to have a headphone with microphone port which made me think that having proper voice chat with a headset would have been part of Nintendo's long-term plan, but alas any form of it over the years on portables in particular seemed to have been mixed at best; these days it's hard to even recall a single 3DS game which has functional voice chat online even with friends, though I did seriously think that being that this was Capcom who supplied us with it for the Wii U version of Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate that it would at the very least be likely for the next iteration assuming that the platform could support it, for now though it looks like either text chat or improvised chat via external devices are our only options.

With that minor rant aside even certain ommisions won't be enough to deter seasoned hunters as there is still plenty to love about the latest numbered entry in the series, not least of all the new weapons including the Insect Staff, X & A attack, while R plus A or X sends your 'kinsect' out to extract coloured bonuses which affect your status depending on which part of the monster you extract from, you can also vault using it as well using R with the B button. Feels a little too much like hard work as the time it took me was around the same as with dual blades, but it definitely required more effort to get essentially the same result, though I must admit that the vaulting is both useful and fun; It's certainly an interesting trade-off.

Even though the circle pad is more responsive it's still not quite the same as holding a control pad, the environments are huge so they would have suited a home console version well and even though the use of 3D is impressive I can't help but wonder what it might have been like in glorious 1080P HD on a big TV screen. Ultimately though I can still see all of the various improvements which will make this still a joy to play on the go.

It's fair to say that MH3U was very ocean orientated which worked well enough even helping to diversify the series further, in MH4U however while you are land locked there is more variety in verticality which opens up environments to greater possibilities. Particularly the way your character moves fluidly within the environments, automatically clambering over small steps with relative ease, scaling walls as high as trees; instinctively getting atop a ledge before jumping onto the back of the monster below, hacking away before delivering a devastating blow.

As you progress you'll be able to go to another hub called Dundorma which is where all the G Rank quests are though you can't take part in until you've beaten the Low plus High Rank quests; in the meantime you get to take part in random Expeditions which will take you to a new area but you could end up fighting a monster you've never encountered. Completing expedition quests will lead to you acquiring Guild Quests to hunt the monsters you discovered, these quests level up each time you complete them, you can exchange them via Streetpass but they will revert back to their starting level.

Item management is paramount to your success in Monster Hunter because there really is a lot to consider, before you begin you need to know the basics such as which items you want to take with you on a hunt and even on a basic level you'll always want to have Mega Potions for health recovery plus Well-done Steaks to replenish your stamina on top of the First Aid items along with rations that you'll get in the box from the Hunters Guild as the start of each quest. Before you can even get to that point though you need to know how to make these items, you'll need to combine a herb with a mushroom just to make a standard potion, then combine that with honey in order to make your Mega Potion, then a Well Done Steak can be cooked on a BBQ item if you have Raw Meat... this is providing you get the timing right in the mini-game as well; naturally you have to gather all these resources before you can even get to those points as well, it's probably at this point that you're thinking the game sounds like a big chore but it's really enjoyable once you get into it which typically can take between five to ten hours just to grasp the basic concept.

When hunting certain beasts the 'Frenzied' status adds a new tactical element due to Monsters becoming more ferocious in this state plus if you become afflicted the frenzy meter will rise unless you attack the creature because if it reaches full capacity then you'll become further afflicted by it thus taking even more damage. Thankfully your Palico's redress the balance as they are very helpful in combat, there have been so many instances of me getting poisoned then almost instantly cured by one of my fine furred feline companions who has a healing trait; indeed palico seem to get better as you acquire more by recruiting them on quests because you can can send them out on 'Meownster Hunter' quests to get scraps in order to make Palico weapons and armour which is quite an in-depth process in itself.

Expeditions are an interesting addition to the game as the areas within the map change each time as do the monsters so you can end up fighting something different each time; the number of different potential creatures changes depending on how many you've already beaten on quests which makes for a compelling enough reason to flit between quest progression and expeditions every so often. Adding in the new addition of monsters being able to flee the map entirely - not just changing location - plus the possibility of finding rare resource gathering points means you'll need to divide your time if you want to get a good score at the end by discovering as much as possible as all of these findings get passed onto the Hunting Guild at the end, you'll also find that certain items such as the Cathagea seed and plant only grow on expeditions which you'll need in order to have a better chance of multiplying items from Wycoon which quickly becomes essential when you're crafting potions at every available opportunity. Different hubs have varied attractions, easy to go between them with the map, your main staples stay with you as you build the Caravan crew up which ends up consisting of an armourer, cook, item trader and of course the glorious Guildmarm who's only to happy to send you off on perilous quests while simultaneously asking ridiculous requests just as you're about to depart, you don't say?

Although the single-player feels more substantial this time around it's still online  where most of the action is at, I can safely say that I've had a few epic nights of hunting thanks to members of the fantastic forum we have, most notably Hero-of-Time along with his nephew, lostmario, Blade and Kav82 who helped me in getting from HR1 up to HR4 which really gave me a much needed boost in wanting to keep the momentum going with the game in general.We hunted some old favourites including Rathalos, Rathian, even Tigrex and Kirin who I'd never seen before owing to me only getting into the series with MH3U so I really appreciated the chance to hunt such a diverse selection of monsters with some good company - plus some ad-hoc voice chat - just how Monster Hunter should be.

Some of the new monsters were fun to fight as well, being that I'd only reached the four star quests on single player at this point so these were quite the eye-opener as well, indeed I've never seen Gore Magala get taken down so swiftly before which just goes to show what can be achieved when you're working as part of a skilled group. I seemed to have my moments too with some of the mounted take-downs which are a lot of fun to perform, but credit must go to  the N-E Brotherhood as it was brilliant to hunt as part of a unit again, seeing how accomplished everyone has become are with their respective weapons and then there's myself rocking up with my 'newb' armour... the same in style but several ranks lower, I seemed to hold my ground though as I didn't faint so that's a plus; overall it was a very positive initial online experience with the game.

In addition to ten favourite weapons already featured in past games, we have two new entries in the form of the Insect Glaive which is essentially a long-handled blade with vaulting capabilities making it useful for impromptu monster-mounting but the other thing which separates it is you 'Kinsect' which is a beetle you send out to 'mark' your enemy resulting in different effects, then you have the Charge Blade which can act as a Sword & Shield combo while you charge it up before at a press of a button you unleash that power by transforming your weapon into an axe for a high-powered attack. Of course I could tell you about all of the available weapons such as the devastating Switch-Axe, then there's precision to be found from the Longsword or the Great Sword not to mention the ranged options including the Bow or Bowguns.

However my favourite weapons of all are still the Dual Blades as for me they offer the most simple yet satisfying experience to be had within Monster Hunter as they are definitely an intermediate option being that they feature no defense, lower attack stats than other bladed weapons - which is then compensated for being that you have two of them - but they best thing about them is that they feature a brutal charged attack combo which lets you get in many quick hits on monsters while they are subdued, inbetween that you have to master the art of quickly dodging incoming attacks before quickly rushing in to land several smaller hits on any exposed area while you can, gradually whittling your enemy down to nothing before eventually delivering that last killer combo.

Yet this is merely my experience with the game, no two hunters are the same which is why it's such a refreshing experience especially if you get hooked as it's very easy to put a hundred hours or more into it just using one type of weapon but when you consider trying to master another instrument of death could easily net you another fifty to a hundred hours it becomes clear that there is a lot of mileage to be had here, so I would advise any newcomers eager to join the hunt that this is a title you'll be getting the most out of spread out over a long period of time. This is without even taking into account the DLC which is being freely distributed each month with a substantial amount of content hitting each time including more weapons and armours to craft - some of them based on classic Nintendo or Capcom characters - for your hunter or Palico, in addition to new quests of different varieties; this way of distributing content is exemplary offering a few pointers to other companies in how to go about giving gamers what they want within a reasonable time-frame in order to keep the interest for the game alive, not that it would suddenly diminish without it but it is nice to see a decent amount of support for an already substantially sized piece of software.

Being that this was built from the ground up for the Nintendo 3DS all of that effort has definitely paid off as this is the best looking game in the series yet, featuring fully modelled 3D character models, monsters along with dynamically designed environments that you can't help but want to leap into, it's really hard to fault Capcom's efforts here because they have clearly gone all out for this iteration. As if all of this wasn't enough along with the vibrant hub areas which are teeming with life along with the beautiful cutscenes, if you're playing this on a New Nintendo 3DS - or ideally XL - then you will also be able to take advantage of an extra layer of detail only made possible by the improved hardware; you can also enjoy screenshot posting to Miiverse which again is only possible on the newer machines but either way the game looks stunning no matter which version of the handheld you're playing on.

Music has always been a huge part of the series, here it's taken up a notch as the musical score sounds spectacular from the familiar title screen melody right through to the 'end' credits of the single player, wherever you are in the world of Monster Hunter you'll always be accompanied by tracks that trap you within the game world even more. Perhaps the most impressive audio aspects are the main monster themes as each creature has its own, my personal favourite still remains that of the Zinogre as it's not only perfectly paced but you really feel the full terror of facing this beast for the first time especially when accompanied by the additional lightning strikes in the background; indeed audio cues play a huge part in the experience as any veteran player will attest to be it the sharpening of a bladed weapon under a whetstone, chugging a health potion, cooking of a 'sooo tasty!' piece of meat or the satisfying crunch of a vital monster part being broken.

Veteran players will certainly appreciate all of the improvements that this latest iteration has to offer in addition to accepting the small amount of shortcomings such as a large amount of repetition in certain hunts as they will recognise that it's all part of the larger experience. I would still say that any newcomers to the series thinking of picking this up will still find enjoyment in it especially as this entry is entirely portable, however if you've been bitten by the series before and really didn't like it then this still won't change any of your feelings towards it despite it being streamlined making it initially easier to get into; all of the intricacies are still very much there from constant item management, enhancement of armour or weapons, tiered quest structure with high difficulty spikes both online or offline plus all of the nuances associated with the Palico partner system... plenty to get your claws and teeth into.

Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate represents a new zenith for the series which seems to reach new heights with each release, at this moment of writing I've personally put a paltry sixty-four hours into it which for any lesser legnth story-based game would be over two full play-throughs, yet where a lot of games let you go after you've invested  twenty hours or less it's at this point that Monster Hunter sinks its claws into you, refusing to let go until you've beaten it. For anyone who enjoys a title which requires an almost obesessive amount of organisation but is easy to pick up yet hard to put down, with as much hidden depth as a complex RTS title but with the accessibility of something much more universal all fused together by a satisfying core gameplay mechanic; then this is most definitely for you. BAM! Suit up, Huntah!