14 DAY TRIAL // It's no easy feat to sell more than 1 million game units in less than a week (six days to be precise) and it's even more of a feat to do this on a system that's not exactly the most coveted these days. But Capcom has done it and their Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G title for the PlayStation Portable platform is again proving how vital a good intellectual property is to game success.
Even if Europe and North America never really caught the Monster Hunter bug, Japan is in a fever over each release in the series. A new game is planned for the Wii due to the popularity it enjoys, the first time the franchise is taken outside of Sony hardware. The game is deceivingly simple at first glance. There's no plot and little in the way of story. Each player aims to be the best monster hunter by killing monsters, fashioning objects like weapons and armor from their husks and then moving on to kill other monsters. There's a considerable amount of content that's best enjoyed on-line, where hunter parties are often created to take down the most threatening monsters. The variety of monsters, objects and skills in the game is what makes it entertaining.
Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G is following up on the success of its predecessor, the PSP game titled Monster Hunter Freedom 2nd was the second best selling title in Japan, after Nintendo's Wii Sports. The stand-alone expansion offers more of everything, like new weapons and new monsters, but also a whole new area called Rain Forest and the option of hiring a Felyne Warrior to help you on your missions.
Capcom currently has no plans announced to release Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G on other markets than Japan, but given the lightning success of the game a Western version could arrive at any time. The series has so far sold more than 6 million games, mostly in Japan, and its success will mean that Monster Hunter versions for multiple platforms, like the Xbox 360 or the PC, could also be in the works.