At its very core this is the very same Monster Hunter, and in many ways it's a more streamlined affair than we've become used to in recent years.

Monster Hunter World, which serves as the foundation for the fifth generation of Capcom's series, doesn't change any of that. Rinse and repeat, until you realise you've clocked up a good 100 hours and found yourself looking at the family cat, wondering what kind of perks you might earn if you skinned them and turned them into a hat. Hunt monsters and strike them down, so that you might craft trousers from their carcass that'll help you best other, greater beasts whose corpses can then be used to craft more powerful trousers still. Armour spheres, which are necessary for improving your gear, are now freely available via bounties, making grinding them out relatively painless.Īnd Paolumu gets to the very heart of why I love Monster Hunter it's silliness delivered with an awful lot of style, and all built around one of the most compelling loops you'll come across in gaming. It's all about doing things with a little bit of class. There are sturdier, more useful armour sets out there, but that's not really the point of Monster Hunter. I spent half a day happily dancing alongside them and repeatedly slaying them, just so I could plunder their remains for a full kit of gear a fluffy number that serves some campy Barbarella fierceness.

A cutesy flying wyvern with a neck that can puff up until it looks like a child's swim ring, the Paolumu is a bat/hamster hybrid who's a joy to fight. A mid-tier monster who prowls the Coral Highlands - a stunning otherworldly tangle of clashing pinks and purples that looks like it's been culled straight from some 60s sci-fi gem - Paolumu is a masterpiece of offbeat imagination told through exquisite design and animation.

Availability: Out January 26th on PS4 and Xbox One, PC version coming later this yearīut still, it's the humble Paolumu I've ended up loving the most.

Monster hunter world