A slave to Freedom

It’s tough being both a video gamer and a college student. Life is filled with decisions, such as: Do I study for tomorrow’s English exam or do I pull out the big guns and try to advance to the next level? Do I spend my hard-earned minimum-wage dollars on the next Monster Hunter video game franchise or on my Finite Mathematics textbook?

Monster Hunter … good choice.

Monster Hunter Freedom 2, Capcom’s sequel to the insanely popular Monster Hunter Freedom (known in Japan as Monster Hunter Portable), was released last week with record-breaking sales in Japan. The video game, which is made for the Sony Playstation Portable (PSP) is dominating the Japanese PSP gaming market by comprising 85 percent of Capcom’s total sales for March, and is the first PSP game to sell more than 1 million copies in Japan.

Though wildly popular in Japan, the Monster Hunter franchise has yet to catch on in the American gaming market. So far it’s still the best-kept secret in the Western gaming world.

The Monster Hunter premise is simple: skillfully hunt an array of beasts over a span of more an 250 quests by mixing and matching 700 weapons with 1,400 pieces of armor. There is no gripping yline or plot. It is just you, your weapon and really, really big monsters.

Fully customizable character options, such as appearance and pitch of voice, fun mini-games, humor and beautifully detailed landscapes result in the perfect combination for a game with countless hours of game play.