A caravan, a quest log, and five hundred hours that slip by without warning.

On gut instinct, with no criterion, Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate finishes ahead of two thirds of games. Solid, nothing more. Where it truly takes off is in the act of playing. Fun places it ahead of 99% of titles, controller feel ahead of 98%. That tracks: the whole game lives in the timing of an attack, the weight of a weapon, the reading of a monster. Desert island ranks very high too, and the wish to rediscover it as well, though those lines rest on few votes. Below, the art style stays average and the soundtrack dips under the bar. The contrast says it all: you do not remember it for what it shows, you remember it for what it does to your hands.

Within the genre, it is the demonstration of what a hunting action-RPG can be when the loop is tuned to perfection, on a handheld that never had the graphical means to compete elsewhere.

So, who is it for? For you if you love progressing through mastery, crafting, retrying, cracking a pattern. Much less so if you expect a visual knockout or a soundtrack that follows you out of the game.