Game Music Showcase: Monster Hunter

Monster Hunter is, alongside Pokemon, one of the biggest crazes in Japan, featuring the same compulsive gameplay, though in a vastly different environment and context. While the goal in Pokemon was to catch, raise, and probably cuddle with your little colorful monsters, in Monster Hunter your goal is to hunt or capture some far less cuddly ones with various weapons and tools. In a way it's like a boss battle simulator; each of them have specific movement and attack patterns. The main attraction is co-operative hunts for up to 4 players, it's been that way since the beginning, and monster hunting still remains a popular pastime in Japan.

It's way more interesting than we're making it sound; the addictive aspect of Monster Hunter is killing the aforementioned monsters, getting materials out of them to build new weapons and armor, and then setting out to kill even more powerful monsters to forge even better equipment...the cycle continues. There are tons of subtle stuff in the series; it's something you have to try for at least a few hours to get a feel for.

Namco approached series producer Capcom when interest for Monster Hunter spiked up during its third generation of games, and from then on, each Monster Hunter game has had a medley on Taiko no Tatsujin, whether on arcade or on console. The medleys 'expire' however; on the arcade, each of them are replaced with a newer medley when one is released, and on the console side, the newest medley available is always used in a console Taiko release, never reverting to an older one; and never in any Taiko songlist do two MonHun medleys coexist. It makes some sense; since the medleys follow the same basic structure and are always bookended by the Monster Hunter theme song and the BBQ Spit tune (which are slightly different each game, but you get the idea). In selected occasions, non-medley MH songs have appeared in Taiko gaming, starting from a Monster Hunter Cross song (Generations in the rest of the world).

The collaboration between Taiko and MH is still going strong; sometimes you may see Taiko-themed equipment or accessories in Monster Hunter as well!