Evidence Suggests Monsters Require Many Hours to Battle - Monster Hunter 3 Report

Coffee Beans
     When did Monster Hunter Tri (MHT) release? Well, if you travel back in time to the near distant past and land on April 20, 2010 in the U.S., you could find yourself in a retail store picking up a brand new copy of Monster Hunter Tri that very day (or, waiting for it to arrive by mail like I was). If you don't know/remember, MHT released with two versions. The "Standard" version was just the game for $49.99, but there was also a Classic Controller Pro bundle, game and controller, with a MSRP of just $59.99.
     The game received an ESRB rating of "Teen" with "Blood, Use of Alcohol, Violence" listed as content for gamers and parents to be aware of, and was developed and published by Capcom.
     When I was writing 2011's "A Year's Worth of Data" report, the game had already seen several price drops and could be found for under $30 for the software only version. Fast forward to 2012 now, and MHT can be found for under $20 on Amazon.com and retailers like GameStop.

     How many hours over the last 2 years have U.S. residents reported hunting monsters? Let's take a look!

The Brew
     Monster Hunter Tri now has approximately 97,023 U.S. Wii owners that have reported data through the Wii's Nintendo Channel with 762 days possibly reported, which is an increase of 27,184 players reporting data since April 25, 2011.
     Monster Hunter Tri's 9,779,977 Total Hours of reported game-play is an increase of 3,466,857 Total Hours of game-play since April 25th last year. The game's average play-time per day/session reported is now 3 Hours 20 Minutes, with the total average hours reported "Per person" having increased by 10 Hours 24 Minutes since last year. This means Monster Hunter Tri is still the Wii's most played game "Per person"in the U.S., according to the Nintendo Channel data.
     MHT's "professionals" review score average has not changed over the last year, and remains at 85.00% based on 46 reviews from GameRankings.com. The game's customers review score average on Amazon.com has changed since last year though, and the average is now 89.06% based on 139 customer reviews between both versions of the game.

Caffeinated Thoughts
     If you have never seen a full Monster Hunter Tri monster hunt, I am providing two hunt videos below that you can watch, but you may want to start brewing some coffee now and when you finish watching the videos the coffee will be finished (double win!):

(Links for NinTemple, NintendoWorldReport, and WhoBurnedMyToast)

     I finished MHT's single-player campaign last year, as part of my 2011 video game resolution, but I have not hopped online in a long while. I'm not sure how active the online community still is, but knowing the averages and number of hours reported for the game over just the last year, I would guess it's still pretty active.
     If you're perhaps wondering, "Coffee, would you recommend the game just based on its single-player campaign?" The answer to that is simple. Yes. For under $20, you will get many hours of game-play out of the single-player campaign, and be able to hunt many of the monsters in the game. Now, you should know though, that you will not be able to see/hunt every monster in Monster Hunter Tri, unless you play the game online as well (unless that has changed?).
     Seeing a third party game still being played so much on the Wii in the U.S., I think is great.

Questions
     Have any of you purchased Monster Hunter Tri perhaps just in the last year, and been enjoying your time with the game? If you were one of the early purchases of the game, do you still find yourself returning to the hunting fields near Moga Village?
     Also, if you have played Monster Hunter Tri, what is your preferred method of control? Classic Controller, Classic Controller Pro, or Wii Remote and Nunchuk? I go with the Wii Remote and Nunchuk.

If any of you are interested in Monster Hunter Tri, you can see the standard and bundled versions below on Amazon.com: