Once you dig in, Monster Hunter has a long and storied history with mobile gaming. Monster Hunter i was on flip phones in 2006, Monster Hunter Dynamic Hunting and Monster Hunter Explore came to smartphones in 2011 and 2015. Monster Hunter Riders came out in 2020 and was shut down in 2022. Monster Hunter Freedom Unite (originally for the PSP) was ported to iOS in 2014, but became incompatible with newer iOS versions starting around 2016 and was removed from the app store.

But first, please consider subscribing to this blog. This is a new adventure for me; I have a lot of Monster Hunter worms in my brain and I’m looking forward to expressing some of them here.

I’m also somewhat active on mastodon where I post monster hunter and game development stuff. My game dev blog is here: https://nuzcraft.substack.com. Finally, I try to cross post everything to my website https://nuzcraft.com and you can send me an email me[at]nuzcraft[dot]com if you like.

So Where is MH Mobile Gaming now?

Monster Hunter Now is an ‘augmented reality’ game published by Niantic, the same people who made Pokemon Go. It was released in September 2023. This game is currently getting frequent updates like a collaboration with Mr. Beast that we’ll dig into later.

Promotional image of Monster Hunter Now and Mr. Beast

Monster Hunter Puzzles: Felyne Isles is match-3 game that I’ve been calling “Monster Hunter Candy Crush”. It was officially released in June 2024. Its gameplay features solving puzzles to help felynes or get cosmetic gear. The in-app purchases are A BIT MUCH - I will explain later.

Promotional image from MH Puzzles

Monster Hunter Stories (originally for 3DS) was ported to iOS and Android in 2018 and remains available as the only supported MH port in 2024.

Image from iOS version of MH Stories

Emulation!

Emulation has always been an option for mobile gamers on Android or those willing to jailbreak an iOS device. Recently, emulators were officially allowed onto the Apple Store, and thus emulation is now an option for more MH fans!

PPSSPP is a wonderful PSP emulator that can be used to emulate some of the classic MH games that are tough to play nowadays.

MH Freedom 1 & 2
MH Freedom Unite (most recommended!)
MH Portable 3rd

I’m sure there are other emulation options available for mobile gaming, I haven’t seen or experimented with any 3DS or PS2 emulation on my phone.

Monster Hunter Now

Monster Hunter Now is just as official of a mobile spinoff as we’ve seen from the franchise. MH social media accounts will advertise updates and official communications from the MH team will include plugs for MH Now. The game is consistently updated and seems to have a significant and dedicated player base.

Recent Updates

MHNow x Mr. Beast

An event with a set of limited time quests and unique rewards related to the youtuber Mr. Beast. By participating, players can receive cosmetic items such as layered equipment and face-paint in addition to a special themed sword and shield.

Mr. Beast gear in MH Now

I’ve seen some things saying the SnS is really strong; I don’t really play in the meta and can’t really speak to that. I can confirm that it makes a pink and blue explosion when doing some attacks which is definitely unique.

I like collaborations in Monster Hunter, BUT I like it when they are silly or earnest. The Witcher 3 collaboration in MH World was a really fun and interesting collaboration that was done earnestly. MHGU has a bunch of silly collaborations for special palico equipment, like a literal treasure chest or a cardboard cat.

The Mr. Beast collaboration does not come across as silly or earnest. It’s just cringe.

ON THE OTHER HAND… the MH Stories collab in MH Now was very fun, with players getting cartoon Navirou and Number 5 layered armor.

MH Now x MH Stories Collaboration Image with Navirou and Number 5 layered heads

Player Experience Improvements

One of the biggest gripes I’ve had with MH Now has been that I want to hunt a monster every time I open the app and sometimes that doesn’t happen. Dimensional Links have allowed some solo hunts to open to worldwide group hunting. In practice, this allows players to hunt more monsters since it’s relatively common for a dimensional link hunt to be available even if there are no monsters in the vicinity. They also allow players that aren’t close to hunt-a-thon locations get some group hunts in. A while ago they added a Monster Tracker that allows you to choose a monster (and strength) and after taking down a few large monsters you get a chance to hunt that specific monster. This was a big deal for me, as I was not one to venture out looking for a specific monster if I needed those parts.

Monsters and Weapons

The newest weapons added to MH Now (if I remember correctly) have been the Charge Blade and the Gunlance, which have quickly become two of my favorites. Both have interesting movesets with fun combos to try to pull off. In general, MH Now has a very fun variety of weapons to mess around with, so long as you don’t go too far into trying to collect them all.

MH Now promotional image of a hunter in rathalos gear with a rathalos gunlance

The newest monsters added to MH Now have been Basarios, Khezu, Kushala Daora, and Mizutsune. From what I can tell, they’ve done well in capturing the spirit of the monsters with their notable moves, weaknesses, armors and weapons. Mizutsune came with new bubble ailments as well as a bubbly dance armor skill. Basarios will make blade users bounce, but gets shredded by gunlance shelling. Kushala was only available during special hunt-a-thons that were challenging and a little scary; a good way to show off an elder dragon! The next monster coming soon is Teostra, the second elder dragon in the game.

Oh yea, I forgot about Nightshade Paolumu. You can only hunt it if you pay real money. Yay.

MH Now Thoughts

I think it’s fun to hop in and hunt a little, maybe upgrade a weapon here and there. I think it’s would be very easy for a completionist to get sucked in and spend a lot of money. There are a lot of things that really suck about MH Now… but those things are only because they want you to spend money. If you take the roadblocks off, it’s fun and fulfilling even for someone free-to-play like me.

Monster Hunter Puzzles: Felyne Isles

Monster Hunter Puzzles: Felyne Isles is kinda mindless? I’m not really much of a match-3 gamer, I really just kinda move stuff around and it works? The game has some progression elements that I don’t really understand and probably a lot of underpinnings that you won’t hear about from me because I’m clueless. Let’s get into it.

Since the game started, there is ALWAYS some sort of event going on. These events have cosmetics or something attached to them. The gameplay between the event and the regular game IS THE SAME so I just play the events and don’t end up progressing the story at all. My guess is that a lot of match-3 players have a hard time stopping, and the events give them an opportunity to step away from the harder story progression puzzles and play something easier.

What I really want to talk about is Monetization. 🤑

This game assaults you with reasons to spend money.

They’ll have a little deal going on where you click a button to get free items, but the third time it costs $2.99… then the next 5 times after that would be free.

They had a limited time Zinogre event that had a ‘battle pass’ associated with it. Pay money to get upgraded rewards for progressing the event.

MH Puzzles Zinogre

Somewhat obviously, there are gems you can use to continue playing a puzzle you’ve failed, and you can spend money for more of those.

There are a bunch of in-app purchases you can make for extra mid-puzzle power-ups and such.

And finally, you can watch videos to get power-ups going into a new puzzle.

All of this, ALL OF THIS, detracts from what is probably a fun match-3 game.

Final Thoughts on MH Puzzles

Play this game if you like MH or match-3 games and can resist the urge to hit that pay money button. I think some of the story will be fun and cute once I get out of event hell and start paying more attention to the cosmetics and things I pick up.

Official Mobile Ports

MH Freedom Unite for iOS

Before we talk about MH Stories, I want to give a quick eulogy to the official MH Freedom Unite iOS port. I bought it, I played it, I even made some crappy youtube videos here. If you’re interested in seeing some actually good MHFU iOS gameplay, check out RedmondStache’s playlist here. What I really liked about this port was that they put a lot of effort into finding a unique control scheme for each weapon that worked on the touch screen. Most weapons in MH have special moves that require multiple button presses or certain combos or holding a button down, and the iOS version did a great job at making all the moves available without cluttering the screen too much. I’m sad this version isn’t supported anymore.

MHFU iOS - Hunter battling Teostra

MH Stories

Monster Hunter Stories is available on iOS as a standalone game as well as part of Apple Arcade. It is also available on android. I don’t have much to say aside from it being pretty fun when I played it and it still works on my phone! The RPG combat is a bit easier to handle with the touch controls when compared to combat of mainline MH games. Recently, MH Stories was remastered and released on PC and consoles, which makes it a little harder to want to pick up this port. Before the remaster, the game was only available 3DS and phones, but now it’s available pretty much everywhere.

♥ Emulation ♥

In my opinion, emulation is THE way to play old-school MH on your phone or on something like a steam deck (I wish I had one!). Now that emulators are allowed in the iOS app store, we’re bound to get MH fans trying to get MH on the go without a 3DS, Switch, or PSP. I have had a good experience on iOS running PPSSPP for a modded version of MHFU (though I haven’t played very much). I have no reason to think I’d have any issues running MHF, MHF2, or MHP3 as well. My system has been relatively easy to set up, and the emulator allows for a variety of custom buttons/control schemes to be set up to allow you to use all the features of your weapon. You can also link up an external controller and play that way!

My current setup includes the following:

Finishing Up

Thank you so much for hanging on until the end! I feel like I lost some wind, so the last few sections of this post probably didn’t get as much thought or effort as they could have.

Monster Hunter has lots of options for the mobile gamer to experience. If you’re a fan of the series, please consider playing one of their official mobile games! If you loved the old-school games, give emulation a try!

What’s Next?

My history with the series
Summaries of what I’m currently playing: MH4U and Sunbreak
A guide to modded MHFU emulation
MH Stories?
Follow-up with more MH Wilds news/speculation
Ideas for some Monster zines

Thank you for reading!

nuzcraft

The State of Mobile Monster Hunter Gaming