Have you ever heard of something called the “Desire Sensor”? Those who have played the Monster Hunter titles have speculated about the sensor, which is programming within the games that can detect which loot players are searching for. The loot in question is then automatically made more difficult to find in order to keep gamers playing.
But no: there is no Desire Sensor in Monster Hunter. Series producer Ryozo Tsujimoto confirmed to Siliconera that this “feature” does not exist.
Tsujimoto said:
“You should probably wear gloves when you play. Try not to sweat, because it’s sensing your nervousness from the sweat on your hands. To be honest, that’s something that’s a popular urban legend. We actually hear that a lot, but it’s just a form of confirmation bias. When you’re looking for something specific, it feels like you never come across it. I myself experience that while playing—we’re all on an even playing field.”
“That (Desire Sensor) is absolutely not a thing. What people are seeing is just confirmation bias.”
Monster Hunter is a pretty big deal in Japan. So it should come as no surprise that the series’ latest entry, Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, has experienced extremely high pre-order numbers.
Media Create states in its latest report that there are 811,000 reservations for the 3DS title. Sales will probably surpass 900,000 units during release week, the sales tracker says.
Despite Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate’s high expectations, it’s unlikely to match last year’s launch of the original game as Media Create reminds us that the initial Monster Hunter 4 release saw 1,177,000 pre-orders. But if one takes into account that the first game sold through nearly it’s entire initial shipment, Ultimate may still match it on average if the initial shipment is adequate and supplies last.
Nintendo has gone live with the Japanese website for Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker. You can access it right here. There are plenty of clips on the page and other lovely things to check out!
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS contain a few “clone characters” like previous entries in the series. In his latest Famitsu column, director Masahiro Sakurai explains how they were decided.
Sakurai started out with the following:
There are 3 fighters [Lucina, Dark Pit, and Doctor Mario] that are alternate models (clones) in the game. Each was originally a color variation, but during development, they were given balanced characteristics. Since their functionality had differences, forms were separated from each other. However, it was vital that this didn’t increase the required man-hours. Some relative tuning was sufficient as it wasn’t necessary to create balancing from scratch.
Japan will be the first to receive Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker. As confirmed in today’s video – just released a few minutes ago – the game will be available on November 13.
Nintendo confirmed earlier this week that Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker is launching in North America on December 5. Europe is getting the game in January 2015.
