For more, try the monster hunter youtube channel and the official US and UK websites.

What The Critics Said

The best video review. 
 
  

I suppose that would be an accurate review for GB crew-like players. Steer clear if that's you, the game will go way over your head! Shame he gets things so wrong (but I suppose it's hard to get it right when you review games you haven't played in an attempt to become the new Yahtzee), like the grind, and the lack of plot, as it does have something resembling that, a first for the series. But that's okay, I was following the game closely and wasn't aware it had that until recently. I suppose that guy would show footage of an FPS where someone constantly misses or kills the lowest first enemies over and over and call it a grind fest?

Those scores are a lot higher than I expected.

I think they are going to be all over the place.

Sorry but i cant love any game where animations take precedence over being able to move.  Sounds great except for that.  I think I would get too frustrated.

So, you wanted to change directions and jump around in the middle of a giant sword's swing? Or hammer a potion hotkey and keep attacking as if you're playing Diablo II? No, then it's not for you either, though it still is a great game even without those, eh, features.

Well, I pre-ordered it already after watching countless videos of some guy on Youtube posting all of his online hunts (Japanese version obviously). I've been thoroughly spoiled of all the content but that just makes me want to play even more.
 
Anyways, Monster Hunter has always been a weird game for the gaming press since it's just one of those games you either get, or you don't. Nice to see a lot of positive reviews though.
 
I won't say people are missing out if they don't play this game. I understand that most people don't have the patience nowadays to play a game like this (Demon's Souls surprising success is still a very small number of sales compared to most games).   
 
But personally Monster Hunter Freedom Unite the most gratifying game I've played throughout my entire life, it's funny because I played the first MH and absolutely loathed it. The game play hasn't changed much from MH to MHFU but I approached it with a different mindset, I tried to learn the how and why of everything in MH (besides the potion drinking pose, Capcom could have just made the character drink longer, but I guess they wanted some goofiness).
   
There's a solid logic behind the mechanics and it rewards you greatly if you know what you are doing. But it's a game that's not afraid to beat you down if you don't know what you are doing. And most people, including me back in the day, can't stand that.

I am not about to pre-order (I never do), but this is a serious Wii game and deserves positive attention.  I want this more than Super Mario Galaxy 2 - yeah, you read that correct.

Keyboard support? Nice!

"However, Monster Hunter is in the awkward position of seeing many of the same points on both sides of its love/hate balance sheet. To some extent, ameliorating the concerns of the haters would mean alienating an incredibly dedicated and loyal fanbase. "  -Eurogamer

Yup pretty much. A lot of what people who hate it want stuff that MH players would in turn, hate.
 
 

I would love to get this game, but Super Street Fighter IV will be out soon and I will be putting all my time into that.  Maybe I will get MH3 sometime this summer.

Not going to buy a wii for a grindy quest game.

This game looks awesome. I am so glad I have a Wii :D 
 
@animateria: EDGE, I find, are one of the only video game reviewers to properly use the 10 point system. Which is why their reviews seem lower than others.

Game Trailers gave it a very positive video review:
 
 

Its a really slow burn of a series and a lot of people who've never played a MH game might get a false impression. Even if you play well, even if you're killing all the right guys in the perfect order for the best material, even then the game still forces you to grind like crazy. The combination of no lock-on and the fact that the only really effective weapons are slow as molasses is what killed MH2 for me. Obviously this shit has some inexplicable Japanese mass appeal, and obviously you can make an exciting looking trailer to hook western audiences into buying this game and being totally bummed out by the reality of it, and that's what I see happening. A strong start, followed by it dropping off the charts in the states. 
Queue the "this isn't for ADD gamers derhur" rationalizations. I'm sorry, this isn't a methodical game series to me, its just boring. And nothing I've seen or read of the 3rd indicates its all that different from the 2nd.

Your opinion isn't fact, and since you didn't spend that much time with it given you just didn't like it all those years back on PS2, you're not qualified to say anything about how grindy it is. Maybe you need to kill the same monsters a few different times to make armor or weapons but most do it because it's fun, not because they have to, just like people don't think "oh no, so much grinding" if they fight Ken or Ryu more than once in Street Fighter. The main game is preparing for, and then doing fights, people enjoy said fights and thus enjoy the game that asks them to fight constantly and increases the challenge.
 
Also, while you can consider the game "complete" once you kill all the main monsters, many continue to all the extra content which has them repeating more powerful versions and what not, that doesn't mean it's grindy, it means they enjoy it and want to keep playing and CAPCOM has seen fit to cater to said fans and give them playtime worth hundreds of hours, if they want it. Which they do. That's not exactly a negative.
 
Plenty users in the West find it just as fun too (people were raving about the surprise success of Demon's Souls, but it didn't really sell more than Monster Hunter does in the West, even though it's currently on a far less popular system), even though it's not the mainstream phenomenon that it's in Japan.

Various effective weapons aren't slow, like the long sword, and the new Switch Axe (at least in comparison to the Great Sword and Hammer, though it gets slower in Sword mode). The Sword & Shield is most certainly effective as well, it may be too weak for certain monsters (assuming you've not managed to upgrade it further than the average) but it's still usable for plenty. Of course, the slow weapons are fun to use as well once you understand them better, so that it has a few slower types doesn't exactly make it a bad game, it makes it a varied game since not all play the same. You're the one giving the wrong impression.
 
As for sales, most succesful titles have a strong start and then grind to a halt, unless they're the "evergreen" Nintendo titles, or some of the absolute TOP Western franchises which may sell until the sequel, which this isn't going to be, obviously. That's the reason people rush to call failures and successes in the first month or two after all. Sales after that point don't tend to get any meaningfully different results. Certain Wii titles bucked the trend and proved some such failure talk false over time, but they're the exception, not the rule. Now, of course it won't become a huge mainstream hit, nobody claims it will, but that won't suddenly mean it's a bad game, unless you consider anything outside your personal preferences bad, which you seem to do, but, uh, lol.

It's not the first game in the West, so obviously if it was to be a mainstream hit as it is in Japan it would have become that already. At most it may sell more than before, but even not doing so won't mean it's a bad game at all, I'm sure even you enjoy certain titles that didn't become mainstream hits, even if not this one.

Anyway, coming in a thread with various people excited for the game and going all "this is wrong, you're giving the wrong impression of the game" is poor form. Plenty others say they don't like the series, but most of them actually have something resembling manners and understand their opinion is just that. There's a demo for people in the US to try and I've written other threads to help newcomers find out more about the game (often starting with no, it's not like PSO, no, it's not free roaming like Zelda, etc, for some who thought so), get their questions answered, or whatever else, nobody's giving the wrong impression of anything. Not the trailers either, all game trailers focus on the action parts, people are aware of that by now. Still, there are plenty that show the player gathering materials as well, and the fights are no less exciting than they appear in the videos. Usually much more so even. There also are plenty gameplay videos to find online which will show more aspects of the game, and CAPCOM even did various liveplays to promote it. Of course if you look at random user videos you'll have to make sure they actually understand the game, not play like the GB crew did in the QL of the demo. And then there are the reviews, hence this thread, obviously.

Edit: bought this today, stupid Nintendo of Greece have set the pricing to 50.99 for stand alone and 70.99 (like $95 folks!) for CCPro bundle so I got it stand alone (not directly from NoG as they don't sell until the 23rd, but every store here adopted that price of course). God I wish Nintendo never dealed with Nortec.

Monster Hunting fun from CTRL+ALT+DEL!

Wow... That should have been in the MH3 manual.

More reviews added in the OP. The current average is 85%, with over 40 reviews, which is pretty sweet.

It was #5 in the UK charts on release week, and #12 the week after that. It's in a similar position in other EU countries as well. No numbers though, so we can't really say anything. It seems to be doing fine, not great, but there are factors that could make it appear lower than it is, like the higher titles' popularity.

Don't buy equipment, it's just basic starter gear, nothing more (well, Hunter's armor is nice to start with), make your own. Or buy and upgrade them. In my case we were all using the Great Sword made of Jaggi parts, I forget the name atm (well, at least we all looked the same, maybe they had upgraded it further, I'm not sure). I didn't have to sharpen it at all in either quest. Since you're using the hammer you should also hit its head to stun it, that's more effective ;)

"Out of the top ten within a week is a sign it's selling poorly. "