Monster Hunter is completely, utterly its own thing. I could try to describe it to you in the traditional way, utilizing the form X + Y = G; it's entirely possible that I have already. Except leaving it wooly and strange, like the Monsters one is perpetually Hunting, might be more accurate.

It has that "Stick and Move, or absorb Catastrophic Damage" thing that people "like" from the Souls games, another series that goes far deeper than I will ever get to. My map of both games is meticulously, perhaps compulsively detailed around the wide edge, with splotches of white negation in the middle where I am too afraid or unskilled to tread. Much has been made of the fact that this new Monster Hunter is more welcoming than it has been previously, and if I hadn't already learned these things the hard way I might be able to give you hard data on that. I will tell you that I tried without success to bring Gabreel along with me the last time around, with Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate - and now he's the pace car in Monster Hunter 4.

If you are not familiar with the series, you should know that you don't just hunt monsters. Or, perhaps it should be said that some of the monsters you hunt are very, very small.

When I think about these heavy hits and combat that punishes in gruesome fashion an unpremeditated mode of play, and how fast these ideas travel through the community of developers, I start to think of them as trends but then decide to think of them as memes. I feel like permadeath has been ruling the roost memetically: indie games are the open casks in my incredible Spontaneous Fermentation In Belgian Brewing analogy. They grab this shit and run with it, and they iterate fast.

I love to watch these ideas travel around. There was a time where I might have felt these things were analogous to "cloning" or plagiarism, but now I just want to see what effect these proven, viral ideas have on other systems. I played two boardgames that are, at root, games I already know but hybridized with potent "Auction" stock. I mentioned Yardmaster before, after PAX South, and in a lot of ways it's Uno. I can tilt my head and see the Uno. This isn't an insult, by the way. But they have warped Uno with the addition of an Auction, like from Dominion or Ascension - a deckbuilding mechanic. So instead of playing to a communal pile, you are playing to your own pile - and acquiring cards with the use of resources. It's not crazy complicated, but it works. The app is my go to Solitaire thing now.

I grabbed a copy of Patchwork to play when my in-laws were in town, imagining that the quiltmaking theme might draw in an otherwise non-gamer, and it worked like a charm. But at root, we're talking about Tetris, played on a square board, and you are buying your oddly shaped scraps at auction. It warped the recognized notions in a very pleasing way, like a good Scotch, neat. And I loved the game, even if players aren't warring over who can deliver salt to the Polish King Casimir the Great, which is the rubric I typically use to determine game quality.

(CW)TB out.