Monster Hunter Now, the highly anticipated new AR game from Niantic, soft-launches in select regions for Android

The highly anticipated new AR game Monster Hunter Now, from the Pokemon Go developers Niantic, has finally soft-launched for a few select regions. This new alternate-reality game seeks to transport the experience of the legendary Monster Hunter series right to your pocket in the form of a real-world exploration-based game full of different creatures to hunt down with your friends as you create stronger gear and take on the toughest of them all!

Looking for more excuses to explore the outside world? Check out our Top 8 best AR games for iOS!

For the unfamiliar, Monster Hunter is one of the most popular co-op-oriented franchises out there right now. Courtesy of Capcom, this series sees you engage in a simple loop where you embark upon quests to hunt down different fantastical creatures, whose body parts you will then use to craft better gear to take on stronger monsters, and so on. It’s a simple RPG loop, but one that gets addicting as you get further in.

And with Monster Hunter Now, Niantic is seeking to take that loop and transport it to the real world, where players will have to actually embark upon quests within their own neighbourhoods and cities to find and slay various creatures. It makes a lot of sense in the context of the games especially, since a lot of the process of finding the target is the tracking portion, so having to do that within the real world is a really interesting idea.

Combat within Monster Hunter Now also is quite accurate to the games, though not quite as in-depth. You’ll have three different actions; attack, SP skill, and dodge. The attack process itself is as simple as just repeatedly tapping, but you’ll have to time your SP Skills and dodges to avoid taking heavy damage, which will then need you to consume your limited pool of potions.

It’ll be really interesting to see how Monster Hunter Now shakes out given just how dominant Pokemon GO is when it comes to the AR market. Given that Niantic’s name is on it and it’s based on one of the biggest franchises Capcom has, we might see a new giant within the sphere.

If you want to check it out now and you’re located in Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, or Sweden, you can get started on your Android device by downloading it from Google Play using the link below. Outside of those regions, you can also use either of those links to pre-register for the game right now ahead of the planned September full launch!