Two new Monster Hunter games coming exclusively to Switch next year

Holy crap. Nintendo just held its latest Partner Showcase Direct, and Monster Hunter fans are in for a big treat. Two, in fact.

Capcom will be releasing two brand new Monster Hunter Games next year, exclusively for the Nintendo Switch. They were such big news that we got a second Direct immediately after the first just for Monster Hunter! We’ve detailed them each below.

Monster Hunter Rise

This is the big one here. Monster Hunter Rise is a brand new traditional Monster Hunter game, built from the ground up for the Switch. It has a tonne of new and returning monsters, seamless environments (just like World!), a gorgeous new grappling hook system, and a dog friend you can ride and fight alongside!! It looks bloody incredible.

But there’s more good news! It’ll also have new amiibo, three of them to be exact, with one for the Palamute (dog friend), one for a Palico, and one for the game’s fancy new cover monster, the Magnamalo. These are reportedly exclusive to the My Nintendo Store in Europe, and Nintendo Australia has said that they’ll provide more information about their release in ANZ as we get closer to the game’s release date.

Monster Hunter Rise is about 6 months away at this point, with the game currently scheduled to launch worldwide on the 26th of March 2021. You can preorder it on the eShop now, where it’ll set you back $79.95 for the standard edition, or splash out a little more cash for the deluxe edition at $94.95. The deluxe edition comes with a bunch of cosmetics for you, your cat, and your dog, as well as some gestures and poses.

Monster Hunter Stories 2

That’s right, there’s also a sequel to the beloved 3DS Monster Hunter-themed creature-catching game Monster Hunter Stories on the way. Details on this one are a little bit sparse, but we know you’ll play as a Rider again, and it’ll have creatures from World (and probably Rise) in there as well, such as the mighty Anjanath. It’s also got a very silly subtitle, “Wings of Ruin,” but you can forgive that with just how good it looks. Check out the trailer below.

Monster Hunter Stories 2 is a little further away, scheduled to launch on the Switch in Winter 2021 in the Southern Hemisphere, or Summer up north of the equator. It’ll also connect to Rise in some way, but again, details are sparse.

You can watch the full Monster Hunter Direct below for a bunch more details on both games, including a tonne of gameplay footage for Rise.

Updated 18/9/2020: Added info about Australian pricing and amiibo availability.