Monster Hunter Tri Demo

A demo disc was indeed made available to one and all on March 8. I got one for myself, as well as one for a co-worker who had but two games for his Wii: Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort. I fully intend to indoctrinate him into the world of Wii gaming (he has not even gone online with his Wii yet - I feel that serious intervention is needed on his behalf).
The demo disc offers two quests, The Jaggi hunt and the Qurupeco hunt. Each quest is timed for 20 minutes. If you do not complete the quest in that time frame, the game is over. You get 7 characters with different basic weapons to begin with: Sword and Shield, Great Sword, Hammer, Bowgun, Lance, Switch Axe and Long Sword, and there are different varieties of each one (Light Bowgun, for example). You also get a variety of items to start with, thanks to Capcom. In the full version of the game, I am sure you would have to earn these items. You get potions, meat, projectiles, sonic and dung bombs, etc....
I tried the Hammer (slow but very powerful), the Great Sword, the Bowgun and the Lance. The Lance was HARD. I sucked with it. The Bowgun was a challenge for me as well. I did ok with the Great Sword, and even better with the Hammer once I was able to figure out how to plan my moves. I tried each quest, and failed at both. The Qurupeco hunt is very hard, because the danged thing flies, and calls other monsters into the fray. I only tried that quest once, because I could not figure out how to attack it since it was mostly doing air time.
The Jaggi hunt went a bit better for me. By the time I had failed at like my 7th quest attempt at hunting this creature, I think he was almost dead.
Potions restore your health (I always had to use all my potions - you get like 10 of them right off the start). I hit a Jaggi with a dung bomb once, and I'm not sure what it did to the creature but make it expunge noxious fumes like Wario does when he farts in SSBB. I also tried a sonic boom bomb - the bombs landed near the creatures with no effect that I could see, so I guess you need to get a direct hit with a sonic bomb to do any damage. I also tried the tinged meat (poisonous meat that paralyzes your prey). I layed the meat between the monster and myself to no avail. The monster passed right by the meat and went for me.
The graphics are great, and I am really looking forward to teamwork help in online play to bring these monsters down. This does not mean, however, that I am giving up on the demo disc quests. To the contrary, I want to kill the nasty little creatures all the more. Happy hunting!