It's now down to you and Cha-Cha

As newer consoles and titles come along, it's inevitable that games with healthy online components have their support taken away, leaving what remains for gamers to pick over. Unfortunately that fate awaits Monster Hunter Tri, with the servers for the online co-op in the Wii title being taken down on 30th April.

Described as "transitioning off" by Capcom man Yuri (Dubindoh), the inclusion of this message as part of a blog promoting launch dates for Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate on both Wii U and 3DS is far from coincidental. If you're an optimist you may feel that the Wii servers are being moved to provide more bandwidth for the online play on the Wii U title, while cynics may point out that cutting the Wii online may be a move solely to drive committed hunters towards the new version.

Whatever the case, when closed down the Tri servers will have served us for just over three years. For a system that typically lagged behind competitors in online performance and functionality, the online play in Tri was a revelation for Wii owners, with voice chat, text chat and regular challenges adding to the core experience. The thrill of the hunt could certainly be boosted when charging in with three others, so we suspect a few Wii supporters will always have a soft spot for the game and its online play. At least the core single player game (with some local co-op) is a beast in its own right.

What do you think of this? Are you disappointed that the servers are coming offline after three years, or do you think it's the right time to move on and build the equivalent community on Wii U? Let us know in the comments below.

[source vg247.com, via capcom-unity.com]