"I was created just for you, Westerners!"

Capcom's latest behemoth-slaying epic still doesn't have a confirmed Western release date according to the latest Nintendo release schedule, giving us plenty of time to get excited about getting our hands on the series' first appearance on a Nintendo console.

Notoriously popular in Japan, the game's producer Ryozo Tsujimoto reveals in a recent Gamasutra interview that the Wii version was specifically designed with Western gamers in mind.

RT:When we sat down to develop Monster Hunter Tri, we did actually consider some of the Western needs and wants for the game. Among those new ideas, we took into consideration, for example, play controls. A lot of Western players mention the camera controls, for example. On portable Monster Hunter games, it was always tied to the directional pad, so it was very hard to control. We've now made that the right stick on the Classic Controller. That should make it easier for people to get into it even controller-wise.

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And we've paid attention to a lot of the little details because we realized that Western gamers are very sophisticated, in the sense that they want every little detail to be satisfying and intuitive to their style of playing.

It's official: if you're reading this, you're almost certainly very sophisticated. The rest of the interview makes fascinating reading and certainly got our Monster Hunter instincts up again, which makes the wait even more unbearable. There is a glimmer of hope, however - we've heard unconfirmed reports that the title's online play will be absolutely free in the Western hemisphere, something that would certainly sweeten the deal for Monster Hunter fans.

We'll keep you updated with Monster Hunter 3 (Tri~) news as its 2010 release slowly lumbers into view like a battered Aptonoth.

[source gamasutra.com]