Monster Hunter is great, and there hasn't been a single bad one. I will not debate this, this is an inarguable truth revealed to me in a dream.

MH3U is the quintessential Monster Hunter game to me. It has the old-school jank mixed with the early roots of the convenience that would fully envelop newer games. It has a great story told through dinky textboxes and fantastic boss monsters with intricate mating behavior. It even has the one-time gimmick that is pretty divisive on release but them grows on you as newer games drop it.