Nintendo eShop struggles amid Monster Hunter Rise demo release

Last night's release of a Monster Hunter Rise demo appears to have crashed the Nintendo Switch eShop.

The trial version of Capcom's upcoming beastie basher was released at midnight last night, following a Nintendo Direct full of juicy new details about the game.

Switch owners reported struggles trying to download the demo overnight, and this morning the Switch eShop is currently unreachable in the UK. At the time of writing, attempting to connect to the eShop brings up the following message:

"The server is currently undergoing maintenance. We apologise for the inconvenience. Please try again later.

"See the Nintendo Support website for more information on server status and maintenance schedules: support.nintendo.com/switch/error"

As Monster Hunter fan Matt Wales wrote yesterday, Monster Hunter Rise is due out on 26th March - making this a nice early peek at the game for fans.

It contains a Basic Training Quest, walking players through the basics of the new grapple-like Wire Bug mechanic, plus a Wyvern Riding Training Quest, introducing a freshly announced new feature - enabling players to hook themselves onto the back of large monsters with iron silk and control their movement, even attacking other creatures in battle.

And once the basics have been mastered, players can attempt some actual monster hunter. There's a Beginner Quest, tasking them with slaying a Great Izuchi, and an Intermediate quest, which sees the return of Monster Hunter Generation's wonderful bubble dragon, Mizutsune. These can be played either solo or co-op via local/online play.

The demo is currently set to expire on 31st January - hopefully the eShop is back online by then.