GoodEnoughForMe
n.m.s.s.
Yeah, it's superb in many ways, most notably in actually offering some challenge and diplomacy.
MHW seems super popular, but so did the previous games - I played one (MH3, I think) on the 3DS and was very disappointed. Have you played previous ones as well, so you could compare MHW to them?
Yeah I've been a fan of the series from its PSP days. I guess it depends on what you found disappointing about MH3. 3 had pretty cool environments and better monsters than, say, 4, but the underwater fighting was not great, and combat just wasn't as good as it was in 4 which added more verticality and sped up the pace a bit. MHW has improved on that, and stuff like item sets and easier combos that have continued from 4 are nice.
The game had slowly tinkered at being a bit less nebulous to beginners around MH3 and 4, but World is the first that really makes some concessions to people who don't have all day to play them. The game basically leads you to your monster if you uncover enough clues (eventually if you get enough you pretty much always know where that monster type is), and the tutorial is a bit more fleshed out. There's still a buttload of content, some of it sort of glossed over, but it's better paced now.
I also didn't really mind playing MH on handheld but I know for a lot of people nub sticks aren't ideal for this kind of game, which is totally understandable, so there's something nice about a full controller if you haven't played one on console yet.