Monster Truck Championship (PS4) Review
Release Date: October 15, 2020
Publisher/Developer: NACON/TEYON
Platform: PC, PlayStation 4 (Reviewed), Xbox One, Nintendo Switch (at a later date)
Price: $39.99 standard, $49.99 “Rebel Edition”
I’ve enjoyed monster trucks all my life. From playing with them as a kid to being thrown over a security fence to get the picture below, they were always a symbol of raw ‘Merican power. Add my kid’s enjoyment (that poster of me is hanging in my kid’s bedroom by their own choice) and several runs to the track to watch giant tires crush junk cars, and while it’s not top of my list, they’ve always provided plenty of fun and entertainment.
Home console monster truck video games are fun, but they tend to be geared toward the target audience of the younger crowd. Nothing wrong with enjoying them as an adult, heck, I’m sitting here writing about video games, still stigmatized as “kiddie” to a large swath of people! These licensed games tend to lean toward arcadey fun, jumps, mashing up cars, or racing on insane tracks that would never exist in real life solely due to the cost of creating them for these sized-up behemoths. There is a crossroads of gearheads and monster trucks that an adult gamer might appreciate more, and Nacon claims to have hit it with what they label as the world’s first “Monster Truck Simulator.”
Across 25 arenas and 3 leagues players can upgrade 16 different trucks to reign supreme. Unlike most other Monster Truck games, you can tweak a myriad of features, such as engine size, ride height, shock dampening, and many other things you would associate with a NASCAR Heat style game. These sliders make notable difference on how your truck drives, and proper adjustment of these parameters will effect how well you do. You can also modify design and paint jobs to your hearts content. There are over 50 different tweaks you can do to adjust your truck to exactly what you want it to be.
There are several modes of play just like Monster Jam, with the extreme races through the countryside, short arena races, or smash-fests that score very much like a Tony Hawk game. The pedigree of Monster Jam + NASCAR Heat + Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater makes for a fun amalgamation of play styles.
Environments are well constructed and beautiful. There’s plenty of stuff to knock around and crush, and the world is bright and colorful. I like how the game is presented as a whole, with driver names above the cabs in races that don’t interfere with gameplay, and how the camera rotates during turns and such (other games like this you can get turned around easily).
My main complaint for Monster Truck Championship is prevalent across all monster truck titles, and that is the trucks themselves can handle like you’re driving through cement. I understand that these tires are huge and therefore hard to turn, but I always end up ramming into walls on races. Monster Truck Championship lives up to it’s “simulation” status though as it offers rear wheel turning using the right analog stick. It royally messed with my brain using two sticks to turn, but I see where they are going with this and feel that with enough practice (and remembering to slow down a lot more than with traditional racing games) I’ll be taking those corners with style. Mixing the simulation aspect of Monster Truck racing helps show that these entertainers have a lot more to worry about than we see from the stands. From the main menu, players manage everything from their engine and design down to the team working on it.
While I have a history of enjoying monster trucks, none of the names or locations jumped into my memory. Looking them up online only linked back to the game itself, leading me to understand these are all original cars with no licenses from recognizable characters. Around the landscape there are things like a big inflatable cowboy (who may or may not represent a cigarette company) or a large bull (that happens to be red). The thing is, though, this game feels like a reason to give them the license. It’s like drinking Coca-Cola all your life and being offered a Sam’s Cola at a party to scoff at it being generic, tasting it, and retalizing you like it more. Don’t let the lack of license (and honestly generic name….and title card that’s just white letters on a black background) drive you away from a stellar Monster Truck experience.
Pros:
-Monster Jam + NASCAR Heat + Tony Hawk is pretty fun
-A more mature take on a traditionally “kiddy” franchise
-Tweaking all the little details to turn your vehicle into a fine-tuned bringer of destruction
Cons:
-Presentation is spectacular, but generic
-The announcer sounds a little bored
Special thanks to NACON/TEYON for providing a code for review!