Chances are If you were a child during the late 80’s then you’re gonna love yourself a bit of Monster Truckin’ action. I mean, what’s not to love? Trucks with really big tires smashing stuff up. Monster trucks are glorious. So, when a game comes out for the Xbox 360 - that is in the genre of ‘Monster Truckin’ games and it’s officially licensed so how can it possibly fail to be anything other than awesome?
The main core of Monster Jam is the World Championship mode. Here, you’ll compete in a series of championship events which will all lead to the granddaddy of them all the aforementioned World Championship. Each of the 5 events features 5 track races and 4 arena shows. The track races are exactly that, the winner is the truck that finishes in first place. The only different format you get is 2 of the races being Eliminators, where the truck in last place at the end of each lap is eliminated. The arena shows follow a different format. Here you’ll be racing head to head against only one other truck on a very short and very tight, obstacle laden track whilst your opponent races on another identical track woven around and next to it. The other event the arena houses is probably the most fun, Freestyle. In a freestyle event you’re given 2 minutes to do as many stunts and complete as many jumps as possible. You’re given free reign to do it how you like and after the two minutes you’ll be awarded a score. That’s your lot, in total 3 different race types and a freestyle.
The very first thing that’ll grab your attention immediately as you start your very first race is the handling of the monster trucks. When you think of monster trucks you think of big, imposing, powerful machines. Well, they don’t control as such. On first try the handling is shockingly awful, it’s so light that even a slight nudge to either side is going to turn you 90 degrees but after a while, I don’t know how, nor why but it actually starts to feel alright and almost makes sense as to why it handles like it does. In something like Forza, if you’re spun around and facing the ‘wrong way’ it’s a bugger to turn it around quickly, not here in Monster Jam. Hold left (or right) and accelerate. For double bubble fun you can also hold X and turn using the front and rear wheels, if you wanna go a step further, keep hold of X and do donuts (in a frickin’ Monster Truck!). Look, if you’re after a super realistic take on Monster Truck handling it could possibly be here, I’ve never driven a real life monster truck so I’m not going to say it’s outright unrealistic but I would perhaps make a guess that it isn’t. To sum up that confusing paragraph, When you first play the handling is bad, after a while you think it’s OK whilst still not being quite right.
What is a real shame is the lack of any camera control. Sometimes it’s literally impossible to see where you are going and lining up jumps and such is frustratingly difficult. You can view what’s behind you but that’s it. Of the 20 officially licensed monster trucks on offer, only 6 are unlocked from the start, naturally you’ll go with ‘Grave Digger’ because it’s just so damn cool, although it really doesn’t matter because all the trucks control exactly the same, which again is a little bit of a letdown.
During the races you also have another task at hand other than just winning, racking up points. In Monster Jam you are awarded points for things like Smashes, Airtime, Crushes and Stunts. You can link any combination of these things together to create a combo and a multiplier which will obviously gain you far greater points. This is where the glorious destroyable environments come into play. Whilst you’ll meet the odd hard wall, 90% of the stuff is smashable. Trees, sheds, bridges, fences, water towers, cars, lorries and a whole heap of stuff, every time you smash something you get points. There‘s also ramps ranging from tiny to huge and other dirt banks which will all earn you air points. If you can knock out a wheelie or two they score huge too. Added into all this is your boost and it truly is staggeringly good fun.
Visually, it’s not going to win any beauty contests. Nothing is awful and it does move at quite a speed, smoothly enough to get by, but compared to the recently released GRID it’s sorely lacking. Textures are weak and you’ll smash through and crush the same buildings, trees and cars a thousand times. The trucks themselves do look better and although the damage modelling is far from realistic, at least there is damage modelling. Round one to Monster Jam and in your face Gran Turismo! Also, if you lose a wheel in freestyle mode you’ll generate more points….and why the hell not?
The sound is all good, big, loud monster truck engine noises and the glorious sound of smashing things up….although things fall apart a bit once you head to the arena and the announcer blurts out the same 5 lines time and time again. Also and I could be wrong but I believe there to be only one musical track for the entire duration of the game. It sounds like a recent Ozzy Osbourne recording and is OK the first 27 times - but you’ll have to forgive me, I started to generate a strong hatred for the Prince of Darkness after that. Very odd indeed.
No Xbox LIVE support is a real party pooper, but there are a few local multiplayer modes with Battle Royale being the most entertaining. Battle Royale is basically freestyle with more than one truck at a time. One arena has, as well as the standard ramps and cars, a giant wooden boat in the middle of it which can be smashed up. That’s just cool.
Whilst not a technical marvel with amazing physics and jaw dropping visuals Monster Jam completes the goal that all games should aspire to complete, it’s fun. Its lack of modes and options can be overlooked because it’s a game about racing Monster Trucks. Highly recommended if you are a huge monster truck fan, and highly recommended if you have the cash to indulge yourself on something as ludicrous as this, it’s a racing game for people who already have every other game. Big, dumb, Monster Truckin’ FUN!
