Monster Jam: Showdown Review on Xbox
Monster Jam: Showdown is an off road arcade racing game using infamous monster trucks.
The premise is you can get behind the wheel of the most iconic Monster Ja trucks ever, and show your skills in several game modes!
The game boasts various difficulty settings, freestyling, off road racing, various livery’s, showdown tour with over 120 events, online and offline split screen and various game modes.
Accessibility
With regards to accessibility, there is a good amount of options available for all. Button remapping, night mode, subtitle options, assisted driving. Sound options are basic, so should you have hearing issues, this may not be the game for you.
Gameplay
My knowledge of Monster Trucks is various adverts over the years, so to say I was going into this game blind would be an understatement. This review is based on a complete newbie to the genre and how its relates to other racing games genres.
What I do know is that this genre has a devoted core fanbase that adores it just like any other sport. Speaking with some of them has helped me in understand the differences to your usual driving fans and what is it they expect out of this genre as a whole.
Monster Truck racing is unlike any other racing that you will be familiar with and because of this, if you are new to the sport, some element may very well put you off. Think of it as WWF meets racing, with the stars being the vehicles themselves. From the beginning of the game you get to choose from showdown (career mode), freestyle, training ground or online. Regardless of what ever choice you make, you driver will always level up, always ensuring that there is progression.
The biggest difference to how this and other racers are, is the vehicles themselves. This starts with the very mechanics of actually driving a monster truck. They have front and rear wheel steering, with a centre of gravity designed to flip over at a moments notice. Now there are numerous options to turn on assists that will make driving of these beast much more manageable, but be under no illusion you will still need to relearn driving.
You can turn on the 101 mode, where almost everything is taken care of for you, and they drive more akin to that of a car. You can tweak the options to allow the computer to just handle the rear steering for you, for more of a challenge. And if you want to fully experience monster truck driving, turning off all assists will give you the ability to realise your driving several tonnes of steel with little to no grip. Combine this with general overtaking being akin to ramming your opponent out the way and you soon realise this is a very different sport.
This may sound like hell for the pure racers out there, but once you get used to understanding sliding is part of the course and that several tonnes of truck ramming into you from all sides can be manageable, things will click into place and it gets more fun, the more time you put in. Its much more about tactical driving and utilising your boost carefully to ensure you can always place yourself ahead of the pack and what the carnage being within them can produce.
One aspect that really is intuitive is the tricks and how stacking combos works. These are used more often or not in stadium events, where you are expected to pull off some fantastic tricks and chaining them together to get the highest score. The training mode provides you will a comprehensive list of stunts that you can pull off, which will take patience in perfecting the more harder ones. Doing a front 360 degree flip with several tonnes of steel is not as easy as you may well think.
The game has a plethora of different modes, which in career mode will slowly introduce you to using its large map to pick what event you wish to try and complete next. The Race category gives you Circuit, Figure of 8, Best Trick, Survivor and Horde. The Stunt category gives you Freestyle or Extreme Freestyle. The Head to Head category puts you into a tournament where it’s 1v1 over 3 rounds to find the fastest truck. Each are unique and more often are not also have secondary objectives besides winning the mode in question.
Once you have a completed an event, depending on your position you will win a number of coins, which a particular number is needed in order to compete against a showdown legend. Depending on the levels, or challenges you complete, you will be rewarded with a variety of tags, emotes, vehicles and livery’s, and always XP.
Whilst there is a really superb career mode, multiplayer is also equally fun. Here you can race against players online or with a friend next to you split screen or main. Another nice touch is that multiplayer mode has all the freestyle events unlocked so you choose the best stadium to use to dish out those tricks. However, online matches do not have an option to race against bots. This means you’re going to be locked out of a couple of game modes completely should you be unable to find a player.
Playing this was an enjoyable experience and for those new to the genre, I felt it did enough to create some new fans also. For those that are already fans of the genre, this should provide everything you need to keep you trucking away.
Graphics
The visuals of the game are great to look at, and whilst they are no Forza Horizon in terms of detail, they still pop and showcase of the power of UE5. The game has three regions which is divided into four zones, with a map interface pretending you can travel around to different circuits and stadiums of its main biomes, which are Death Valley, Colorado, and Alaska. That pretence though is quickly put to bed though when you realise its just there to showcase the events locations and nothing else.
The game does provide diverse weather changes, which also can affect how your monster truck handles when racing. A snow or sand storm can seriously obstruct your vision, while thunder and rain will play havoc with your ability to take tight turns without sliding across the track. Whilst this all adds up some needed variety, I did feel it was more of a touch up to allow the developers to re-use the same tracks over and over.
I also did notice some unpredictable gravity, say when hitting a car, which would send you flying across the map instead of crushing them. Invisible walls was also noticeable here when striking an area that usually looked like it was designed to cross. Whilst these were annoying, they didn’t break my concentration whilst racing.
Variety of the trucks is on point here, with the game having a selection of more than 60 monster trucks from real life to made up, to collect and upgrade. Combine this with almost 150 liveries and profile skins to unlock, and there is more than enough to keep players occupied in hunting for them all. Truck visuals are perfectly recreated, which also works beautifully when truck damage is done. Small touches like the scuffed paint on the back of the chassis when trying to perform wheelies, helps immersion. What you start with is very different to what you end up with, as parts and chassis being torn apart and left discarded where it was it damaged.
From what I could tell there was no tearing or frame skips and everything was smooth as butter when racing around each event or doing huge stunts, mid air.
Sound
The game has voice work in the form of a WWF style commentor, which at first is enjoyable to hear, however the developers only had him record about a dozen lines, so repetition soon becomes the norm, which your brain will inevitably drown out.
On the Brightside, the music has a great collection of heavy metal and rock tracks, from the beginning and energises the truck supercharged 1,500 horsepower engines to its fullest. Damage and weather effects are equally well done in terms of sounds and just adds to a cohesive atmosphere throughout the very different events on offer.
My recommendation here would be a quality soundbar to really enjoy those roaring engines as you flip a 10 tonne truck in the air.
Verdict
This leads me onto the rating of the game:-
Now I rate games in order of, avoid, on sale, great purchase and must own. My rating for Monster Jam: Showdown is a "Great Purchase’’.
This was a new franchise for me and the family, and I can say that now have some new fans to the mix. Seeing the smiles and laughs on the kids faces as they went head to head with each other, regardless of their skill, proves the developers know what their target audience is and how to engage with them.
The game is currently priced on Xbox at £44.99 or approx. $50 and depending on skill and patience would give you well over 15+ hours worth of gameplay. Combine this with challenges and unlockable variety of tags, emotes, vehicles and livery’s, you can easily add another 10+ to the mix.
If you are new to the Monster Truck genre, this is a great game for you and your family to start your journey. For those that are already fans, this should easily keep you entertained until the next iteration in the franchise.