Monster Truck racing has been part of the American psyche for a long time. Even though I was never really a fan, I still remember going to the occasional event when we could find tickets and I can still picture that iconic Grave Digger livery that ruled Monster Jam for so long as the face of the sport. Despite my lack of passion for the sport, Monster Trucks always enamored me and Monster Truck Championship, by Teyon and Nacon, delivers beautifully on a niche racing concept and delivers a much better racing game than many of their peers.
You start your Monster Truck Championship career at the main menu. Having never been one for reading the directions, I clicked on the events to get started racing. This started my career mode with a brief tutorial on putting together a winning Monster Truck team and started me in the first event. Overall, this event does a great job of giving you some experience in the core races and served as a kind of a trial by fire for racing. Within that career mode framework, you can add people with different skills to your team that boost the attributes of your truck, the amount of winnings you receive from an event, and some even lower the entry fees for the higher prize events.
My first hire was a manager to boost that team income so I could upgrade my monster truck in the future. In addition to this robust career mode, there is also a quick play option for players who are looking to get their Monster Truck racing fix without the commitment of playing a full event. This is an often-overlooked detail in racing games, but Monster Truck Championship allows players to exit the game and resume events exactly where they were when you left off.
In a game that’s structured so well in the racing and organization of the career modes, the environments often suffer from being an afterthought. However, Monster Truck Championship maintains the same level of usability in their vehicle customization and stadium environments. In vehicle customization, you can change everything about the performance of your truck from suspension setups and engine enhancements to swapping out the truck body for a classic hot rod with a Monster Truck worthy paint job. Customization was very intuitive and even tied in well to the sponsor system set up for career mode. By entering sponsorship agreements and fulfilling challenges, you unlock unique parts that help improve the performance and look of your truck. In the driving mechanics, Monster Truck Championship feels like a classic driving game that balances the real world experience with the wonder of a video game rather than going for a hyper realistic experience like some other recent racing games.
In a very entertaining game, there were a few pain points with Monster Truck Championship. Two big points of difficulty for me were mastering the rear axle steering and the instability of the trucks during some of the destruction/freestyle events. I never could master using the rear axle steering well and I didn’t find the tutorials very helpful on this aspect of driving. I ended up having to learn how to win races without it, but I was able to do pretty well without using it.
Another issue with the steering is that it was very easy to flip the truck over when I started. This was probably done in service of allowing for barrel roll and wheelie styled tricks, but it was kind of a pain during races. Definitely take a look at the tuning menu between events to avoid that problem.
Overall, I had a blast with this game after I made it through the growing pains of learning how to steer without rear axle steering. Many racing games go too far into the technical aspects of racing and Monster Truck Championship avoids that downfall masterfully. Despite having a few flaws, this is a great game to change up the racing games in your Xbox One collection.
8/10
Check Out the Monster Truck Championship Trailer:
Monster Truck Championship is available on Steam, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One in North America. The game will release on Nintendo Switch in North America on November 24, 2020.
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Xbox One Review
My first console was the original Playstation and I would play Twisted Metal every now and then but games didn't hook me until I played the original Halo at my friend's house. As soon as I picked up that controller, I knew I needed an Xbox and I had to have that game. Since those early Halo days, I've branched out and played any game I could find with a great story and memorable characters but Master Chief is still my favorite. @thenotoriousTGT on Twitter
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