Monster Truck Championship Review

"Big Wheels, Alright Crashes"

Campaign

October 15, 2020 at 9:51pm
By Jason Stettner

This game is all about big Monster Trucks, providing a few ways to compete with them. It’s a fairly precise use of the vehicles, and a decent foundation for follow-ups that could really develop this formula further. To start there’s a career mode where you’ll be just competing in a variety of races across differing tiers. As you finish you’ll unlock new parts to improve your vehicle, and you can grab basic sponsorships that ask you to complete a variety of random tasks.

That’s about as complex as career mode gets, and I wasn’t too into it aside from doing some content unlocking. Past that there’s a free play option where you can jump into the modes. Those include freestyle where it’s more open point earning, a destruction option where you need to smash objects while pulling off tricks and then some race options.

That includes a race where you’re facing off against a number of other monstrous trucks, or a drag race where it’s one versus one over rounds. I would have liked them to push the modes further, as those are somewhat just basics. There is also an online multiplayer, that’s a great option to have available for those that want to play with randoms or friends online competitively.

Gameplay

The vehicles here take some serious time to get used to. They don’t handle too well, and it’ll take awhile to get a decent handle on them. They do provide some solid wheel control, but there are some questionable physics in this one.

It’s just a bit odd as it somewhat aims for simulation but is also leaning on the arcade side of things. A strange balance there. This didn’t have any performance issues, aside from some visual bugs. There’s rather bad distance rendering for some objects and shadows as well in general. I also noticed weird ghosting behind tires on some tracks.

Your vehicles do get dirty, but there’s not really any noticeable dirt deformation which is disappointing. I would have also liked a better tutorial here, didn’t really teach the tricks too well. That being said, it has a surprising selection of tricks that you can perform which were neat.

The Conclusion

Monster Truck Championship is alright, I think it’s a decent foundation that could be built upon towards stronger follow-ups. I was fairly impressed by the visual style, and the customization. At the same time the modes felt limited, and the career mode felt really aged out. We’ve seen so many racing games this generation, and there’s just a higher expectation at this point across the board.

This is really hard to drive in, and I suppose that can be frustrating. It does get better as you learn, but even then the handling is a little awkward. I think there’s quite a bit of room for improvement, and it would have been nice to have more tracks present. It felt somewhat limited since they’re spread out across the modes.

I just wasn’t too blown away by what this had to offer. I think fans of the event might appreciate this effort, and it was alright. It hit the minimum, and I’m anxious to see if they build upon this core concept as there’s potential here for something really solid.

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Monster Truck Championship Review on Xbox One X
Review Code Provided by HomeRun PR

Rating Overall: 6.0