What makes a very good arcade racing recreation in 2024? Aiming to be a bit like what the Forza Horizon collection has morphed into, except for the entire open-world factor? Yeah, alright.
This, I’d assume, might nicely have been the dialog that befell when Milestone started placing collectively its plans for Monster Jam Showdown. Showdown is the most recent recreation to supply folks like me – individuals who get a kick out of supremely foolish automobiles formed like large bulls, hearses, or sharks which remind us of a time when the world appeared distinctly extra wondrous and fewer terrifying – the prospect to nail a backflip over a wrecked automotive and be far too embarrassed to inform our associates how a lot we beloved it.
It does a fairly good job of that, ostensibly by focusing extra on simply being a very good racing recreation, relatively than particularly being a very good Monster Jam recreation. Positive, you’re doing a variety of the standard Monster Jam actions. There are some arenas the place you possibly can freestyle, some quick races round tight impediment programs, and all of the licensed monster vans six-year-old you could possibly ever need. Nevertheless, this time round, it’s all tied right into a worldspace that feels very very like it may belong to just about any offroad racing recreation.
Occasions are set throughout three real-world locales – Dying Valley, Colorado, and Alaska – all rendered in pretty lifelike style, as they’d be in the event that they have been to pop up in a Forza or Grime entry. One’s sandy desert, one’s muddy woodland, one’s snowy tundra, and you may race monster vans by them simply as you would possibly a trophy truck or rally automotive. Every space additionally has a bit of the map with its personal purpose-built stadium to facilitate the entire doing tips portion of the sport.
It’s only a barely completely different method of engaging in the identical targets as Showdown’s fast predecessors, Rainbow Studios’ Monster Jam Metal Titans video games, nevertheless it does make the entire thing really feel rather a lot completely different. Primarily as a result of this time the sport isn’t cut up into two halves. Whereas it hasn’t gone for a full Metal Titans-style open-world which you could discover freely in between races, Showdown undoubtedly places all of its eggs in that world’s basket, making for a recreation that isn’t – as these Metal Titans video games have been – successfully cut up in two. The place there was as soon as an open world bit that facilitated longer circuit races and exploration, and a bit that allowed you to do precisely what Monster Jam and its vans do in actual life – journey to completely different arenas internationally, and compete briefly races and freestyle competitions that comprise precise championships – there’s now one unified factor referred to as the Showdown Tour, coated in a brightly colored UI and vaguely stylish musical gloss that feels very Horizon or The Crew Motorfest.
So, what’s the racing motion on this factor like? Fairly good, regardless of the minor hangup of collision physics that may sometimes be a bit janky. A pleasant stability has been struck by way of making the vans really feel as cumbersome and beefy as they need to at instances, whereas additionally capable of be manoeuvred across the decently technical tracks with out it being such as you’re attempting to park a First World Struggle tank at your native grocery store. The enhance mechanic is a superb assist right here, turning lots of the races on longer circuits into ‘level and squirt’ fests the place you’re consistently drifting and smashing stuff to construct up the meter, earlier than deploying a giant burst to launch you over a soar or in the direction of the end line.
This additionally extends to the shorter sprints, which pack in additional tight twists and turns to make them a real problem of your potential to bop your elephant with large tyres round a course by way of knowledgeable throttle management and dabs of rear wheel steering. Whenever you soar right into a freestyle, your job is to rack up multipliers in as speedy a style as potential – both by doing sure strikes or a combo of your selection – with out messing up and shedding in any respect by touchdown in your roof or failing to do the bicycle it’s pestering you for. As with the racing, there’s simply sufficient problem to make sure even people who eat sky wheelies, donuts and flips for breakfast will get careless occasionally, slip into an easy-to-make error and must restart. There’s all the time a little bit of danger to maintain the reward of nailing a double backflip really feel as candy because it ought to.
All of that makes for a stable gameplay core to the Showdown expertise, however the recreation does nonetheless really feel prefer it’s missing a little bit of the non-public contact. That is very true by way of customisation. You may make your character dab each time they win, however you possibly can’t give them a novel identify past your on-line deal with, or customise something concerning the look except for a nameplate-esque splash. It’d be good to have the choice to construct your personal monster truck to go alongside the entire official vans within the recreation, particularly given the cool issues that would little question be achieved assuming this got here with a decently in-depth creation suite.
In any case, enjoying into the primary factor that makes Monster Jam vans stand out from the group, that being their wacky designs, looks as if a no brainer, even when it could clearly take a good quantity of effort and time to get proper. As is, the particular upgradeable trait every truck has in Showdown are neat sufficient – if a bit fundamental in comparison with even Metal Titans 2 – causes to maintain you switching and attempting out completely different rides as you play, seeing which enhance is greatest for every occasion. For instance, I used to be personally a giant fan of utilizing the traditional Grave Digger for freestyle occasions, because it provided a lift to the factors gained from pulling off a number of of the strikes I tended to go for fairly usually.
So, as I stated, Showdown is a recreation which, whereas arguably feeling prefer it’s misplaced a little bit of the distinctive Monster Jam flavour that even Metal Titans 2’s kinda corny open world with sections themed round completely different vans had, provides a very good general racing expertise. It’s received nowhere close to the sheer automobile selection that so usually actually makes the method it’s going for correctly sing, however should you’re simply searching for a enjoyable few hours of chucking monster vans round, it delivers.
Monster Jam Showdown releases on PS5/PS4, Xbox Sequence X|S, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Change on August 29.