Monster Jam Showdown Review (PS5) – What’s The Megalowdown?
Monster trucks never really excited me as a genre. I’ve seen them in various weekend events in my lifetime and always thought they were fun if not as exhilarating as their bombastic trailers would have you believe.
Of course, this all changed once I saw with my own eyes the real deal. Monster Jam is an absolutely superb spectacle, one that can be enjoyed by all ages. Once you’re caught up in the madness of it all watching giant trucks in the shape of sharks flipping 180 in the air whilst on fire it suddenly all makes sense. It’s an awful lot of nonsense, but it’s the kind of nonsense I can get behind. And appears the most wanting on honours from racing development legends Milestone – Monster Jam Showdown, a fully licensed up video game recreation of the madness of Monster Jam. My curiosity certainly got the better of me and I found myself wanting to check out the game to see if it gave me those same thrills when playing the game as it does watching the carnage happen in front of you.
Safe to say it’s as solid as you would expect a racing game from Milestone to be. Their pedigree is fairly set in stone at this point, and their dedication to the cause of simply making what’s in front of you a reality when it’s in your hands. From Moto GP, the Ride series and the stonkingly brilliant Hot Wheels Unleashed franchise, simply put they know their stuff, and they’re wizards at bringing it to life inside your console or PC of choice.
Monster Jam Showdown felt like a tall order in comparison to the others, though. Monster Jam in itself is a very singular thing that does one thing. And whilst that one thing they do is a thing they do very well, a three hour show of trucks doing crazy stunts seemed perhaps somewhat difficult to achieve a kind of longevity within the confides of a video game.
Fortunately, the stunt shows are a less important aspect of the game than you would expect, but then it’s also not all that surprising considering the developers. Monster Jam Showdown beyond anything else is a racing game in monster trucks. So no, you won’t be going fast, you won’t be leaving your opponents in the dust and you certainly won’t be tearing it across any finish lines. Monster Jam Showdown is a whole lot more tactical than perhaps I even realised. Using the left stick to turn and the right stick to control your back wheels, the ‘training’ segments are vitally important if you don’t want to go skidding off into the ether.
The races are claustrophobic and the quarters are all nice and close, giving a competitive edge to even trying to get through the huddle in front of you. Fortunately this is a monster truck game, so there’s plenty of stuff to destroy in order to make a bit of a mess and get your scores up. You’ll notice debris and boxes around the tracks, which you’re more than welcome to drive right into that will also give you a little boost, handy when you’re a little behind.
The races are super fun. When you get a handle of the controls – and again, spent a fair bit of time in the training area – you’ll have a blast racking up victories and earning enough currency to unlock new areas. From deserts, stadiums and snowy mountain tops, your monster truck of choice will be tearing it around some gorgeously realised levels. Each level is full of detail and whilst they’re not awfully revolutionary in terms of design, that’s not really the point. Tearing it around corners in monster trucks never gets old, and nailing perfect drifts in these things is enormously rewarding.
Away from the more conventional races are the Extreme Head to Head lap races where yourself and your opponent are given a single lap – and your own course until it links up at the finale – to get to the end in a small three round tournament where you can also earn a solid amount of XP if you tear it around the tracks. There’s a few of these dotted around and you’ll need to complete them all in order to progress (naturally…), so ensure your braking and drifting are up to speed before taking them on or Grave Digger will digging you a new…well, you know what I mean.
Then there’s my favourite mode – Horde. You begin at the back of the race and essentially have to ‘hunt down’ your opponents that are racing away from you. You need to stay ahead for a prolonged period which knocks your opponent out of the game, or ‘catches’ them. You need to get to front of the race to win and knock everyone out and it’s super fun, particularly on the more intense rainy/muddy tracks. There’s also a countdown so if you don’t get them all in time you’ll lose your prey and that’s the game. It’s an absolute blast and can see being super fun with multiple players (unfortunately I was unable to test out multiplayer modes during the review period).
It’s fun playing a racing game without the initial intention of just winning the race. Of course there’s been similar modes in racing games before (the ‘don’t be last or you’re out’ mode comes to mind, but just reversed…I guess), but hey, everything is more fun in monster trucks and you’ll soon realise that when you start winning Horde modes and finding a new favourite game mode. That’s what happened to me anyway and I’m not even a massive Monster Jam fan. For the hardcore this will be an absolute dream.
Click the image below to read an interview with Monster Jam Showdown Game Director Federico Spada!
Then there’s the actual stunt modes themselves, or ‘Freestyle’ mode. This is where your love of Monster Jam would have been born and it’s a hell of a lot of fun to throw tricks and stunts together in a big ol’ monster truck. From flipping your truck in the air to endless donuts, travelling on two front wheels – or two back wheels – spinning around on two wheels…the list goes and on and there’s a huge amount of stunts to learn. You can refer to the stunt list anytime in the options menu, and whilst it doesn’t provide a clear button by button direction, if you’ve paid attention in the training you should be able to pull of some sick moves fairly effortlessly. There’s a whole lot to learn to get those high scores so ensuring you have a decent enough arsenal to impress the commentators and the crowd will see your score rack up.
It’s strangely the mode I found myself not going back to an awful lot after getting rather addicted to the Horde and Head to Head modes. There’s huge replayability all over the game but the stunt modes didn’t keep my attention in the same way the Horde mode did. I mean, I was never much good at Tony Hawks Pro Skater to perhaps I’m somewhat more drawn to the racing aspects of Monster Jam Showdown.
And that’s the crux of what’s on offer here. Any Monster Jam fan if they’re 8 or 88 are going to find something here that represents their favourite aspects of the madness. And as you progress through the games campaign and there’s a nice mixture of modes on offer to explore you’ll always have your favourites. The stunt mode has huge depth due to the sheer number of stunts you can learn and how you can rack them up, replaying every mode to be getting better scores to earn more tokens to unlock new trucks. Once Megalodon is yours, it’s time to wreck shop and nothing will stand in your way. So long as you have the skills to take him to the top, of course.
I’m delighted with Monster Jam Showdown. It celebrates the chaos and madness of its subject and feels like the closest most of us will ever come to driving one these goliaths in real life. There’s a huge amount of enjoy and a ton of replayability. I’m delighted Milestone were the developers to bring this one to life, it’s not going to change the world or trouble any of the best in class racers of recent years, but it doesn’t need to. The niche it has carved for itself should be more than enough to entertain the most ardent of Monster Jam fans and is just about wild and fun enough to attract new ones.
See you in the Horde mode, Megalodon. I’m coming for you.
Monster Jam Showdown brings the chaos of their live shows to your gaming systems in fine style. A huge celebration of the Monster Jam universe, Showdown absolutely nails the aesthetic and is crammed full of replayability. If you’re one of the many fans around the world, you’re going to flip for this.
Monster Jam Showdown is available now on PS5 (review platform), PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC and Nintendo Switch.
Developer: Milestone
Publisher: Milestone
Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.
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