Our podcasts cause irreversible deafness
what's new
latest podcast
random quote
“Hey, did I mention there are the topless, or should that read ‘helpless’, women? Every woman in the game, other than A’Kanna, is chained to a wall or post, screaming to be released … and she has her breasts exposed.”

'Conan' Review
by Cav









most recent on forum
NEWS [ 48 hr Game Challenge - Final Wrap-up ] by Kyle at 1:37pm
Friday night by HellisforHeroes at 1:36pm
Australian Gamer Ventrilo Server by Jamwa at 1:27pm
Do you walk like Jae? by Mr Shoosh at 1:03pm
Partay? by Gday.Joel at 12:59pm
Anime by chirishNique at 12:58pm
Thing to do before I DIE by chirishNique at 12:57pm
The Comics Thread!! by chirishNique at 12:55pm
What are you playing right now? by Ixnay at 12:54pm
Since Mark Whalberg was Marky Mark by chirishNique at 12:54pm
NEWS [ Halo Wars Trailer ] by Ixnay at 12:46pm
What are you listening to? by Korthal at 12:37pm
Is there a strong market for older consoles? by Ixnay at 12:34pm
COMPETITION [ Win one of 3 copies of Dragon Hunters ] by Ixnay at 12:04pm
Little Big Planet by skittles at 10:42am
rss feeds

Australian Gamer Content - All
Australian Gamer Podcasts - All
Australian Gamer Updates, Reviews, Previews, Features
review :: monster jam

Monster Jam

Reviewed on:
Available on:

Monster Jam is a game that might work if you're a beer swilling redneck who has a poster of your favourite monster truck on the wall, but what about the rest of us?

Players:
Genre: Racing
Release: 2008-03-28
Developer: Torus Games
Distributor: Activision

view profile


Monster Trucks. They're big, loud, consume hundreds of litres of fuel, turn Datsun 120Y's into scrap and apparently attract over 4,000,000 spectators at live events every year across the globe. Why? This question ranks up there with the Chicken and the Egg, does God exist, Where's Wally and why shouldn't you feed the Oracle? I must say I was kinda stoked to be reviewing Monster Jam, by Melbourne based Torus Games. I was going to give you all a big 'Redneck Review', complete with Flannelette Shirt, Budweiser Beer, mongrel looking dog and a poor excuse for a Monster Truck in the form of a filthy, borrowed Hilux Ute parked on top of a kid's pedal car. I was hoping that pulling this off would have made you readers 'happier than a tornado in a trailer park'. I was even going to attempt to grow a mullet, but I thought this review should be up sometime before hell freezes over.

But no, that was only going to happen if I was 100% confident that this was a must have title and it pains me to say that this is just a game that will be good for a rental and that's about it. That is of course unless it's going to be a present for your 8 year old cousin who enjoys this kind of stuff. I suppose I shouldn't mention cousins and rednecks in the same paragraph either.

Monster Jam gives us the opportunity to cause all sorts of destruction in a series of races, either in a stadium or out in the open, as well as the good old fashioned freestyle 'crush fests', where points are awarded for destruction, air time and stunts The open races, if anything, are what save this game. Send yourself flying around the track, smashing through (almost) everything that gets on your way. Trees, silos, Torus billboards, logging trucks, boats, light aircraft, helicopters, F17A Stealth Bombers (and here's me thinking they would be a little more robust – silly me) and a horde of other bustable elements.

Occasionally you will come across a shed or other smaller type building that your Truck just can't break through? What the hell? I can clean the trailer off a semi but I can't crush a poor excuse for a bus shelter? One of the circuits focuses around a dockyard. I mean who in their right mind would drive a vehicle on a pier with every chance on dropping it into the drink? The environments may change, but it's same shit different bucket. All in all this kinda reminds me of something... now, what did the 12th Man, Billy Birmingham say on his Wired World of Sports? "These fucking cars just keep going around and around and around! It's so fucking boring!" Played this have we Bill?


Hulk SMASH!


Stadium races are just crap. I had one race that lasted 9.66 seconds – start to finish. 9 seconds? Matt has had sex that has lasted longer than that! I'm hearing you say: 'What's a stadium race?' Well, take a small area like a soccer field and make a track on it. Then do only ONE lap of it. Considering the size of the truck, I consider this is to be a ludicrous idea, but apparently it's a viable race method. Must be all that rednecks can handle; any longer than thirty seconds and I'm guessing it's a lost cause.

Now onto what I thought was the only thing that Monster Trucks did – Free styling. Ripping around an arena of dirt and jumping cars and crushing them, just trashing everything in sight. There is actually a scoring system which involves smashing and crushing (actually two different things), wheelies, air time, donuts. I found in the World Championship Freestyle Event I required 38 points for victory. The only point bracket I couldn't fulfil was the stunt variation, 7 points out of a possible 10. Just like scores of you lovely readers, I, too, never read the manual before playing. So looked through the manual, to find out the buttons for the different stunts – nothing, only some good engrish telling you that you can perform wheelie and donut (plurals anyone?). Well then, did I miss a tutorial session at the start of the game? Nope! Suffer in you jocks, you hillbilly wanna be! In the long run, one can only sit there for a short while before becoming bored with the concept that you might actually pluck something out of your arse and win this thing.

I did eventually win that event, although I never quite worked out what the extra stunt was. So there I am happy as Larry, thinking I only had to win that event to get onto the next one, just to discover that there are only two events in the World Championship event! Two events in a Championship? I go through six or seven events in the individual series, just to get to the final then this? It's confusing, to say the least and seems to be a big letdown. On the other hand, I did enjoy launching my truck into the stands, even though all that happens is that you respawn back on the track. I tried to imagine the carnage that would take place if 100 tonnes of ramping oversized vehicle flew into the crowd ... hmmm ... come to think of it, the OFLC is too busy denying classification for Fallout 3 to have time to knock this one back as well.

The vehicles drive well, but I really have no caparison having never driven a monster truck. They drive alright, but they all seem to be the same. There are heaps of trucks to unlock, but none of them seems to handle better than the other. There is a button for four wheel steering, which helps when doing the stadium races with tight turns and when you've lost both your front wheels in a freestyle event. I'm also still trying to see the reason why Monster Jam has no online capabilities at all – No World Wide rankings – No Versus Racing. Don't know if this would put the game back up in favour with players, but at least it would give back a little for those who paid their $70 plus dollars. A customisable soundtrack is only a small consolation, as the soundtrack feels like it contains all the tracks that THQ rejected for its latest WWE game!


Getting up is the easy part ... it's getting down that hurts


While I think of it, the most frustrating thing in this game is the menu interface. Say you complete a race, but didn't come first and you want to keep the score you achieved as it brings your total closer to unlocking another Monster Truck. It goes through the motions of adding the score but doesn't take you back to the race you just competed in, you go back to the start of the race list! If I had a dollar for every time I had to quit that first race to get back to the race I wanted to compete in I could buy a real Monster Truck. Come on guys, how about a little something for us perfectionists next time, huh?

There is a pile of 'Monster Truck Facts' that pop up while the game loads, which is surprisingly quick. With terms like 'Hole Shot' and 'End Run' , it reminded me of the young guys who live across the road from me with John Deere and RM Williams stickers all over their utes. One of them has a sticker that says 'Dirt Track Cowboy' .... Hole Shot? End Run? Dirt Track Cowboy? I think these are innuendos for, how do I say it? Um... 'batting for the other team'? Is that dirt track otherwise known as the Hershey Highway?

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Final Verdict

Monster Jam is not unplayable, it just doesn't have enough going for it to keep a regular gamer interested. You wanna smash stuff up and drive at the same time? Then by all means go ahead. Want something that will challenge you? Go look somewhere else. Overall it hurts to say that this it's a rental and nothing more.

Pros
No learning curve. Short attention span required. Short loading times. Great for kids with ADD
Cons
No online. Trucks all seem the same. Repetitive commentary. Difficult menus. No difference in vehicles.

home  |   latest comic  |   reviews  |   previews  |   features  |   podcasts  |   search  |   the team  |   history  |   faq  |   forum  |   myspace  |   youtube  |   comps  |   links  |   contact us

AustralianGamer.com © 2008