Initial release date: August 26, 2024
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, Xbox Series X and Series S
Developer:Â Milestone
Genres: Racing game, Action game, Sports video game, Simulation Game, Racing, Sports
Publisher:Â Milestone
Engine:Â Unreal Engine 5
The ultimate Monster Jam event is Monster Jam Showdown. This game offers something for everyone with over five different game modes, twenty different monster trucks, and three distinct racing landscapes.
I’ve never had a Monster Jam encounter that felt so smooth. Every truck and arena are visually gorgeous. Monster Jam Showdown makes great use of the PlayStation 5 hardware and the haptic feedback on the PlayStation 5 controller.
Monster Jam Showdown is far from flawless. The upgrade system slows down the game in a way that I find difficult to ignore. You cannot select a quick race; instead, navigate through the campaign menu to locate a game mode to play. Online matches do not provide the opportunity to race against bots. This means you’ll be unable to access a few game types.
Accessibility and Settings
In terms of accessibility, Monster Jam Showdown excels in a few ways. Before we get into the rest of the game, I wanted to highlight these regions first.
This game has two sets of options: one for the game itself. You may customize the music volume, controls, HUD, and your profile. Night Mode and button remapping are two standout possibilities. Night Mode allows you to specify the volume differential between loud and quiet noises. You may also map all of the game buttons and adjust the rear axle control.
Monster Jam Showdown lets you control your back wheels with the right analog stick. This can be startling. Having rear control lets you to make tighter turns and perform tighter tricks. However, some of the game settings make it tough to control your truck.
When you decide to run an event, more options become available. You can modify the AI’s difficulty and have your rear tires turn in the same direction as your front tires without using the right analog stick. If you enable this option, you can still use the right stick swiftly, but your truck will follow the left analog stick first.
Customizing Your Profile
Monster Jam Showdown has the ideal level of profile customisation. You can modify your player tag and display any of your unlocked medals. The car you’re playing as will appear under your driver. Your accomplished challenges are also featured; I’m looking forward to seeing what others show off and strive for when the game is published. You can choose which statistics to highlight. I enjoy doing tricks, so I made sure to show off my highest leap and combo score.
Behind this card, you can see two of my favorite vehicles that I have unlocked thus far. The garage allows you to showcase three trucks and rearrange their positions. Everything on both screens is fully customisable. You can also modify your profile image, banner, and the two medals located at the top right corner of the profile banner. Everything you see here was fully unlocked when playing the game.
Unlocks and progress
The first thing you’ll notice when playing Monster Jam Showdown is that you get rewarded for everything you accomplish. Monster Jam Showdown loves to reward its players with experience points, new trucks, and even victory cinematics.
You can race over 20 classic Monster Jam vehicles. Right away, you will note that all but three of the trucks are secured. As you progress through the game, you will unlock new trucks and be able to track the objectives you must perform in order to receive them. Trucks are unlocked by completing challenges and events. As you unlock more trucks, you will be given the choice to unlock even more. The number of methods to earn extra trucks is insane: you are awarded at every turn for completing each event.
Some vehicles have unique liveries that can be unlocked by completing truck-specific objectives. Some of the liveries are quite impressive, while others are simply recolored. Regardless, you must work for them. Some trucks lack a livery, which disappointed me. However, Monster Jam Showdown includes over 140 liveries to unlock. I wished certain trucks had one thing to unlock, but it didn’t upset me too much.
The truck leveling system in Monster Jam Showdown is a source of frustration. Each vehicle can be leveled up a certain number of times. During my experience with the game, I discovered that level 5 appears to be the highest level. Increasing the level of a truck increases your score.
Using MAX-D as an example, this truck will increase your score by 200% when performing Wheelies, Nose Wheelies, and Moonwalk stunts. The Stunt Score is quite straightforward to follow as you finish activities. However, everything changes when you employ a truck designed for racing.
You do not need a high score to finish a race. In general, you merely need to win first place by whatever means necessary. The level-up mechanism should have been implemented differently depending on what each truck was best suited for. The icon in the upper left of a truck’s card indicates the event it will receive bonuses for.
Bonus points serve no purpose in racing events because they are not point-based. The upgrading system becomes obsolete on these trucks as well. The only reason I continued to improve vehicles that did not profit from being played in my chosen game style was that I loved how they appeared.
Gameplay and graphics
Monster Jam Showdown is ridiculously entertaining. I found myself cheering as I completed two backflips in a row or pushed another truck off a cliff. Tossing your vehicle off a ledge is immensely exciting because you get rewarded for each successful landing. Driving is quite smooth, regardless of the settings you select. I enjoy having control over both the front and back wheels of my truck. It took some time to adjust to having such exact controls, but once I did, I fell in love with it.
Even when I’m playing a game mode I don’t particularly enjoy, I’m still having fun. The racing modes are sleek and offer far more diversity than I expected. I was pleased to witness all of the off-road racing in various settings. Driving through a snowfall and trying not to miss a leap was thrilling.
As soon as I arrived at my first event, I was taken aback by the degree of detail on each truck. Monster Jam Showdown appears to maximize the PlayStation 5’s capabilities. The trucks are stunning, as are the landscapes, and the truck demolition is the best it has ever been.
Defying gravity has never felt better in a Monster Jam video game. The trucks feel heavy, and if you play Monster Jam Showdown with a PlayStation 5 controller, you will feel everything, which is wonderful.
Game modes
The Showdown Tour is the first of the game’s modes, and it serves as the story mode. It allows you to access new trucks and personalization options. You will be able to choose where you want to race. The Showdown Tour is free-flowing, and as you accomplish events, you will unlock more of that particular event type. My map is filled with stunt events since I find them to be the most gratifying, entertaining, and captivating.
Unfortunately, you cannot enter an event without first searching the map for it. As your map fills up, it gets difficult to choose what to play for your session. A quick race option on the menu would have improved things significantly.
Before I get into the rest of the game types, you need know a few things. First, Monster Jam Showdown includes a split-screen mode. I was unable to completely test it because I was conducting this review by myself. With that said, I tested an extra controller to see if it functioned properly, and it did. I was unable to attempt the multiplayer-only modes since they cannot be played with bots; this is my second major concern about Monster Jam Showdown, as these multiplayer modes appear to capture the essence of Monster Jam more than the racing modes.
You can choose from a variety of modes, including:
- Head-To-Head
- Circuit Racing
- Horde
- FreeStyle
- Best Trick
- Figure 8. Racing
- Extreme Free Style
- Extreme head-to-head.
Online-only modes include
- Treasure Hunting
- Survivor
Head-to-Head is one of my favorite modes because it only involves you and another vehicle. You run around a little course, and the first person to reach the finish line wins. This game option is played in a tournament format; if you make it to the conclusion, you win. The courses themselves are enjoyable, but not very interesting.
Figure 8 Racing is my second favorite game mode due of its mayhem. You race on a figure 8 track and try not to fall behind or become stranded behind anyone. As you move ahead, you must avoid being slammed into in the middle of the track. Figure 8: As the AI’s difficulty increases, racing gets more interesting.
Every stunt course is enjoyable, including those in Alaska, which I despise. Some of the courses are larger, while others are smaller, so you may not always have the space to perform the tricks you wish. It’s fascinating to think of different tactics to avoid flying into the stands, because doing so will result in a loss of score. If you roll over and cannot save yourself, you will lose your score. Slamming into the wall too forcefully can also result in a lower score. Trying to strike the perfect balance throughout the stunt events is what makes them so enjoyable to play.
Last Words
Monster Jam Showdown is beautiful. The surroundings are beautifully realistic, and the storms in the game are magnificent. Each habitat stands out in its own way; the storms in each place provide a great touch. Racing through a snowstorm with limited visibility gives a level of excitement to racing events that I felt was often lacking.
Monster Jam Showdown has absolutely incredible sound design. Everything, even the sounds produced by the PlayStation 5 controller, seems as though it is aimed directly at you. The sound quality is excellent even without any special speakers that I own.
The online modes of Monster Jam Showdown are hindered by the absence of racing versus AI opponents. Even if there are only two online-only game modes, it would be convenient to be able to play them whenever I like, even in the event that the servers crash. The absence of a fast race option is the second major problem. As you earn more events in Showdown Tour, scrolling through them gets really tedious.
There could be more enhancements to quality of life. Organizing your trucks according to the kind of event becomes necessary as you unlock more vehicles. It would also be helpful to have a tracker that displays the number of liveries on a truck without requiring you to navigate between two menus. Ultimately, assigning missions would somewhat simplify the process of selecting events in Showdown Tour.
I had some issues with Monster Jam Showdown, but overall, it’s a really good monster truck game. This game is captivating in every aspect; the trucks pop, the music is lively and fast-paced, and the Monster Jam universe is brought to life in a way that I have never seen before.
Review Overview
Gameplay – 85%
Controls – 80%
Aesthetics – 75%
Content – 80%
Accessibility – 78%
Value – 82%
Overall Rating – 80%
VERY GOOD!
Summary: Monster Jam Showdown exceeds expectations by delivering a thrilling and authentic monster truck experience. The game offers a variety of modes, from racing to freestyle, each capturing the intensity and excitement of the sport. The attention to detail in the trucks, arenas, and physics makes for an immersive experience that fans of the genre will appreciate. While the controls may take some time to master, the learning curve adds to the depth of gameplay. Overall, Monster Jam Showdown surprises with its quality and entertainment value, making it a must-play for monster truck enthusiasts.