Monster Garage

"Monster Garage - Live the Power!!!"

Imagine living the life of Jesse James, for a full week do nothing but fiddle with cars. All you have to worry about is one thing, completing the vehicle in time. To most people modifying or working on vehicles is a hobby, something that you do in your own time, and usually not having enough time. This game gives something to these people, including me, to just go and do things that you would not be able to do without the help of Activision, the company that produced the game. This game is very addictive and it can trap you into a world beyond our own.

Graphics: 9/10

When you are in the garage staring at the vehicle and you try to imagine what it is going to look like, it is much like real life. You do not have a very good idea until the vehicle takes its shape, or you look at the little video that show what you should do with it. The graphics are very crisp, and you can imagine it being right in front of you. They even have the stereos in some of the cars, and they have the interior you can even take out, for a few more bucks, and reveal the bare bones of the machine. While you are in the racing mode, you can feel the movement yourself. The graphics are good enough to cause you to shift your body one side to the other while turning.

Game-play: 9.5/10

Trying to develop a game with the complexities of auto-motive creation is very tough, indeed. You can not screw up so horribly because you don't know what is going on. You can only remove objects needed to be removed, except the occasional door. It is very user friendly. You do not need to know much of anything about cars or trucks to play the game, the game is very self-explanatory. You can learn as you go, as in the early levels it is extremely easy to pick up the game due to its simplicity. During the racing mode, there is no damage, therefore it is not possible to screw up in the early stages. It is very challenging later on, because you can lack enough power if you don't race right. Going up hills with a 1968 Ford Bronco without using the clutch and shifting down to low gear could cost you 15 seconds because you would slowly kill it and roll back down the hill.

Difficulty: 9/10

In the earlier missions, it would get about a 3/10, but later on it gets increasingly difficult. In the last of the missions it is almost impossible if you do not go the video around 30 times and write down every detail about what takes place in the transformation. This game is well worth the time you spend trying to figure out what to do. It is very time consuming, but using trial and error, you should be able to figure it out eventually.

Sound/Music: 8/10

The music is much like all games you play, fine for a while, but gets downright boring. This is in most of all games, so that should not influence how you feel about the sound. The sounds of the game are very extensive. You can feel what is going on by just listening. You can listen and figure out how fast you are going. It is good, but not excellent. There are problems, like when you start to kill the engine and roll backwards, from listening to the sounds, the engine is still at full throttle even though you shouldn't be able to hear anything.

Replay: 10/10

Imagine a game where you can start over, create the same vehicles, but in a different way. You can always compare the ways and find out which vehicle has the best chance at getting done by the time limit, or which vehicle is superior. You do not systematically do the same things over and over, as you would in most games. It is much more than that. Creating different parts, and using different set-ups to accomplish the same thing.

Overall: 9/10

Out of all the games of its kind, it is by far the best that i have seen. It is not as good as real life, but then what game is. Yes, games can take you where nothing else can, much like movies. Most people would never get a chance to do anything close to this, so the realism had to be as good as it could be, and it was. If you tried to make a virtual world of auto-motive design, it would take several thousand gigabytes to incorporate every single possibility. This game was simplified a lot, but not to the point to it being unrealistic. Great game, if you have any positive feelings toward the show Monster Garage or Junkyard Wars, this is a game for you to buy and try out, you will not be disappointed.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/07/04