Monster Truck Madness

"Um... ''Yeehaw''?"

Monster Trucks. Seen lately as one of those ''redneck'' sports along with Tractor Pulling and the suchlike, I admit that as a child the concept of really big trucks squashing the crap out of old cars was really appealing. Of course I dug Bigfoot; that truck was like, the Michael Jordan of Monster Trucks then. Of course, many videogames have tried to play upon the fantasy of being able to climb up inside the big beasts and go smashing things. Apparently this was a port of the PC title, under Microsoft and THQ's agreement to publish some of Microsoft's (and it's subsidaries) biggest titles to the portable market. How does it shape up? I'll be doing things a little differently this time around, and hopefully it'll take hold.

The Good

Monster Trucks. Smashing things. Microsoft knew this is what folks like. And what's this game about? You've got it. Monster Trucks smashing things. Underneath it all it's a pretty bare bones racing game, but the whole ''Monster Truck'' factor is driven home through destructable terrain -- even better, the more you plow through with your truck, the higher your ''Rampage'' meter builds. Once it reaches max, you go ''Rampage'' -- your truck is temporarily endowed with super steering, speed, and traction. This adds a pretty big strategy factor as most of the stuff you can plow through is hidden just off the beaten path -- most of what's strewn about in the road is usually smashed by the trucks before you.

Graphics are really good for the GBA. Your truck is polygonal, and the rest of the trucks are sprites. You take realtime damage, too -- dents, for instance, eventually cumulate on your truck as you ram through obstacles. Your truck also gets splashed with dirt -- nice little touches. Framerate is nice and brisk, and rarely slows down -- defenitely a plus. Draw distance is also fairly enjoyable.

Lots of liscenced trucks to choose from, even some old familiar faces that I remember (Gravedigger, Carolina Crusher). Trucks all include different stats, so picking the right truck to fit your style is key. Lots of tracks to choose from with alot of nice variety. Track design itself is varied enough to make each track feel unique.

The game also features something rarely seen in GBA racers -- multiple camera angles. Wide, Close, and In the Drivers Seat. I always choose ''in the drivers seat'' for racing games, so this was a defenitely plus for me. Plus, if your truck gets situated abnormally the camera pulls out of ''in the driver seat'' to give you a better view of what happened; once you point yourself in the right direction and get going, the camera switches back to where it was -- a nice touch indeed.

You start out with three tracks and four trucks -- as you play, new tracks and trucks slowly are unlocked, which actually does a pretty good job at keeping the player interested in the game -- knowing that if he finishes first in the track he'll be rewarded with something special.

The Bad

This game has no in-game music -- and to top that off you have to deal with an annoying and repetetive announcer. Thankfully you can turn him off, but then you're left with just the rumble of your own engine.

The graphics engine has a few bugs in it, showing that it's not _actually_ 3D. Sometimes walls and whatnot will stretch funny during sharp corners, and it looks really unnatural.

Also, the difficulty is laughably unbalanced; it's a tooth-and-nail battle for first place -- but once you're in number one, it gets quite difficult to lose that position as you get first pick on all the destructable terrain and the power ups.

The powerups also feel unbalanced; a small handful are the bog-standard racing game powerups -- speed dash, for instance. But some of them seem to do very little. Sticky Tires and Big Tires seem to do very similiar things (improved handling), the bomb powerup is laughably overpowered -- it temporarily disables all trucks when someone touches it. Using this powerup once is almost an instant-ticket to first place, assuming someone else doesn't get to it first. The Magnet powerup doesn't really seem to serve any real use.

AI is hardly intelligent -- it puts up a pretty good fight for first place, but you can easily tell it's not really ''thinking'' what it's doing -- AI trucks frequently miss powerups and destructables, and on some tracks they can actually get stuck behind bigger obstacles.

The Ugly

A good racing game and a worthy addition to any gamers library, but not without it's blemishes. Still, Monster Truck fans have something to be proud of.

Weak GBA graphics capibilities do not lend well to the destructable terrain; this game begs for visual flair and the GBA doesn't exactly deliver in spades, but for what it has a availible it does the job.

Overall Score 8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/16/03