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Monster Truck Championship!
I have no real depth of knowledge when it comes to monster trucks (I’m more of a Formula 1 guy). However, thanks to this nifty little Xbox game that landed on my doorstep called Monster Truck Championship, I now have a much better idea. Maximum Games recently sent me the game for my Xbox One.
Then, seemingly far away, two toilets flush simultaneously, dumping about eight gallons of high-test into a supercharger the size of a microwave that’s bolted to a block the size of a washing machine. This is Monster Truck Championship. And now you mash on the gas!
Like a Flintlock Pistol
The resulting eight successive mortar blasts fire pistons as big as a man’s thigh and with near-diesel levels of compression up navel artillery comparable bores, transmitting crushing levels of force through femur-sized con-rods to a crankshaft that has to be out of an ocean-going tug.
Then there’s a clutch in there somewhere and a bunch of whirling transmission bits and such. Then onto drivelines – one fore, one aft – before finally, what your foot asked for anywhere from 0.000001 seconds to 71 hours earlier is transmitted into the dirt via tires the size of hot tubs.
Have you ever fired a Flintlock? It’s sort of like that. Monster Truck Championship is a giant Flintlock Pistol.
There is a vast and endless chain of events from when you squeeze the trigger to when you hear and feel the “whoomph!” And, much to the credit of Monster Truck Championship, the game faithfully reproduces that “whoomph!” each and every time (I was playing on my Logitech G920 Racing Wheel).
Monster Truck Championship Features
- Online mode for up to 8 players.
- 16 customizable vehicles with over 50 options.
- 25 circuits in different cities across the United States.
- 5 types of events: Race, Time-Trial, Drag Races, Freestyle, and Destruction!!
- Realistic driving and physics, including independent front- and rear-wheel control.
- Adjustment of different mechanical elements, including the engine and suspension.
- Manage your truck, sponsors, and technicians to improve performances and earnings.
All About The Money!!
In addition to the colorful graphics and backdrops, the game is relatively tech-heavy. You get to (actually have to) fiddle with your truck. Improve this, tweak that, and so on, or you won’t win. If you are not winning in Monster Truck Championship, you are not earning that cold hard cash.
The keyword here is Championship. After starting at a beginner level, the goal is to work your way up. Like all forms of Motorsport, speed and trophies equal money, even for big trucks. So, with your monster truck and its spongy tires and mountainous levels of power and torque, you must go out and win. Take home the green, then put the scratch back into the truck and back into the team.
You get to hire team personnel along the way and deal with sponsors. It’s been said that Motorsports sponsorship is a shallow fetid bog swimming with vipers, and this may be true, but there’s also a downside. Luckily, this game is focused more on driving and having fun with your truck than dealing with sponsors.
Monster Truck Championship Gameplay
This is where Monster Truck Championship has another technical card dealt in its favor. They don’t have to map out miles of sky, like in a flight sim, or miles and miles of track, like in a driving sim. This means Monster Truck Championship can focus more processing power on what that infernal contraption you’re trying to control is doing.
However, there’s a balance point somewhere beyond the horizon, which is tough to master, but when you do, look out. In Monster Truck Championship, there is a spot where the impending forward thrust meets the steering angle, and it will happily agree with your current body roll and weight transfer. When that happens, Monster Truck Championship will Hook. You. Up. and you will go downrange like a missile (if missiles had big tires).
You must also have some hand-eye coordination to aim (or possibly steer) your monster truck where you want it to go. It’s not easy, but it is rewarding.
I could get three, sometimes three-and-a-half corners in a row before spearing off in a given direction, flopping onto my side, or pulling a wheelie that stood the truck on its tailgate. But to be fair, the developers say you need to do more than punch the gas if you expect to pull off any cool aerial stunts or reach the game’s ultimate prize of becoming the Professional League Champion.
Monster Truck Championship
As an Amazon Associate, Automoblog earns from qualifying purchases.
16 customizable vehicles and an online mode for up to 8 players.
Choose from five types of events, including Destruction!
Manage your truck and team.
Should You Buy Monster Truck Championship?
If you are into Monster Jam, you will have a blast with this game. You have plenty of options for tinkering with the trucks, modding them, and making them faster. You also get to name your truck and paint it all goofy, which only adds to the fun.
Monster Truck Championship is available on Amazon for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and Nintendo Switch. Not counting any deals or discounts, it’s between $20 and $60 on Amazon, depending on which gaming platform you have.
If you want a game that is out of the ordinary, Monster Truck Championship is an inexpensive way to have a blast. Best of all, you won’t risk doing anything stupid, like killing yourself at the fairgrounds.
Longtime Automoblog writer Tony Borroz has been a content expert on popular driving games, worked for aerospace companies and software giants, and was a movie stuntman. He lives in the northeast corner of the northwestern-most part of the Pacific Northwest.
