Monster Jam Showdown review – Maximum car-nage

Forget about the Internet, cheeseburgers, or Magnum PI, because America’s greatest cultural export will forever be the monster truck. An ungodly amount of horsepower sandwiched between a set of tyres that would attract a horde of cross-fitters, monster trucks come in all kinds of shapes and only one size: Big. And that’s a feeling that developer Milestone SRL nails with a punchy–but modest–offering in Monster Jam Showdown.

If you’re familiar with monster trucks, you’ve probably caught a show or two in Cape Town that left your eardrums shattered or you grew up on a Pentium PC with Monster Truck Madness installed on it. The last couple of years have seen a few more games added to the franchise, such as open-world racers from THQ Nordic that were fine at best and uninspired at worst. Monster Jam Showdown ditches the sandbox approach for something more akin to Dirt Rally, as Milestone delivers a smile-inducing racer where the emphasis is on drifting around corners while driving a vehicle that looks like it would be used by the Undertaker for a WrestleMania entrance.

What sets Monster Jam Showdown apart is an additional focus on performing stunts with these colossal cars. If you’ve ever watched real-life monster trucks, you’ll be aware of how impossibly agile they are, as they’re capable of making Sir Isaac Newton spin in his grave whenever they break the laws of physics. In the right hands, you can pretend to be Spider-Man by pulling off signature monster truck moves, like a nose-diving wheelie or slapping gravity in the face whenever you achieve escape velocity.

For the more technical-minded driving enthusiast, Monster Jam Showdown also features independent rear-wheel steering controlled by the right stick, allowing for a satisfying amount of control that needs to be mastered if you want to overtake opponents in a racing event. That said, there are driving assists available in case you just want to feel the need for speed, but there’s a visceral thrill to this system when you tear around a corner and excavate a small quarry of dirt onto nearby onlookers.

Compared to Milestone’s motorcycle games like Ride and MotoGP, Monster Jam Showdown is real enough to not be boring. The drive to string together combos in stunt arenas coupled with needing to learn the nuances of the beast machine you’re steering hits a sweet spot for fun and challenge. For younger players looking to have a good time or adults needing some digital junk food, Monster Jam Showdown can feel consistently satisfying.

That sensation extends to the game’s visuals, as Monster Jam Showdown has 40 four-wheeled rigs to collect across your journey. Ranging from all-time classics like Gravedigger to the debut of modern-day legends like Big Kahuna, ThunderROARus, and Vendetta, there’s a healthy selection of vehicles here that can be unlocked at a fairly reasonable pace. Seeing them accumulate wear, tear, and dirt during events makes for a nice small touch.

Where the game does get a flat tyre is in race variety, with the bulk of Monster Jam Showdown making frequent use of several tracks before new ones are finally unlocked in the endgame. This can start to feel repetitive after a while–even if weather conditions shake things up slightly–and more variety in locations and arenas could have kept things fresh. The career mode isn’t deep either, as you find yourself shuttled between locations, and monster truck customization is noticeably absent. Sure, there are dozens of vehicles to choose from, but considering how Milestone has a top-notch livery editor in several of its other racing games, this is a strange and obvious omission that gives Monster Jam Showdown a bit of deflated feeling.

Monster Jam Showdown is out now for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam and Epic Games Store.