It’s time to get loud and dirty, slam an energy drink, and wrestle with that throttle until your fingers go numb! Now that I have your attention, ‘Monster Energy Supercross – The Official Videogame 4’, the latest instalment by Milestone, has hit the scene. Being the first version to launch on the latest consoles, this game came with a shiny “Series X/S’ enhanced seal of approval. So, let’s dive straight in and see what this now yearly franchise, has to offer.

A nice, clear, and clean interface welcomes you when you first boot up the game. All game modes are laid out across multiple tabs with each mode accessible right off the bat. I eagerly scrolled across to the create menu to make my future Supercross champion! You can customise either a male or female rider to use in any mode, including career, which was a nice touch. The options, however, were a little limited and the cold dead eyes of my character were a little more disturbing the longer I focused on them.

Every accessory and custom celebration was locked behind in-game credits, which can be earned slowly through gameplay or through microtransactions, for in-game credit bundles. Not that those things are needed to progress through the game, but it would have been nice to be able to customise just a little bit more when starting out.

Nonetheless, once my character was done, I jumped straight into Career mode. A sweeping camera showcased the large stadiums, packed to the brim with the clichéd cardboard-esque audience. Though it’s not unusual for sports games to skip a bit of detail in the audience it can make the stadium feel empty during a race. The announcer echoed out around the arena with adrenaline-pumping music and the brap of 22 dirt bikes gave an authentic live event experience. The tracks themselves were well constructed and highly detailed; you feel every bump and groove etched through the course and they can easily make you kiss the dirt if you hit it wrong. The smooth 60 fps held true during both cutscenes and gameplay and the camera controls were never an issue. I even took advantage of the camera mode to try and make it look like I knew what I was doing mid-scrub.

Being a little while since I last tackled a racing game, I set the game to the medium difficulty to ease myself into the experience. I immediately launched out of the gate and screamed past the competition; this was easy I thought! Then the first corner arrived, and I was kindly put in place after a brutal face plant. I had the mindset that this was another arcade racer but I had to quickly learn that it was a simulator experience.

Controlling the bike is a full-time job and will require you to maintain your balance with the right thumbstick, feather the throttle with RT and hammer the brake with LT. It’s a system that makes you feel like you are in complete control of the bike but until you can upgrade your stats earned in career mode, you can feel like you are fighting the bike more than controlling it. I came in dead last, repeatedly, until I lowered the difficulty, where I continued to come dead last. It’s a difficult game for newcomers and even the tutorials can make a mockery of you.

Taking a step back from Career mode, they have Single Player Events you can jump into with a robust roster of acclaimed AMA supercross racers, both in 250cc and 450cc. Multiplayer is strictly online and the servers had no issues once I found a match with myself feeling like I did better against other players than the bots. Lastly, but not least is the Track Editor, which lets you well, edit or create a track. You can’t make a wacky stunt map like you see in GTA Online, but with a bit of love and care you can craft a unique course that you can share with the world.

Much the same as riding a real-life dirt bike, it will take time and patience to get the hang of Monster Energy Supercross – The Official Videogame 4. The controller can resonate in your hands as you fight your way through each track and you feel each tiny bump and rumble of the engine with incredible detail. It can be quite disheartening to lose over and over but the thrill of a hard-fought victory really feels earned once you painstakingly master the controls. Monster Energy Supercross 4 is now available on PlayStation 4/5, Xbox one, Series X/S, and PC.

Written by: Shane Fletcher