Monster Energy Supercross is back with its sixth installment and it’s bigger than ever, smashing the 2022 season. There are 80 riders, 29 unique bikes, and 17 brand new officially licensed tracks in this title. Milestone has been listening and this year’s title shows. The series has come a long way since 2018.

This year’s title is led by none other than Jeremy McGrath who was known as the King of Supercross, getting seven Supercross titles under his belt. Seeing his name come up as the person taking you through the career mode as your coach was awesome. You soon learn you will never be half the rider he is, but try your hardest to become as good as you can. This year’s title is packed with heaps of new content.

The career mode is split into three sections: Futures, Rookie and Pro. You start your career path in Futures. These races are vital to showing the teams and sponsors what you are made of, with the main objective being to win the races and make sure you are showing style so that teams and sponsors are looking out for you. You have three races to complete until you are offered a race team or sponsorship. For me, being the lone ranger that I am, I chose to get sponsored.

Once you have completed the three races from the Futures game mode, you move on to Rookie, where you can choose between the Supercross 250 East or West division. You need to use the Supercross Academy more once you have moved into the Rookie Division, and your rider can be hurt if you fall off too many times during a race. You will need to use the Academy’s Gym to do a workout session and get your health back to 100%, and if you are anything like me, you’ll find yourself on the dirt more than the bike sometimes. You need to make sure you are constantly checking the skill tree and applying the points you get during the process to make your rider better, with anything from brakes to control the bikes on burms, or if you are stupid like me, use all your points on whips so you can throw some sick stunts.

Once you have completed the necessary races for Rookie, you are moved into Pro, and once again, are offered either a team or sponsorship, so if you decide to upgrade, this is when you’ll do it, and this is where the supercross becomes fun, riding at the highest level on the 450cc dirt bikes to win the Championship. You can create rivalries with other rides, which, as I learned, can change the race completely. Making sure you use your points correctly in the skill tree is critical for Pro as it’s the hardest and fastest division you will be involved in.

An amazing new game mode added to this year’s title was Rhythm Attack, a 1v1 race where you compete side by side, and the track is just a long straight. It’s a flow section, so you need to make sure you are pulling back and pushing forward on the handlebars to handle the flow track. It’s like an elimination tournament, so if you lose you are out, and if you win, you proceed on to verse the next person, and needless to say, the game mode is a whole lot of quick fun.

The Skill Tree is really useful in this game and there are four different categories to select from, which include Cornering, Bike Control, Braking, Scrub, and Physical Resistance, which all play a key part in racing in the Supercross series. Each section of the categories shows you what the certain upgrade does and what it will do to your bike, and as I mentioned before, if you are silly like me, you put all your points into Bike Control so you can throw those sick whips when you are airborne to show off to all your fans.

Supercross Academy in the main menu is a little different than in the career mode. The main menu option lets you select specific lessons so you can hone your skills on the bike and advance your career further, or take part in quick races and make yourself look like Jeremy McGrath or Ricky Johnson. I spent a little bit of time in this mode to learn some more bike control so that I was not taking out the sponsorship banners on the side of the track so much and keeping it between the lines. The career mode option has a few different options, with a workout section so you can repair your rider’s broken bones or the compound which has been built for you to cause havoc, and this is where I spent more time falling off the bike from attempting to do stupid things.

You won’t be surprised by this next section; the online modes. The thing we all love in racing games, and the complete chaos that it brings. The game handles online gameplay really well, which was surprising with how much content there is and the number of riders it can support. At the time of this review, the only online option was to race, and this was a little harder than it sounded. With the game being so new, I only got a couple of races in, but they were fantastically responsive.

The developers have also added a cross-platform system to the online with this year’s title, and this helps the lobbies fill that little bit quicker. One thing I would love to test a little more is the online ranking system when it drops. I think it’s an awesome idea and that it will bring more of a competitive side to the title.

This year’s title brought more bike customisation options, which was great to see. You can customise the complete setup on your bike now. When in career mode, you select bikes from well-known brands like Yamaha, Suzuki, Honda, and KTM, and these can be changed when you get some money from racing. You can change anything from the liveries on the bikes, right down to single components like handlebars or brake disks, and this really made the bike feel like my own instead of just another Yamaha racing around the track.

Like all proper racing games you have the Single Event, so if you want to jump into a quick race and have some fun, this is the game mode designed for you. I used this mode more for increasing my skill level in an attempt to make career mode that little bit more fun. It’s fun being able to select any of the tracks that come with the title. You also have the option to split the screen if you still need to share the console with someone in your family. With single-player, you also have the option to do free roam, which, like the academy in career, lets you have some fun whilst doing as many sick tricks as possible.

The track editor is back and like in previous years, I’m still trash, and using the feature this year, I found it was a little easier with a more intuitive interface, but I will never be hired as a track creator because I have zero creativity and can’t build supercross tracks to save my life. I looked at some of the previous years’ maps that people have created, and needless to say, I will just keep racing the bikes because I can’t build tracks at all without copying something from someone.

I was a little disappointed in the graphics this year. With the power of the current generation consoles, it feels like there could have been more detail. It would have been amazing to see more dirt particles being thrown around from the back tyres, or even the rider or bikes becoming dirty, which apart from the tyres didn’t happen. I was holding on to hope when running the tracks in the rain, wanting the riders and bikes to get covered in mud, but it just didn’t happen. In saying that, the models for both characters and bikes looked absolutely stunning, and the tracks were the best they have ever looked.

The sounds the bikes made have never sounded so good, sounding so close to being real, and I loved listening to the BRAAAAAP!! when I held the clutch in and hit the limiter. Motorbike games have come so far in the past couple of years with the sounds alone; it was always something that let them down, and this year’s title has not disappointed. There is nothing quite like hearing twelve four-stroke engines all racing around the track and hitting the limiter whilst airborne.

The background music was friendly for streaming and easy on the ears, with a bit of a punk feel to the tunes. It really gave off Supercross vibes. Something else that has come a long way is the commentary and the feel of the stadium. The commentary team made it feel like I was watching the Supercross season on TV, and didn’t sound like it was pre-recorded for a game in the slightest. The crowd sounded real and excited, which brought into the immersion of the game. The crowd cheering had me feeling like I was sitting in a stadium watching my favorite sport.

The controls feel a lot like last year, and as the good old saying goes, “If it’s not broke, don’t fix it.” The developers have done a fantastic job of replicating the feel of riding a motorbike. Every aspect of riding is wonderfully mapped, from leaning into corners and shifting your weight forwards or backwards. The controls play a huge factor in making sure you get around the track the quickest, and both my front and rear brakes got absolutely abused in each race. You need to learn how far you can lean into corners or whip the bike whilst in the air, or gravity becomes an issue and you lose the bike, either on the corner or in the air.

If you love supercross, love the sound of four-stroke dirt bikes, or love the feeling of flying through the sky, Monster Energy Supercross: The Official Videogame 6 is designed just for you. The first one I ever played was three, and the series has come a long way since those days, and hopefully, it will keep growing and drawing players year after year.

Written by: Hayden Nelson