I’m not sure about the rest of you, but when I was a kid, I thought that driving monster trucks was the coolest job you could get. I’m now well into being an adult and my mind has not changed, and I don’t see it ever changing. Driving monster trucks is still the coolest job. Milestone has made it so that I can kind of experience this with Monster Jam: Showdown, so now you can get behind the wheel of your favourite truck, whether that be Grave Digger, El Toro Loco, or Monster Mutt.

The developers haven’t held back with this title, and they will be releasing the game with 40 of your favourite monster trucks. They’re also offering an additional 26 coming in premium or free DLC, which is absolutely mental, and 140 liveries, so you can make your truck a little different from your friends.

Tracks have been split between three different locations; Death Valley, Alaska, and Colorado, and these are broken down into Circuit races, Figure-8 races, and stadium shows, with the main entertainment complexes being represented in-game. I was super impressed by how the arenas had variation as well, as it kept the game feeling really fresh.

The main game mode is Monster Jam Showdown, a single-player campaign where you select one of the three environments, further broken down into all the smaller game modes which are super addictive and fun to play, and this is how you unlock new monster trucks.

There are locked behind challenges, such as winning a certain number of races. You’ll also unlock liveries for your trucks, as well as “boss” challenges, where you can unlock more popular tucks like Grave Digger. The main game modes in Monster Jam Showdow are Freestyle, which is where drivers have two minutes to show off what their trucks can do, and the ever-popular Head-to-Head races, where two trucks will compete on a small course, complete with jumps and the occasional car to roll over.

What you don’t often see in Monster Jam are the Circuit races, which basically explains itself, and Horde and Survivor modes. Survivor Mode is something that will be coming in post-release, so we didn’t have a chance to try it out, but it’s effectively described as a demolition derby, where the last player driving wins. Horde mode is racing with a twist. When the timer runs out, the driver in last place joins the Horde, and if a Horde driver manages to overtake another player, they too join the Horde. You’ll also have access to some additional game modes, such as Extreme versions of Head to Head and Freestyle, where you’ll encounter bigger jumps and destructible objects to smash through, and Treasure Hunting, where two teams will compete to secure and steal treasure.

These are lots of fun to play, helping to break up the gameplay a little and giving you a break from the standard arena races, and they’re all super simple to get into. As an added bonus, once you have done them all a couple of times, you feel like a boss if you win and take home the gold.

One thing you will notice when you start unlocking trucks is that it’s not just a copy-and-paste situation. Each truck is suited to different scenarios, and this is reflected by their statistics. For example, Grave Digger might be great at Freestyling, but Monster Mutt might be better used in Figure 8 races, and El Toro Loco is the best at circuit racing. This really encouraged you to unlock and use more trucks, getting a feel for how they all handle, and considering they’re all powered by V8 engines, they all handle beautifully.

As we were given pre-release access, I was, unfortunately, unable to try out the online multiplayer, and playing single-player, I found the AI to be somewhat disappointing. If you so much as touched their paint, they would slam on their brakes and go super slow. It became a chore to get around them as big cars tend to take up a lot of the track, so hopefully, this can be changed in a future update.

Until then, I am definitely keen to jump back in and give online play a go, even if I will be slapped around by other drivers. They’re planning on having cross-play support for previous and current-gen consoles, as well as PC, including private lobbies and online leaderboards, and if you’ve got someone at home to play with, the good old split screen action is back.

If you have played racing games before, controls will feel very familiar to you, and they can be modified to make them as basic or as advanced as you desire. They’ve also included some accessibility options, assisting younger or less capable people, such as assisted dual steering, which automatically controls the rear-wheel steering, Freestyle Aids to help perform some of the amazing tricks you might see on TV or at a show you can make the game super simple with things like aerial movement, and Full Air Control, letting you control the vehicle as you fly through the air to catch that perfect landing.

If you are like me, you don’t like running assists, you’ll quickly learn how difficult several tonnes of steel and rubber can be to control in the air, but as frustrating as it might be it adds a touch of realism to the game.

Something about hitting the limiter in a 1500-horsepower supercharged V8 Monster Truck gets me going, and with this in mind, I played the game at full volume, all so I could listen to the engine roar as I threw the truck into some mental tricks.

If the growl of a huge V8 isn’t your thing, let’s face it, you’re playing the wrong game, but the backing music features some great-sounding electronic dance tracks, really helping to get you amped and excited to perform those awesome stunts. Freestyle mode also makes use of some amazing commentary, really helping to push you to try out some new tricks. Some people might say it feels too much like an arcade racing game, but it’s supposed to be, and if I can toot my own horn for a moment, I have mastered backflips.

There is one thing I am a little upset about, and that is not having a first-person perspective. I would have liked to have been able to sit in the driver’s seat to experience what they do. There are several different camera views, including a front-of-truck camera, but nothing from the driver’s perspective, and with how beautiful the game is, I was surprised this was not an option. If you look past that point, the game was absolutely stunning, and I loved every minute of it. Everything from the small details on the trucks, the user interface, and the environmental details felt alive, almost as though you could reach out and touch it.

This is all thanks to the use of Unreal Engine 5. You’d kick up clouds of dust in Death Valley, race through snow storms in Alaska, and slip and slide through muddy trails in Colorado. Vehicles take damage, and it is represented beautifully on the models, and objects are torn to pieces as you smash into them. It was all amazing.

Monster Jam: Showdown was made for fans of giant trucks and mayhem. Young or old, it screams out to the petrol-head in us all, with a perfect mix of Airbourne madness and racing through different environments, smashing through whatever you can. Detailed trucks, pumping music, and the roar of a supercharged V8 will keep you to keep you entertained for hours, and who knows, we might see each other online at some point, and we’ll have to see who can pull the biggest tricks.

Written by: Hayden Nelson