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Monster Jam has arrived on European Xbox360’s
with rather less than a bang. With very little press coverage thus
far and the only retail interest coming in the form of what
 appears
to be the beginning of the Current-Generations true budget-title
line-up; in-fact, a “mild thump” could possibly be more appropriate.
But with the Xbox360’s ever-increasing – increasingly youthful –
userbase, there could well be room for titles along the lines of
Monster Jam.
The title never once fools itself. Knowing its own
ambitions and presenting itself as an out-and-out Monster Truck
game, Monster Jam has a key audience immediately available
and disfavoured on the Xbox360. For those unaware of the celebrity
status of Grave Digger and Monster Mutt, Monster Jam is tidy
enough to introduce you swiftly.
The game features four locations (plus a much shorter
final), each of which holds several Events based on varying tracks
across these locations. The Events are pre-selected from Circuit
Race, Eliminator, Freestyle, Stadium Racing, Stadium Circuit, and
placing third or above will allow access to the next. The variety of
tracks is surprising, and the Events themselves are mostly
enjoyable. The Freestyle Events will no doubt grab the most
attention, asking the player to link stunts together in an arena to
lead a scoreboard. Unfortunately, the Scoring System for these
Events is simply broken, requiring the player to do or better a
fixed result rather than achieve their own record breaking
performance. Add to this the obvious lack of judgement on behalf of
the game, failing to register Wheelies and Airtime stunts with
regular frequency, and one of the title’s most promising aspects is
simply a missed opportunity.
Destructible objects litter the tracks, acting similarly
to that of FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage’s debris; increasing
score and Boost Meter. The Boost System is similar to that seen in
Wii’s
ExciteTruck, although here smashing objects will prevent
overheating, as opposed to airtime and driving through water. The
distinction between what can and can’t be ploughed through is quite
slight at times; while a water tower holds no threat to your
marauding truck, and pylon of similar construction is an entirely
different prospect.
The title doesn’t feature an XboxLIVE! component.
While this may surprise many of you, it’s obviously a reflection of
the title’s budget and expectedly low sales peak. An attempt to
resolve the situation is offered in the form of four-player
Split-Screen Multi-player, and while
Electronic Theatre applauds the inclusion of such an
obvious, yet often forgotten gameplay mode, Monster Jam’s is
nothing to write home about. A simple single-Event affair, a “slight
distraction” is the best that could be attributed to the feature.
Most comparisons for Monster Jam will be – unfairly – drawn
against SONY and Nintendo’s flagship titles, MotorStorm and
ExciteTruck. While lacking the depth of
MotorStorm’s track deformation and vehicle variety, and
removing staple mechanisms such as mid-air pitch control
 and
water dampening from ExciteTruck’s formula, Monster Jam
never intends to offer a genre-leading performance; instead
seeming content in knowing that it was never going to achieve AAA
status, and is all the better for it. A comfortable package released
at a comparatively comfortable price-point, if more titles adopted a
more realistic ambition, perhaps we’d see less of the likes of
Iron Man and
The Incredible Hulk: The Official Videogame.
Clearly based upon a build from a previous generation of hardware,
Monster Jam will never compete to be the best demonstration
of the Xbox360’s power. However, it does outperform the
Previous-Generation of hardware with ease, as well some as early
Xbox360 titles. The title’s soundtrack features a predictable
selection of disposable videogame Metal and annoyingly repetitive
commentary.
Monster Jam doesn’t try to break any new ground. And it
doesn’t. Instead offering a well presented package at a budget price
for a definite market, Monster Jam will satisfy most who play
it, even if that’s a significantly smaller portion of the
Current-Generation pie than Activision had planned.
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