Monster Jam Steel Titans - Video Game Overview

Details on THQ Nordic's latest video game.

If you're a fan of Monster Energy Supercross, then you've probably heard of or watched Monster Jam before. It's another series run by FELD Entertainment and generally a television broadcast of it will directly follow a Supercross race. Instead of dirt bikes, though, Monster Jam is all about monster trucks. These huge trucks compete in both racing and freestyle competition at each event on the calendar. This is what THQ Nordic's latest game, Monster Jam Steel Titans, is all about. They were kind enough to send me over a copy to test out, so I figured I'd do a general overview what all is in the game. This isn't a full review, but you will find some brief thoughts of mine at the bottom of the article. Let's jump in.  

Like any racing game these days, you aren't just thrown into racing right away. You will have to complete a tutorial that I found to be short and to the point. This, unsurprisingly, is not a very hard game to get used to, but the tutorial will give you a pretty good idea of what all you'll be able to do with the monster trucks. Once you get past the tutorial, you are able to roam around a fairly large open world area. This has become pretty common with racing games released by Rainbow Studios and Milestone, and it is basically what you'd expect. There's plenty of open space just to mess around in, and there are jumps and walls set up so you can practice tricks. But this is also when you unlock the ability to play individual events or start your career, which is the bread and butter of this game. 

If you've played the newer MX vs ATV video games, you're going to notice some similarities between the game modes of those games and Monster Jam Steel Titans. The Quick Play events of this game, while not exactly the same as the MX vs ATV series, do share many of the same modes and the career is structured in a similar way as well. Let's dive into what all you can do in these two modes. 

Quick Play is exactly what you'd expect. Instead of playing a combination of events in one series like you will in Career Mode, you can play any event in the game as many times as you want. The events that are available in this mode are Head-To-Head, Circuit Racing, Rhythm, Waypoint, Freestyle, Two-Wheel Skills, Timed Destruction, and Freeride. Some of these modes have more arena/track choices than others (Circuit Racing only has two tracks, while Freestyle has 18 courses), but overall there's quite a bit of content to play around with without having to play through the whole career mode. 

As for the Career Mode, I wouldn't go in expecting an extremely detailed story and progression system like some games have these days. It's a pretty simple mode in this game. There are six series to play through and try to win, but you have to finish in a certain position in each series before you can move to the next. Each series includes a variety of events that you'll compete in, with each one paying out championship points. The series available in this mode are Outdoor Racing, Arena Trials, Arena Championship, Stadium Trials, Stadium Championship, and World Championship. So, as you can probably tell, each time you move on to a new series you're essentially taking a step up both in fame and difficulty. Along the way, you'll accrue currency which you can use to unlock new part upgrades for your truck. You'll also unlock all 25 monster trucks as you progress through the game. You can find gameplay of the Career Mode and some other events in the video below.

 


As for my thoughts so far, this is exactly what I'd expect and want from a Monster Jam video game. It keeps things simple, streamlined, and not overly difficult to complete. The trucks are a little hard to control at times, but a player of any skill level will get used to it within a few minutes of starting the game. There are also some details that surprised me, like the ability to upgrade different parts of the trucks and how the trucks can sustain damage during some events. And while I've never been a huge fan of the series, I found myself enjoying this game more than I expected to. Unsurprisingly, I ended up enjoying the Circuit Racing, Waypoint, and Rhythm modes the most as those are the closest to the racing games I'd usually play. Still, I had fun with all of the modes that I experimented with. And while the content included in this game won't keep an adult entertained for months on end, it is a solid game for what it is. This won't shock anyone, but if you have a kid that is really into monster trucks right now...this is the game to get them. It's also just a fun game that fans of Monster Jam will enjoy for a bit. 

For more info, visit MonsterJamGame.com.

You can also purchase the game here. 

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