When I saw I had the chance to review a game developed by Teyon, I was a bit nervous. You may not recognize them by name, but you’ve no doubt heard of the atrocity that is Rambo: The Video Game. Thankfully, I played a bit of their most recent title, Terminator: Resistance, and found it to be quite the upgrade in quality and enjoyment. While their history is a mixed bag, I took the risk and installed their newest offering, Monster Truck Championship.

The first thing I noticed is that, while covering a niche sport, it doesn’t appear to be an officially-licensed title associated with any brands, like my recently-reviewed Tennis World Tour 2 (also published by Nacon.) Nevertheless, with a publisher that has also provided us with recent racing games like WRC 8 and Tour De France 2020, it’s no-doubt going to undergo a check for quality to ensure it isn’t an inherently under-developed title.

Monster Truck Championship begins with a lengthy tutorial on driving, menu navigation, and how the game works. It doesn’t miss a step, ensuring that the game will be fully-understandable to anyone who picks it up. Career mode will be where you spend your time racing, and in-between races, you’ll manage your truck’s performance by hiring team members and tinkering in the game’s garage. Not only confined to upgrades, you can also customize how your truck looks with a beefy editor and some pretty bang-up designs. Teyon spent a good deal of time here, and that deserves some recognition.

The variety of events in career mode is what keeps the game from being stale. First, there’s the obvious race, which will see you rushing to the finish line against seven other trucks. Then, there’s drag-racing, which pits you one-on-one against a competitor in a mirror match. Lastly, there’s a compelling freestyle/destruction mode, having you pull off tricks and destroying port-a-potties, cars, and trailers in a Tony Hawk-style run.

Going from event to event is a cinch, with quick load times and different tracks/courses to enjoy in-between. Driving a monster truck takes a lot of practice, and it took me a few races to really get a feel for how the steering handled. The ongoing difficulty-curve between leagues is nice, warranting the player takes the right sponsorships to unlock better parts for purchase. However, I found the hum-drum of doing event after event monotonous after an hour of playtime on average – it’s tough to binge a game like this that is confined to three event types.

I’ve noticed that the majority of Nacon’s games lack replayability, but I don’t think that will be the case with Monster Truck Championship. It’s definitely a product whose multiplayer will be a blast, provided it gets active enough to have a large player base. The voracious engines and filthy mud make it an easy suggestion for anyone into the events, but also an easy pass for those who favor more arcadey racers like Mario Kart. I didn’t expect to enjoy Monster Truck Championship as much as I did, but I’ll be finishing up the final league in no time!

A PC review copy of Monster Truck Championship was provided by Nacon for this review.

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Monster Truck Championship

39.99

8

Score

8.0/10

Pros

• Controls/performs great
• Excellent sound design
• Comprehensive garage

Cons

• Only fun in short bursts
• PS2 crowd