Monster Jam (Wii) Review

Monster Jam on the Nintendo Wii is a poor racing game with unworkable controls and level design that serves to frustrate the player rather than provide any sort of challenge. Based on the Monster Jam monster truck racing series from the United States, the game puts the player behind the wheel of one of 20 official Monster Jam monster trucks as they race for a chance to become the Monster Jam world champion. The selling point for the real thing is the extreme destruction and mayhem that a bunch of monster trucks crashing through an obstacle-filled circuit can wreak. Unfortunately for Monster Jam on the Wii, just getting the truck to point in the right direction is difficult enough, even without all the obstacles to complicate things.

Monster Jams problems begin with its broken controls. The game is controlled by holding the Wii-remote sideways, tilting left and right to steer and pressing the 2 button to accelerate and the 1 button to brake, similar to the control setup successfully used in off-road racing game ExciteTruck. The difference with Monster Jam is that the tilt control varies between completely unresponsive and overly touchy, leaving the player feeling disconnected from the action on screen and never in control of their vehicle.

Compounding the control problems is the tendency for the trucks to bounce off everything as if they were encased in a giant balloon. Trucks bounce around and often land with their nose pointed in a different direction, making any sort of momentum next to impossible. This is a massive problem when the game revolves around running into and over obstacles and other competitors. The trucks also handle like they are being driven over ice and precise cornering is again something that is impossible. These problems are made much worse by the tracks often narrow design. A particularly frustrating issue is found in the first track where a bridge spanning an impassable river is barely wide enough to accommodate a single truck, let alone a bunch of trucks racing for position. Inevitably the player will get bounced around by one of the other competitors and either hit the railings or end up in the river. (Note: on my first attempt to go over the bridge my truck got stuck IN the bridge and couldnt get out). The lack of a course map is another glaring problem and often makes finding the way a matter of trial and error.

Competitor AI is generally of the stick to the middle of the track variety, with very little evidence of any strategy from the computer controlled trucks. They tend to drive around in a bunch and crash into the obstacles, only accidentally interacting with the player.

Graphically the game is ok, but the Wii is certainly capable of, and has produced, far better looking off-road racing games. The frame rate is acceptable and only occasionally drops, but not to a level where it affects the gameplay too much. The trucks are modelled well and seem to be faithful to their real-life counterparts and while there is a damage system in place, it doesnt seem to have any effect on how the truck handles or performs. The sound effects and audio are average with all the noises in the right spot, but nothing that is ever going to win an award.

There are some positives to be had though, with plenty of obstacles around the courses to crash your monster truck through and a good level of mayhem and destruction to make the player feel like a part of the action. Monster Jam also packs in plenty of extras to keep players interested, including split-screen multiplayer and a host of unlockables such as new vehicles and bonus videos of the real thing. Whether or not players will stick to the game long enough to take advantage of the content is dependant on whether they can get a handle on the difficult controls and bouncy nature of the trucks. For those willing to persevere though there certainly is enough content to keep them very busy.

Racing games live and die on the ability of the player to control what their vehicle is doing on-screen and Monster Jam on the Wii fails in this most basic of requirements. Poor motion controls complicate an already bouncy and difficult to control game and no amount of over-the-top action can ever compensate. The ability to crash into and destroy objects is only fun for the player if they intend to crash into and destroy something. Crashing because it is overly difficult to control the vehicle is fun for no one. With more attention to the control scheme and less dire consequences for crashing into things, Monster Jam could easily have filled the void left in the Wiis library after ExciteTruck. In the end it is that fantastic title from Nintendo which Moster Jam will most likely be compared to, and unfortunately, the comparison will only show up the many flaws of Activisions game. With a sequel in the works, it can only be hoped that the control scheme gets some serious attention as there is potential for fun to be had. Until then, Monster Jam really wont appeal to anyone but the most hardcore of monster truck fans.