It's not perfect, but this the first monster truck game in nearly a decade that's actually worth playing....

User Rating: 6.5 | Monster Jam X360
The Good: Freestyle and Stadium Racing modes are available, and they work pretty well; Good roster of trucks, Racing is just like FlatOut, Good graphics; World Finals Freestyle is the highlight of the game...

The Bad: Lack of realism in stadium events; Announcer can get pretty annoying; Missing some well-known monster trucks; Small amount of stadium events....


Monster trucks are cool. Everyone loves monster trucks, right? Well, for the past few years, game developers obviously didn't. The fact is, many people do not want a realistic monster truck game. Most little kids want Grave Digger destroying everything in its path, and that's what monster truck games have been for the past few years. They've been crap, and unless you liked the Twisted Metal series, you probably put the game away and went "WTF was that?!?!?!"

Thankfully, Monster Truck Madness 2 (which came out in 1998) had a fairly robust add-on community that is still constantly pumping out replica trucks from the Monster Jam tour, as well as realistic tracks from probabaly every era of Monster Trucks. The game even supported online racing, so a lot of leagues are trying to replicate the Monster Jam series, as well as other Monster Truck series, such as the MLMT and the now extinct PENDA Racing Series.

However, there has never been any proper Monster Jam game yet. MTM2 is great, but if you don't know how to download and install custom trucks and tracks, the game doesn't really have any lasting appeal.

This new Monster Jam game made by Activision, is the first attempt at a serious monster truck game since 1998. Other monster truck games have went for the "Generic Circuit Racer" genre, but this is the first one with actual stadium racing and freestyle. No, it's not rock-solid realism, but it's the closest thing you'll get to an actual monster truck show for a long time.

Monster Jam features 20 real monster trucks, 9 actual stadiums, and 12 circuit tracks. The circuit racing is pretty much like FlatOut, and there are a lot of huge jumps and things to destroy. It's pretty average monster truck action, but the graphics are nice, there's a ton of stuff to destroy, and the action is pretty intense. Like I said, it's pretty much exactly like FlatOut, so if you liked FlatOut, you'll be satisfied with the racing portion of the game.

The stadium racing, while totally unrealistic, is pretty neat, and a lot of courses are well-designed. Basically, the stadium portion of the game is seperated into three parts: Stadium Racing, Stadium Circuit, and Freestyle. Stadium Racing is just like an actual Monster Jam event. However, in this game, a lot of the courses include jumps that would simply never be built on a real monster jam circuit, but oh well. The courses are fun, without being too over the top, and the AI on the highest difficulty setting puts up a good fight, with occasional mistakes. Stadium Circuit is just like the Crossover Races in Europe, with lanes that connect to each other, and you have to finish a complete lap to finish the race. It's a pretty neat race mode, and it is a lot longer than the realistic stadium races.

Freestyle puts you in a big arena with a lot of massive obstacles, and you get points for hitting everything, and basically going crazy. The physics are changed a bit to allow a ton of flips and wheelies, but it's still pretty cool. The obstacles aren't exactly realistic, with massive cargo planes and ships in some of the arenas, but it works. I'm all for a realistic monster truck game, but it's neat just to go wild and pull off a bunch of crazy flips and stuff. There are going to be some people who don't like it, and think it's unrealistic, but once you reach the World Finals in Las Vegas, the Freestyle portion is extremely realistic, and the layout is pretty close to the actual World Finals stadium. Sure, the physics are a bit crazy, but it works.

The main mode of the game is the Championship, where you go through four tiers of challenges, with nine races in each of them. Basically, you play through five circuit races, and four stadium events. Get at least 3rd in all of them, and you unlock the next tier. Finish all four tiers, and you unlock the World Finals, which is just two short Stadium events. The championship mode is short, but it doesn't overstay its welcome at all.

If you're looking for a realistic Monster Truck game, go and find MTM2, but for what its worth, Monster Jam is a decent attempt at catering for both the little kids looking for a romp around the countryside in Grave Digger, as well as for the diehard fans who want a straight simulation. It's a good balance of both arcade and sim, and it works well in almost every aspect. It's not the holy grail of monster truck games that we've been waiting for, but it is worth a look, because it's the first monster truck game in a very long time that's actually worth playing.