Severely lacking in some respects, but a lot of fun nonetheless! Just make sure the price is right . . .
The second option from the main menu is "Options". Here you can adjust the various levels of the game's Music Volume, Sound FX Volume, view the Credits, or Delete a Save File.
The third and final option is "High Scores". To view the best times on any given track and who holds said times, this is the option to choose.
Now let's go back to the two options you have to choose from when you select the "Race" option from the main menu. When you pick the "Head to Head" option, this will set up a local two player game (make sure to have both Wii remotes powered up or you won't be able to select this option). Once you select Head to Head each player simply chooses the truck he/she wants to race with, a race track, and the desired number of laps (minimum 1, maximum 5) and you are well, you're literally off to the races!
When you choose the "One Player" option though, you will be given three choices. The first choice is "Time Trial". Here you just choose the truck and track you want and then you are off for a few laps to see if you can set a time record.
The second choice is "Career" and this is the main mode of the game. When you originally choose this mode there is only one racing circuit available for you to take part in, the Amateur Circuit. To beat this circuit you have to complete five races (all racing circuits in Career Mode contain five races, each of which is 3 laps long) and gain enough points with your finishes to unlock the next racing circuit up. You are awarded 10 points for first place, 8 for second, 6 for third, and 4 for fourth. Each circuit has a minimum amount of points you must accrue before you can move on. In total there are four racing circuits in the game (Amateur Circuit, Pro Stock Circuit, Pro Modified Circuit, and Bigfoot Race). The last circuit, the Bigfoot Race, is actually just a one-off race of 3 laps against Bigfoot, who just happens to be sporting some mammoth tires! Career Mode is also where you gain all of the unlockable content in the game, and to do so you have to win races. You don't unlock anything by finishing second or lower, you have to win to unlock! Originally there are only three monster trucks and two race tracks for you to choose from in this game. But as you have success and win races in Career Mode you will unlock all of the additional trucks and tracks, in all there are 46 monster trucks and 16 race tracks to choose from in this game.
The third and final choice for One Player is "Practice". Here you just go out and race a track with nothing on the line. It's a good option for just exploring a track and figuring out all of the various intricacies of it so you can race it successfully in Career Mode. In Practice Mode you choose your truck, choose the race track, choose the number of laps (1-5), choose the number of opponents you want to race against (0-3), and you are good to go!
As for gameplay, the controls on this game are very simple. You hold the Wii remote on it's side and just tilt it like you would a steering wheel in order to maneuver your truck. To accelerate you hold down the 2 button, and to brake/reverse you can use either the 1 or the B button, whichever is more comfortable for you. The control pad also plays a part in this game. Right on the control pad activates your turbo function, Up on the control pad activates your repair function, and Left on the control pad activates your traction function. More on these next.
In race there are some things to watch out for as there are three different kinds of pick-ups you can obtain. The green wrench pick-up is used to repair your truck, the purple tire pick-up is used to provide extra traction for your truck, and the yellow lightning bolt pick-up provides your truck with turbo boost. Your turbo boost is a long yellow meter on the left side of the screen that fills up as you gain turbo. And the turbo pick-up is not the only way to gain turbo either. As you make your way around the track, if you run over any obstacles (cars, barrels, crates, etc.) your turbo meter will fill as you cause destruction. As for the repair and traction pick-ups, you can only store three of those pick-ups each at any given time. The repair pick-up is an important one. As you make your way through a race you will take damage when you bump and bang with other trucks and run over various obstacles. As your truck takes damage your top speed lowers accordingly, so if you take too much damage you will quickly find yourself at the back of the pack! As for the traction pick-up, it is the least important of the three and is used to help provide extra traction for more slick areas of the tracks, like when there is mud and ice.
As for the pros of this game, it's presentation is quality. The graphics/sound is really good and the controls are easy to use and perform as they should. What I also really like about the game is that it has a lot to offer in terms of unlockables, 46 trucks and 16 tracks is a more than healthy number to choose from!
Now on to the cons, and these are threefold. First, although there are a ton of trucks and tracks to choose from, this is still a very short game when all is said and done. For all intents and purposes there is only one real game mode (Career) in this game, and it only contains four racing circuits. When all four circuits can be beaten in the space of a couple hours . . . that's not enough! Even if they'd put in another decent game mode or some mini-games or something, it would have made this thing so much better! The other glaring con, and this is the only gameplay con I found, is when the trucks bump together on the track. If you are behind a truck or group of trucks, if you even so much as graze one of them when trying to pass they all start jumping all about the screen and it becomes impossible to pass! This makes it really hard to win those tougher races in the game when you start off in the back of the pack to begin with. The last con is that you cannot customize the trucks. In the other monster truck racing game I reviewed a while back you could tweak the trucks to look how you wanted, which was kind of cool. This isn't anything too important, it just would have been a nice little added feature.
As for tips I would give you on this game, there are a couple. First, in reference to the above issue I just talked about, bide your time and pick your spots. Don't try and pass a group of trucks on the first lap of the race only to take a bunch of damage and then end up in fourth spot anyways! Bide your time, stay close, and on the third lap make the moves you have to, preferably on straightaways when the chance of collisions can be lessened. The other recommendation I would make is to gain as many pick-ups as possible and then save some for the last lap. A lot of times you can be running fourth all race but if you save a couple repair pick-ups and some turbo for the last lap you can make a big move on the final straight away and steal away the win!
Overall this is still a decent monster truck racing game, the main issue is that it is just way too short! The other cons are overlookable, but the length of this game is severely lacking. It's still a lot of fun and worth the purchase, especially if you can get some two player enjoyment out of it, just don't overpay for this sucker!