‘Experience extreme monster truck action!’ proclaims the press blurb – and when a promotional sentence is one of the game’s highlights, you know you’re in for a bumpy ride. Whether in the stadium or out on one of this outing’s barren new exterior stages, Monster Jam’s vehicles defy your commands like snot-nosed out-takes from a brazen episode of Supernanny. Even for a PS2 game, it’s so ugly, the developers would be advised to lock it in the attic with pictures of Wayne Rooney – we’re not exaggerating (much), it really looks like a PSone game.
As for the racing itself, Monster Jam tries to mimic Burnout by rewarding you for smashing things up and driving dangerously. Unlike Burnout, however, the opponent AI is so dumb that even if you balls up massively and drive into the ocean, you’ll regain first place within seconds. Consign it to the scrap heap and be done with it.
Jul 29, 2008