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Monster Jam Showdown received its Doctorate in Fun from the University of Roaring Engines and Bent Metal. It is, intentionally, an anti-subtle game. That’s not to say it’s a crude one. There’s real artistry on display here, although that artistry is often T-boning you at speed as you Big Air across a gap. This isn’t Forza, and details can get lost in the speed blur. If you like your trucks big, loud, and generally monstrous, Monster Jam Showdown is the Red Bull and espresso cocktail you’ve been waiting for. With a history of MotoGP and Hot Wheels games, Milestone understands racing. Showdown is about showing off.
Monster Jam Showdown Review
With 10 unique game modes, numerous real and fictional tracks, three biomes, and a ton of iconic trucks, Monster Jam Showdown goes as hard as its name. With fast, flashy events (many of which you can tear through in just a couple of minutes), MJS sometimes feels like a collection of diesel-powered minigames. It’s a game that embraces its arcadey nature, making jumping into the cab and stomping the gas (solo or with friends) a pleasure. Even if you don’t count yourself among the Big Tires and Big Dreams crowd, these titantic trucks might win you over with their blitz of adrenaline.
Story: Three Lands to Conquer
Monster Jam Showdown has no story to speak of, but it doesn’t just throw you blind into multiplayer, either. The game features a freeform campaign (the Showdown Tour) that takes you through three distinct locations: Death Valley, Colorado, and Alaska. Each includes dozen of events, featuring all 10 game modes, including Head-to-Head and Freestyle. The former is a small circuit race to the finish, while the latter is a Tony Hawk-style combo competition. Both highlight exactly what makes MJS special: the trucks themselves.
You’ll climb to the top in one of 40 trucks (with 26 more coming after the base game in free or paid DLC), proving your skills at every stage. You aren’t customizing and following a rising star the way you might Madden, but your journey still feels somewhat personal. You’re free to pick your way through the three biomes more or less how you please, so you’ll have a different Monster Jam Showdown experience than every other player. Will you go all in on clearing Colorado before touching Death Valley and Alaska? Will you favor stadiums or the wild? Which of the 140 liveries will you pick?
Gameplay: Power and Impact
If Expeditions is a game about being a careful driver, maintaining balance while avoiding collisions, Monster Jam Showdown is its evil twin. It’s about all-caps IMPACT: the lurch off the starting line, the unhinged rocketry as your boosters kick in, and the soul-jittering collision of professional daredevils earning their paychecks. Its 10 modes have different objectives, obstacles, and arenas, but the feeling never changes from mission to mission. That consistency, whether you’re doing donuts for a 14x multiplier or ramming your prey off the road, is worth its weight in diesel.
You’ll face off in baseball stadiums, speedways, and football fields, as well as a range of outdoor courses. Varying climates and weather influence driving conditions, but your main foe isn’t Mother Nature: it’s the horde of snarling six-tons bearing down on your bumper. Rival trucks can be quite the menace at higher difficulty levels. The lowest difficulty, meanwhile, offers a strong guiding hand to ensure every player has a chance, a substantial move toward keeping the game accessible to all.
The 10 game modes range from classics like Best Trick and Circuit Racing to oddballs like Horde and Treasure Hunting. I’m a sucker for Figure 8 Racing. The constant threat of a race-ending wreck as the pack widens gets me every time. Still, every mode is good enough to have its fans. Although you could just play your favorites on repeat like that one song you just got unstuck from your head, I had more fun treating the campaign like Mario Party. That’s not to say there isn’t depth, just that the short, varied matches invite the party treatment.
Overall, the trucks handle the way you’d want. My pet peeve is the magnetic sticking effect that occurs during some collisions. It feels like it fuses you to your rival’s bumper until you ease up on the acceleration. As far as I can tell, it’s a consequence of the game’s generous assisted driving features. You can disable these or customize them to your liking, but it’s pretty jarring until you do. The sticking effect and other oddities happened enough to irritate me, though they never outright spoiled a race, and they largely disappeared when I started tweaking settings.
Graphics & Audio: Grit, Gravel, and Engine Growls
The dirt ramp ahead wells up like like a tidal wave, threatening to crush you. As you drift through the Alaskan snow, flakes of it melting on your windshield and blurring your view, you punch the boost. Vendetta surges forward, 66″ tires churning the wet earth to slop. Your engine screams as you launch into the air. The purple-and-yellow obstacles hanging over the gap explode as your grille drives through them, adding boost fuel to your reserves. By the time you touch down, your engine is ready to scream again.
If you’re having trouble picking your game of the year in the Driving and Racing category, Monster Jam Showdown‘s audio may simplify your decision. These crunches echo up from depths that whales and krakens rule. I have twenty-odd years of FPS gameplay under my belt, and I can count on one hand the number of grenades and rockets that have sounded as aggressive as these engines. If I played at max volume I would fear awakening eldritch gods and blowing out my speakers. That’s a compliment, if it doesn’t sound like one.
Destructible obstacles blow apart like cartoon cardboard. Your engine does this “rev it to infinity” thing when you hit a big jump or otherwise impress the ghost of Evel Knievel. Everything about the premise, SFX, and physicality of Monster Jam Showdown is bombastic in a Boss Nass way. The bigness and loudness never get in the way of its charm. Almost never. Engine noises are too loud compared to the surrounding audio, at least to my ears. Thankfully, the audio settings are generous, letting you crank the announcer or muffle engines as you like.
That UE5 lighting puts in work, as do the particle effects. It’s a shame that there isn’t a wider collection of destructibles, since the actual destruction is great. Shredded liveries, busted panels, and barricades-turned-shrapnel sell every impact. That said, it doesn’t offer the most in the way of structural deformity. Then again, a big selling point of monster trucks is that they don’t crunch like a stomped can of tuna fish when they hit something. For satisfying crunches, I’d give it a 3.5/5 Red Factions.
Conclusions: Podium-Worthy
I experienced no crashes and few bugs during my playthrough. MJS is the video game equivalent of smashing two Tonka trucks together, and that’s exactly as it should be. There’s 1-8 player online multiplayer (and 2-player split screen) and a leaderboard for competitive types. There’s also full air control and other accessibility features. The point? Getting in and churning some mud feels natural even for a so-so digital driver like me. Like the trucks it celebrates, Monster Jam Showdown is a rocket-powered brick on four wheels. Give it some gas, and get out of the way.
Monster Jam Showdown (PC Reviewed)
A down and dirty arcade experience, Monster Jam Showdown is showy and bombastic in all the best ways.
Pros
- High octane acrcade action
- Fantastic audio design
- Plentiful modes
Cons
- Truck handling can be dodgy
- SFX could be better balanced
- Limited collection of destructibles
