‘Monster Energy Supercross: The Official Videogame’ Review (PS4)
The official spiel of Monster Energy Supercross: The Official Videogame reads like this: “Live the adrenaline of the 2017 Monster Energy Supercross Championship with the official videogame. Race on the official tracks with the official riders from 250SX and 450SX to take part in an exciting racing competition!”
In reality that description couldn’t be further from the truth…
From the get-go Monster Energy Supercross: The Official Videogame has huge problems. You’d think that developers Milesone, who also put out the MXGP franchise – another motorcross series, would have managed to parlay their years of experience into making some of the premier racing titles on the planet. When in fact Monster Energy Supercross: The Official Videogame feels like the very first game from an inexperienced developer who’s struggling to translate the sport of motor/supercross into a video game!
Let’s take it step-by-step: Booting up Monster Energy Supercross: The Official Videogame the first thing you notice it the terrible presentation! No music, minimal graphics and long pauses that are a mix of constant server access and one of the many, and frequent, loading screens. Worst of all, the game doesn’t even tell you what’s going on! There’s a huge pause in the start of the game where players are left hanging without any knowledge of why. That lack of information extends into the game itself. In the antithesis of good gaming, Monster Energy Supercross: The Official Videogame throws players in at the deep end, with no tutorial, and not a clue as to what button does what – its a case of mash the joypad and see what works. Which, frankly, is ridiculous in this day and age of “no manual” gaming.
But back to that frequent loading… Which only gets worse the more and more you play the game. But it gets even worse! Start a level and be prepared to wait up to five minutes before the level loads up…and that’s even when playing Monster Energy Supercross: The Official Videogame via a digital download and not a disc! In this day and age of gaming this is not a situation gamers should have to be dealing with. But hey at least you won;t play the game long enough for the loading times to be too much of an issue – a couple of plays of the game and you’ll be put off enough never to play them game again.
Yes, because on top of the terrible presentation, long load times and total lack of information, Monster Energy Supercross: The Official Videogame also features terrible controls and completely inconsistent physics – which means that career progression is stifled, learning the lay of the courses is wasted: as each time you pull off a move the results will change – land a huge jump and keep riding one minute, the next your bike will veer off course and you’ll end up driving through a barrier and off-course. That’s even if you can keep your bike under control in the first place, the control system is as inconsistent as the physics – your bike never feels totally under your control at ANY point in a race. It’s like hitting the throttle (though you’ll have to guess which button is actually the throttle first) and wishing for the best.
Not the best way to play a game. Especially when other racing games of this generation (Forza Horizon etc.) have the experience down pat… But hey, at least the graphics look good. ‘Cause that’s key to the success of any game, right? Even die-hard supercross fans will stuggle to take anything positive from this. Avoid. Or, if you’re still REALLY interested in the game, at least wait till the day it becomes free as part of PS Plus.
Monster Energy Supercross: The Official Videogame is now available in stores and on digital for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Windows PC/Steam, and Nintendo Switch.