Monster Jam: Maximum Destruction Review - VGLN.com PS2 Reviews

Is Monster Jam worth it's weight in metal and rubber? Find out in our full review.

When the original Playstation was released in 1994, an action/racing game known as “Destruction Derby” was one of the console's early titles. It was wildly popular due to the hectic pacing of its races, and the enjoyably destructive multiplayer mode that allowed a free for all crash fest between A.I and human players to see who’s car could ultimately stand the test of repeated collisions. Since those early days however, there has not been a real contender to take the reigns of where Destruction Derby left off. Enter Monster Jam: Maximum Destruction.

If it’s fast, precise, power sliding, fast accelerating sports cars you want, check out Project Gotham for the Xbox, if its crushing, painful crashing, hard impact battle racing you want, perhaps Monster Jam is for you.

Monster Jam: MD is an easy game to get into. It’s not complex at all, just choose from the over 26 real life licensed crunch machines available and your off. Some of the easily recognizable cares include Grave Digger, a famous truck from TNN. Each truck has a variety of stats including horsepower, acceleration, and top speed. You’ll find that each truck doesn’t greatly differ from the other in any terms so picking the one that looks coolest to you seems to be the deciding factor in what truck you pick. Once you pick your truck, you have three options. Exhibition Mode is a single match between you and a friend or 3 A.I trucks. This can either be Death Match (ram and shoot the other trucks until you win), Cash Crab which involves picking up power ups, or Points, which involves destroying the most stuff in the stage to win. Season Mode is a single player mode that allows you to compete in a season against 3 other A.I trucks in a mix of the previously described events. The one who scores the best throughout the season is the champion. The third and final mode is mini-game mode. This allows you to pick and choose various mini-games from the full game and play them against either a friend of A.I opponents.

Yes those are humvees in the foreground...

The single player mode is fun for a while, but it can get repetitive. While death matching against other trucks using a variety of weapons and crushing techniques sounds fun, it can get old after a while. It’s has nothing to do with the environments the stages are set in which can include the inside of a city, or steaming volcano. It’s just that there is only so much someone can do while fighting inside a truck. Even with all the weapons and powerups, the game cannot hope to match the death matching of a first person shooter such as Quake. For these reasons, the developers of Monster Jam should’ve emphasized what is unique and fun to action/racing, the hectic racing part of the genre. It’s apparent just by playing the mini-games that shades of this exist in the form of the “Canyon Race” game that requires you and your opponent(s) to traverse a winding canyon and getting to the finish line by any means necessary, shortcuts and more. The other form of racing is called the “Stadium Race” which is racing within the confines of boundaries inside a stadium, and that’s it. Yes, there are 26 license trucks but only 2 racing stages. If that sounds odd to you, trust us, you aren’t alone.

Monster Jam gets high marks in the visuals department though. Each truck is painstakingly detailed and the models look very clean. There is even a viewing mode to look at the truck models to your hearts delight, including the 10 hidden trucks you can unlock during season mode. The game runs at a very good frame rate and we didn’t notice any major clipping problems, or graphic glitches. Overall, a very good looking game.

Controls for the game are fairly intuitive with steering performed by either the analog or digital pad, and the R1 trigger button providing the gas. That’s about all you need to know to play the game. It doesn’t have the complexity of Tekken, but then again for this genre, that’s a good thing.

In the end, Monster Jam: Maximum Destruction isn’t going to make big waves like the grandfather of the genre, Destruction Derby did, however it has some redeeming qualities of its own. The mini-games are highly addictive, especially the racing modes. The death match modes are fun as well, but lose a lot in single player mode, especially with extended play. In fact, it might not be too far of a push to say that Monster Jam: Maximum Destruction is a good multiplayer game(even with only 2 players), but only an average single player game. Rent before you buy.

--- Jolex Del Pilar,"The Wild Thang"

	Gameplay: [6.0] Good multiplayer action, so-so single player gameplay.
	Graphics: [8.0] Clean visuals and hardly a glitch to be found.
	Sound: [5.5] Nice sound effects, wish there was more music and variety.
	Presentation: [5.0] Slick menus, but where's the country music and wild and crazy crowd?
	Replay Value: [6.5] Multiplayer mode is fun, although it only supports 2 players...
	Global Score: [6.2] Monster Jam: Maximum Destruction will fit the fancy of most Monster Truck fans, others may look elsewhere for their hectic, racing, death match fun.

Click here for an explaination of our "hit and miss"rating system.

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