Monster Trucks are often looked down upon by some fans of more traditional motorsport. However, those that have watched the tournaments for these beasts will attest to the level of fun and excitement that they produce.
We reviewed the PS4, Xbox One and PC versions of Monster Truck Championship over on RealSport101, but the game is also on Nintendo Switch!
How does the Switch version compare to the other consoles? Keep reading to find out!
Mixed Gameplay
As is usually the case when it comes to Switch games that are ported in from other systems, the graphics are nothing to write home about. But that doesn't take away too much.
Let's start with the positives, beginning with the monster trucks' unique handling characteristics. If you drive one of these trucks like you would a racing car, you'll be in big trouble.
They're very easy to roll, which comes in handy for some events, but it will be your enemy when in races. The trucks are fitted with four-wheel steering, something that you often don't see in other types of vehicle.
The overall aim of the game is to become World Monster Trucks Champion. To do this, you'll compete in events around the world to defeat your opponents and become the number one ranked monster trucker.
These events range from races, to drag racers to stunt events and it's good to see the variety on show. However, these do get repetitive after a while and the difficulty of the AI isn't high.
Even inexperienced truckers can beat the hard difficulty AI pretty quickly after the learning all the tricks. Speaking of which, there's a very handy element to aid you with that.
Practice Makes Perfect
Where Monster Trucks Championship really shines is its Training mode. Monster Trucks are very different to cars and very hard to handle, so these training events really help.
We highly recommend you dive into these and do as many as possible before starting your first tournament.
Something else that's impressive is the customisation model. It's not quite retro NFS levels, but the variety of options is admirable and certainly allows you to forge your own identity on your truck.
Stuttering Engine
Sadly, we aren't referring to the engine of the trucks, although this game's damage model does make the longer races more challenging.
Monster Trucks Championship's game engine struggles when a lot of the field is in-frame, usually at the start of races. This makes the frame rate drop to about five per second for a few seconds.
In this day and age, that's not good and it'll presumably get worse the more you play and the more your save file expands.
It's a similar story for rendering textures, as you'll often see grand stands or distant objects jarringly pop-in. This really doesn't help the immersion factor.
What also doesn't help immersion is that the game doesn't tell you to get a sponsor before going into your first tournament. Imagine a top-level motorsport team turning up without stickers because they forgot. It just wouldn't happen.
Finally, there's no offline multiplayer, which is a huge shame because this game is meant for friends to be crashing into each other and flipping themselves over.
Verdict
Overall, Monster Truck Championship is a fun time, but it's not helped by the port to Switch. The PS4 and Xbox One versions are noticeably better in both performance and appearance.
The game is enjoyable, but isn't enticing enough to warrant multiple playthroughs. If you a fan of Monster Trucks though, and you only have a Switch at your disposal, this is the game for you!
RealSport Rating: 3.5 stars (out of 5)