If you haven't gathered by now, Monster 4X4: World Circuit is a racing title with monster trucks. The game isn't a budget title on the Wii, but it comes with a little bonus. Every copy of the title comes packed with a black plastic steering wheel. In the game, you steer your vehicle by holding the Wii remote horizontally and tilting the remote to determine whether your vehicle goes left, right or forward. The steering wheel comes with some basic instructions for assembly, and once it's all clipped together it feels like a strong extra peripheral. As a bit of a bonus, you'll also be able to use the steering wheel for future racing games, like Excite-Truck, which is pretty handy. Initially we thought that there may be a bit of an issue using the streering wheel, as the Wii remote sensor is covered up, but everything works as it should. The steering wheel may be a solid peripheral, but it's not really essential, and it's debatable whether you'll actually use the wheel every time you play the game.
Oh, it's on.
The first thing you'll notice when you jump into Monster 4X4 is just how bare everything feels. The main single player option in the game is the World Circuit mode. This is broken up into weeks, and each event takes place over a week, during which you'll get a new challenge. Generally, the objective will be to try and attain the highest position possible, but there are a few extra things in Monser 4X4 which try to challenge you a little more. Barrels which act like power-ups are located all around the track. Hitting the barrels will force them forward into your opponent, which may slow your opponents down. Unfortunately, the same thing can be done to you, so you'll never feel truly safe. You can also drive over barrels to enhance your abilities and upgrade the size of your truck; these come in very handy.
To make the game even more exciting, Ubisoft has added ramps to the tracks. If you launch over a ramp, then you can execute tricks. You pull off tricks using the Wii remote, so by pushing the remote up you’ll do a somersault, or by moving the remote to the left you’ll do a 360-degree spin. It’s pretty entertaining pulling off tricks, because you’re not just left to push a button. You’ll also be given a small speed boost when you pull off a trick or find a power-up. You can execute nitrous by pushing the Wii remote forward, but the nitrous doesn’t make much of a difference as it’s all too easy to lose control of your truck at such high speeds.
As you race through World Circuit mode, you’ll also be awarded points. Points are awarded for all manner of reasons, such as pulling off tricks, or knocking down obstacles on the track. The points are used to calculate your level, and you’ll begin at level one and work your way up. After gaining a required amount of points, you’ll level up which will in turn unlock a bonus (such as a new vehicle). Unfortunately, the points really don’t do much else, so you’re not likely to be overly concerned if you don’t score too highly.
Look at that sunset.
Controlling your monster trucks with the Wii remote is easy and becomes second nature quite quickly; that is, of course, as long as you’re not using nitrous. Sadly, the actual gameplay is rather dull, and though the developers did try to spice things up by adding nitrous, power-ups and stunts, it all feels so formulaic that you’ll rarely feel like you’re going very fast either. At one point during the game my truck became “latched” onto the environment and wouldn’t move, despite my constant shaking of the Wii remote. Alas, the only solution was to restart the race, which was highly frustrating.
If you want to take a break from World Circuit mode, there isn’t really much else to do. There's the mandatory Quick Race option, and a split-screen multiplayer mode. The game supports multiplayer for up to four players and you can choose to race or play one of three mini-games. The mini-games include Combat, Football and Vehicle Ball. As it happens, the mini games just aren’t that entertaining, and end up feeling rather tacked on.
One of Monster 4X4’s greatest crimes is in its presentation. Visually the game looks like an early PlayStation 2 title, the tracks are small and the environments are bland and clichéd. Some of the lighting can look okay at times, but overall Monster 4X4 isn’t a visually impressive game at all. Sound-wise the game is very generic, the engine noises are dull and all of the trucks sound awfully similar to each other.
Monster 4X4: World Circuit is very hard to recommend. The game doesn’t do anything to stand out and there is basically no sense of speed. If you’re desperately after a truck racing game then hold out until next month, as purchasing a budget title ten months later for full price on the Wii is, as you can probably appreciate, hard to justify. Monster 4X4 shows potential, with a few improvements such as better tracks, a faster sense of speed and better presentation, and the game had potential. Unfortunately though, Monster 4X4: World Circuit isn’t enjoyable - maybe they should have called it Monster 8X8?
You had better watch out or you may end up with a reputation of being impartial.
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