Monster Truck Madness (Game Boy Advance) review "Monster Truck Madness is a relatively unknown title with a number of merits. It has good graphics, pretty good draw distance, authentic monster trucks, and smooth frame rates. If anyone is interested in a fun pick up and play monster truck game, you will definitely want to check this one out. Monster Truck Madness is the definitive GBA monster truck racing game. "

Monster Truck Madness is a relatively unknown title with a number of merits. It has good graphics, pretty good draw distance, authentic monster trucks, and smooth frame rates. If anyone is interested in a fun pick up and play monster truck game, you will definitely want to check this one out. Monster Truck Madness is the definitive GBA monster truck racing game.

Graphics

Definitely the strong point of this game. Never before have I seen a racing game on the GBA with such large and detailed polygonal vehicles. Each monster truck is very distinguishable, and all of them are authentic. The trucks even get damaged as they race on and hit more obstacles. The damage is real time, and you can notice your truck getting continuously more and more crumpled up as the races go on. The locales look just as well. You’ll be tearing up warm sandy beaches, muddy dirt bowls, cramped junkyards, and grassy mesas. The environments you race in each have their own fair share of obstacles to destroy, and jumps to launch you over. Backgrounds are well fitting, although in the sandy level sometimes it feels as the walls of the tracks blur and mix with the track, creating a bit of confusion. The draw distance is good enough, but the GBA just can’t deliver that sense of speed that a console game could.

Graphics Score (9/10)

Gameplay

The overall gameplay value of this game is quite good. The game is easy to pick up and play, and delivers instant fun. But the overall game isn’t very deep. The game totally lacks different types of gameplay and modes. You have your career, quickplay, and a time attack mode and that’s it. They could have added other modes like racing eliminations, destruction, or at least track racing options, but they did not. But at least the modes they give are good. Racing through career will advance you from rookie to pro, and in time attack you race against a racing red line that reflects the top score you have for that track. It is kind of addicting actually. Each race of the game is either a three lapper, or a rally in which you race for about three minutes. The tracks have enough curves, bends, jumps, and obstacles to make them interesting, and as in almost every racer power ups are thrown in the mix. The power ups aren’t very good, as they are either very strong, or useless. You can make your wheels bigger, freeze the other racers, and get slimy tires. The difficulty for the game is inconsistent though. It is fairly hard to pull ahead of the pack, but once you do, you are almost guaranteed to win that race. Too bad the challenge didn’t exist the whole race.

Gameplay Score (7/10)

Sound

Ugh. The downfall of the game. Music? What music? There is only one track of music in the entire game! The only music is the main menu theme song. No music is played during any of the tracks! This is totally unacceptable. I don’t know if they ran out of memory or something, but the total lack of music makes this game a bit annoying to play sometimes. They even give you the option to turn music off! Wow, you can turn off the one song that plays in the entire game. They really do not want you to hear music while you play the game. Sound effects are better, but not by much. Engine sounds are rather annoying and muffled. Crashes sound all right, and so do the sound of hitting jumps. There’s an announcer, but he is way too annoying to listen to. This game has the word mute written all over it.

Sound Score (2/10)

Overall

Overall Monster Truck Madness manages to be a quick pick up and play game with authentic monster truck action. No more, no less. It’s one of the best looking portable games, and also one of the worst sounding. If you’re an obscure game collector, a monster truck fan, or anyone craving some quick but fun action will enjoy this game. Those who seek a deeper experience will feel less than impressed.

Overall Score (7/10)

Community review by G_Dub (January 18, 2008) A bio for this contributor is currently unavailable, but check back soon to see if that changes. If you are the author of this review, you can update your bio from the Settings page.