Monster 4x4: World Circuit

Quick and straightforward arcade-style fun. Monster 4X4 isn’t long or deep enough to be a must-own, but racing fans will derive a day or two’s worth of pleasure. The courses are short and usually sweet, and the controls are intuitive without being overly sensitive, paving the way for Wii newbies who might not be used to the console’s motion controls.

Monster 4x4 ist ein klassischer Actionracer: Mit riesigen Trucks nehmt ihr an haarsträubenden Rallyes teil und benutzt die auf der Strecke liegenden Nitro- und Boost-Upgrades, um die Konkurrenz hinter euch zu lassen. Der lenkradähnliche Controller-Aufsatz funktioniert gut, artet jedoch aufgrund des chaotischen Streckendesigns manchmal in hektisches Rumgefuchtel aus. Technisch lässt uns der Titel völlig kalt. Neben der Präsentation offenbart die PS-Heizerei auch spielerische Makel. Karge Landschaften und anspruchslose Rennen lassen einfach kein Feeling aufkommen. Wartet besser auf Excite Truck im Februar!

Einen der größten Kritikpunkte fängt sich jedoch der Umfang ein: Zehn kurze Strecken, die auch umgekehrt gefahren werden dürfen? Nur eine Kameraperspektive? Das reicht heute nun wirklich nicht mehr aus! Damit ist Monster 4x4 World Circuit ein leicht unterdurchschnittlicher Arcade-Racer, der zwar anfangs noch für die ein oder andere Rennrunde rausgekramt wird, sich aber schnell mit dem geringen Umfang und unspektakulären Kulissen selbst über den Fuß fährt – und das muss bei diesen Schwergewichten echt weh tun!

Monster trucks are cool. They have amazing names (The Destroyer, The Enforcer, The Annihilator), and jump/smash their way over school buses, old cars, and anything else that attempts to get in their way. But, there have been very few videogames that have successfully encompassed the monster truck life style, although many have tried. The newest attempt is Monster 4X4 World Circuit, and it is coming to us from the boys over at Ubisoft. A budget title at its launch (ringing in at $19.99), this newest monster truck experience is focused more on racing that a rally setting, but still contains it share of big trucks with amazing names.

Es ist schon bemerkenswert, mit welcher Dreistigkeit versucht wird, den Wii-Start dazu zu nutzen, halbgare Spiele an die Käufer zu bringen. Anders kann ich diesen Versuch, Monster 4x4 World Circuit als vollwertiges Rennspiel anzupreisen, nicht beschreiben. Zumal es ja Anfang des Jahres auf der Xbox als Budget-Version erhältlich war. Das Spiel lässt jegliche Tiefe vermissen, langweilt mit seinen müden Krücken und einem einschläfernd gleichförmigen Streckendesign. Richtig abstrus wird’s dann im Mehrspieler-Modus, dessen Minispiele Wasser ins Feuer selbst ausgelassenster Zock-Sessions sein dürften.

Ultimately Monster 4X4 World Circuit will leave players with a generally cheap and unsatisfied feeling, as the entire production could have used more effort in virtually every facet of its execution.

When you first boot up the game, you are treated to a neat and destructive video of monster trucks running through city environments, destroying sports cars and causing mass amounts of property damage. Upon hitting the A button, you can then jump immediately into a quick race, play the world circuit “career” mode, or play four different multiplayer games like soccer or a deathmatch style game where you launch barrels at opponents by running into them. In addition, you can also go and visit your garage, where you will be able to use points earned by destroying things or pulling off stunts to upgrade your truck in various areas, like speed, handling, or stunt maneuverability.

As any child of the '80s will tell you, monster trucks are awesome. There's no disputing it. It's science; an irrefutable fact. However, just because monster trucks are awesome, doesn't mean that every form of entertainment based on monster trucks is inherently awesome. Take Ubisoft's Monster 4x4: World Circuit for the Xbox, for example. Like Monster 4x4: Masters of Metal, Ubisoft's last attempt to craft something monster truck-esque for gaming consoles, World Circuit completely misses the point of what makes monster trucks excellent. Sure, it's got the big trucks, but it also has exactly zero of the excitement. It somehow makes the act of driving these trucks over rows of parked cars, through various sheds and other breakable bric-a-brac, and off of carefully placed stunt ramps, completely and utterly dull. Not to mention that it can't even do you the solid of actually including some actual monster truck events.

Monster 4x4 World Circuit is an arcade monster truck racer, but it also revolves around performing stunts. Monster truck stunts. Ramping your monster truck off jumps and doing 360s, backflips and other physically impossible maneuvers. To be fair, a ludicrous concept doesn't sink a game outright. Hell, look at Mario. He's the most ridiculous character ever, and the concepts of his stages and feats he performs rarely make any shred of sense. It isn't the concept behind Monster 4x4 that makes it a pain to play, nor is it any specific technical issue. Rather, the game suffers from being consistently boring.

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?

If Monster 4x4 were a budget release - and if the extremely similar, inevitably superior Excite Truck wasn't around the corner - you might not even hate yourself if you'd come home with it. These are the Wii's launch days after all, the lean times, when the novelty of a new console (not even taking the controls into account) can give almost any game a temporary sheen of excitement. But beware. After a jovial couple of hours in its company the scales will fall, and what had just seemed an unpretentious, unassumingly enjoyable videogame becomes a kind of existential nightmare of averageness that it's impossible to play for a minute longer. Monster 4x4: World Circuit is the definition of the lowest common denominator.

So, to recap: Monster trucks are awesome, but Monster 4x4: World Circuit is not. The racing is bland, the destruction is minimal, the excitement is nonexistent, the presentation is poor, the content is lacking, and last, but certainly not least, Ubisoft is now charging $50 for what was a budget game less than a year ago. There's no excuse to charge full price for a driving game this hollow and boring, and there's no reason for you to bother playing it.

Quitte à paraître désabusé, la Wii ne pouvait éviter à son lancement des jeux comme Monster 4x4 World Circuit. On y retrouve le tout commun du titre manifestement réglé en quelques mois par des personnes dénuées de la moindre motivation : minimaliste, techniquement très faible, largement trop facile, insipide et mortellement ennuyeux. A oublier.

I was hoping the four-player split screen might redeem Monster 4x4, but its degraded graphics and lack of a map turned it into a muddled mess. My friends and I were ready to quit long before the races actually ended. As I pondered my last-place finish, my friend Scott asked, "Are you really surprised Dave? I mean, you were driving a freakin' school bus!" The single player mode might keep you occupied for a short period of time, but Monster 4x4 just seems pointless after a while.