Monster Truck Madness

The Good
Monster Truck Madess is a fun game to play. The lack of realism is not a hinderance to the game, but only enhances your experience. It is great fun to go flying off a jump, only to land right in front the opponent you had been trying to overcome throughout the race. A nice aspect of MTM is the open maps. Many times there are short cuts to take or just fun little ramps and jumps that you can go off of just for the sake of doing something off the wall. Some elements of the environment are destructable, such as hay bales, signs, barrels, and other obstacles meant to keep you on the road but which really don't serve their purpose. It's great fun knocking over a bunch of signs, and then seeing your opponents get hung up on those objects on the next lap. The handling of the trucks is very arcade-like and simplistic, but I feel this is a positive for the game. It makes hitting those jumps and driving across mud and dirt all the more easy and allows you to focus more on the fun aspect rather than the "trying to stay on the road" part that makes most hardcore sims difficult and frustrating.
There are a wide variety of tracks to race on, from country side to mountains to hawaiian with lava and everything.


The Bad
MTM is a game that you will like from the get go or not at all. The game exhibits an air of redneck, monster truck loving from the get go. The music and announcer in particular can get on your nerves over time. The driving in the game is very simplistic, and some may consider it too easy and arcade-like. There are no spin outs (unless you are on mud) and you can take corners quite fast. BUT as I said before this is an arcade game, not a simulation.
The graphics are quite poor by today's standards. This game came out right when 3dfx cards were just hitting the market, so it can take advantage of the most basic acceleration while not providing much else in the way of eye candy. Also, the stadium mode, where you can take on different events like car jumping and racing around a track, feel rushed and just tacked on. There isn't much to them, and most can be completed in a matter of minutes.

The Bottom Line
Monster Truck Madness was the first in a lone line of "Madness" games which included Monster Truck Madness 2, Motocross Madness 1 and 2, and Midtown Madness 1 and 2. In Monster Truck Madness, the player chooses a monster truck from a list of licensed trucks, and then takes to the tracks in various races and events. The events range from racing around a track, to jumping over cars to racing on a long continuous rally style track. The physics in this game are VERY relaxed, your truck flies through the air with the greatest of ease and takes no damage. There is some nice redneck monster truck music and an annoying monster truck announcer that interjects his thoughts whenever you go off a jump or smash into someone particularly hard.
MTM does not try to be a simulation, and it revels in its own ridiculousness. Its a fun game for arcade racing fans, as well as anyone who just needs to let off some steam for a while. Driving around the tracks, knocking down signs, and jumping over bridges is fun to do, especially in a monster truck.