Monster Truck Madness

The Good
And real monster trucks aren't the only novelty. Terminal Reality's Monster Truck Madness is simply rad, and one of the definitive racing games in my book. Back when I was like 8 or something, I was looking through an old Windows 95 Sampler CD on an old computer (which was running, coincidentally, Windows 95), and saw the promotional video for this game. The video really made it look like something crazy and awesome, with monster trucks smashing everything, doing stunts, and just having a rowdy, fun time. Later I got the game for Christmas, and when I first played it...it just seemed like a standard racing game. But it goes beyond that, at least a little.

Monster Truck Madness has lots of real life monster trucks to choose from, including Grave Digger, Carolina Crusher, Snake Bite, and Bigfoot (everyone knows what that is), among many others. You also get a nice handful of tracks with varying difficulty, in 3 gameplay modes: Circuit, Rally, and Drag. There's also a Tournament mode where you race a sequence of tracks. There is a Garage feature that allows you to customize your truck before you race, and it does work pretty well, despite the fact that it's got slim pickings when it comes to features. The gameplay itself is pretty straightforward as an off-road style racing game. The physics are quite unrealistic, especially when you do a jump off a ramp. But, you know, unrealistic physics are what's fun about a racing game, and Monster Truck Madness is no exception. In fact, taking a big jump (or "Doing it... IN THE AIR!!!" as the announcer would call it) is the fun part for me. Not to mention this game gives you more freedom than other racers, where you can get off the road and drive wherever your heart desires, or think up your own clever shortcuts to outsmart the competing trucks. That's the other fun part of Monster Truck Madness, along with, of course, getting into smash brawls with the other trucks, which could send you flying a good distance away at high speed. Don't you just love video game physics that don't apply to real life?

Overall, I think the folks at Terminal Reality nailed it when they made Monster Truck Madness. The title of the game pretty much says it all: it's just madness. With monster trucks. And the memorable Army Armstrong.

The Bad
Let's be honest, this isn't exactly the GREATEST racing game of all time. I mean, it hasn't really aged as well as other racing games, and its sequel brings forth lots of improvements, like more tracks, more trucks, and better graphics.

The Bottom Line
Simply because of fun physics, fun truck smashing, and pure nostalgia, Monster Truck Madness remains one of my favorite racing games. It's definitely worth a grab if you like the genre. As far as availability, Monster Truck Madness 2 is a lot easier to find on eBay. (at least according to my tests) Go ahead and just skip the first game and try the second one if you want, since it's better anyway, but if you find a CD copy of MTM1 for a decent price somewhere, I'd recommend picking it up. It's a game that definitely deserves to be revisited.