Monster Trucks Nitro Review

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RedLynx took advantage of the Mac App Store craze with their own title, Monster Trucks Nitro. The game plays a lot like its older brother, Trials HD, just replace the motorcycle with monster trucks and "bigger" obstacles, and you have a decent idea where this game is coming from.

Gameplay

Trials HD vets will feel right at home with most of the elements within Monster Trucks Nitro. However, in this guy's opinion, Trials is probably a tad more difficult. The object of each level is to navigate obstacles to reach the finish line in a certain amount of time. The better you do, the higher your medal standing (Gold/Silver/Bronze).

Monster Trucks Nitro features a control scheme so simple that even a caveman could do it. You use the directional buttons on your keyboard to steer your vehicle, and the ctrl button is used as a nitro boost of sorts. That's literally it as far as controls. The rest of your time is spent going up and over obstacles, and playing the ever-growing cerebral tracks that the RedLynx crew throws your way.

The gameplay is great for the levels RedLynx throws at you, and as a nice little time waster it's hard to beat a game like Monster Trucks Nitro.

Presentation

Monster Trucks Nitro hits you with presentation that is one part monster truck rally, one part '90s PC gaming, and then is topped off with an old-timey southwestern theme. The menus are simplistic but work, just don't expect to be completely engrossed in Nitro anytime soon.

You have different resolution options to boot up the game with, and I'm happy to report my i7 iMac ran the 2560 x 1440 graphics smoothly. If you aren't stupid with your settings, the game will run smoothly for you.

Otherwise, you have a couple different camera angles, but they're all from the same general side -- so don't expect much flexibility in how you view the game.

Lasting Appeal

Monster Trucks Nitro features one gameplay mode: Race.

The game "ships" with 25 levels to play through, although there is an option to unlock new content, which I'm sure means more levels are on the way.

You have the option to pick between three vehicles: a red futuristic monster truck, a jacked up school bus, and a more classic monster truck. From what I could tell, there is no differentiation between each vehicle and no real trade off between the vehicles, except doing a back flip in the school bus seems a bit harder.

The rest of the game is the time-trial-puzzle-solving-obstacle-course type of racing you should be familiar with in a RedLynx game.

Final Thoughts

Monster Trucks Nitro is what it is. It's a shameless copy of Trials HD, but it does not quite recapture the glory of Trials. For the price, it's far from a bad game, and fans of the Trials-type-of-game genre will thoroughly enjoy Nitro on their Macs.


Learning Curve: It will take you about five minutes to get the game down. After that, you'll be an expert -- until a track humbles you.

Visuals:The game looks fine and runs smooth, but it won't win any "best of" categories anytime soon.

Audio: The engines sound good, music is not too annoying and the other effects work well. The sound is actually quite solid.

Difficulty: The game is a mix between ridiculously easy, quite hard and places in between. You will have "that" level you struggle with for sure.

Options: You don't have many options available to you. This game is a take it or leave it type of game.

Score: 6.5 (Above Average)