Monster Energy Supercross - The Official Videogame 4 isn’t a bad game at all, rather it’s just an incredibly difficult one that leaves no room for novices to enter the dirt track arena. If you are a pro, then you’re going to find a lot to love about this game. The multiple modes work well, the track creation is solid, and the customization in the game is on point.
Back in the day, when I ran another site not called Digitalchumps.com, I came across one of the most difficult fishing games. I spent three days fishing in the game and NEVER caught a fish. It was an amazing experience and the first ‘1 out of 10’ I had ever given a game. As I ponder on that game right now, I should have given it at least 5 points because it was the most accurate fishing game ever made. Fishing takes a certain type of pro that knows what they’re doing, what lures to use to get the fish and the intricate ins/outs of the sport. I am not that type of person. I just wanted to capture a fish without having to know the details of driving a boat, where to cast a line, and when to best go fishing. Too many details, not enough for the novice to enjoy. That leads me to Monster Energy Supercross – The Official Videogame 4. It’s so realistic that it’s downright frustrating.
Anyway, let’s get started.
Perfection for Pros, Tough for Joes
The underbelly of Monster Energy Supercross – The Official Videogame 4 is as long and complicated as its title. If you love dirt bike racing and you follow the sport, then you’re going to be in absolute heaven. We’ll speak more about that in a bit.
Focusing on gameplay, the game breaks the intricate details of the sport down, allows you to maintain and enjoy a career on the circuit, and gives you the ability to gain coins, which equal out to customizations. Like any typical racing game, your success is based on what you can afford to upgrade, something that Gran Turismo mastered some years back. The better you do, the more you get, the more equipped you are to win a race. Notice that I didn’t say ‘the easier it gets to win a race’. We will get back to that point in a second. Having the ability to adjust your bike and make it the way you want is impressive and can be entertaining as hell. It is a game that allows you to pick the flavor you want and enjoy the spoils of that flavor.
Continuing the gameplay, the game also features a pretty intricate track creation feature, where you can build indoor/outdoor tracks to your liking, and the end results are impressive if you’re into that whole thing. Building your own place and racing on it is a rush, and it’s a charm of the overall package.
The game also features single-player and multiplayer modes in the game. You can go compete online or you can just have a lovely career journey, an event one-off, or race on multiple circuits (like Mario Kart). You have plenty to choose from in this Supercross buffet, which shows the amount of love and effort by Milestone to make this less like a single Excite Bike experience and more like a competent simulator that wants to give you plenty of choices and reasons to keep coming back. It’s a packed game that is packed with the right stuff. For me, I spent the majority of my time in career mode trying to beef up my boy G. Fuel. What? You didn’t expect humor here? You should see all my characters in each game that allows me to name them. It’s priceless, though at times frightening.
Anyway! The game has a lot going on when it comes to offering you rich and unique experiences…for pros. There lies the issue. It really doesn’t seem to be built for those gamers getting into Supercross for the first time. While I certainly am not a follower of the sport, I do enjoy racing anything in video games. I’ve been raised on racing games my entire life, even Excite Bike still fascinates me as an adult. Knowing how racing games should go, even the more difficult Codemaster games, which might allow you to do too deep of a dive, I found Monster Energy Supercross – The Official Videogame 4 to be too much to enjoy. The difficulty in this game isn’t welcoming for novice players at all. Any good racing game allows for a slow climb in difficulty. It usually is forgiving at the beginning with player control mistakes and doesn’t require you to land the perfect jump or drift as you go through the early stages. It makes it easy on you and ramps you up to mediocre before declaring you a pro. That’s how every good racing game goes and this isn’t how MES4 races. And that’s incredibly disappointing, as there are times where the game is a real treat and you think you got it, only to lose it on one mistake and never recover. The opponent AI isn’t going to give you an inch either. It will take that inch, throw it on the ground, and then lap you as many times as it needs to remind you of how much of a failure you are at this game. It’s a brutally realistic gameplay experience that gives you everything it has and isn’t afraid to take from you. Ultimately, it’s defeating and it’s not enjoyable…for a novice like myself. I want to be in this club, but I’m just not good enough to be in the club.
Now, if you’re a pro at this game and have followed the series throughout its journey, you’re going to love the game. The controls are as accurate as you would expect, the competition is challenging as hell, and you will love playing levels over and over again until you get it right. No tongue-in-cheek with this comment, as the game is truly built for hardcore fans and those who worship and follow Supercross. I commend Milestone for making this game so incredibly well and for those who love the series. It truly is meant for that type of player and there isn’t anything wrong with that if you’re okay with never expanding your audience to those who might want to try it out, a goal that every developer should strive for in the long run. The more copies of a game that connect with players, the better the returns are, and the more you can keep making that series until you’re tired of it. Supercross is a great series, but it’s just not great for everyone yet. It probably will be in the future because I hope for the best, but this game is really meant for pros.
All of the above said, Monster Energy Supercross – The Official Videogame 4 is a well-constructed game. It truly is, but it’s just a game for a niche audience that knows how to move and groove with it. It has everything a Supercross fan would ever want. It’s a well-built and executed game that demands everything from you with near perfection included in that equation. That’s racing in real life and racing in a nutshell. If you’re looking for that realistic gameplay, then you’re going to find it with this, and that’s not a knock. It’s truly a compliment that Milestone captured the sport accurately well.
The looks, the controls, just as perfect
One big positive of this game is how it looks and feels. Milestone really did a great job with modeling the tracks and mudding the gameplay visually (in a good way). They even added a bit of intense Monster Energy Drink flair to the entire look of the game, making you feel like you’re part of something cool and edgy. The textures are well done and the style of the game is outstanding thanks to this flair (explosions, crowd excitement, rocking music). The addition of adaptive triggers and proper rumbling also help to bring the gamer to the track, much like what you got with DIRT 5’s rumbling efforts. Everything feels good and looks good.
Overall, there’s not much to dislike visually or audibly about the game. It brings it all home just as you would expect on the PlayStation 5. I think the next iteration of this game will look even better as the devs get used to the PS5 hardware. As it stands, it’s a pretty game with a lot of visual girths that features entertaining controls to make you write home about it.
Conclusion
Monster Energy Supercross – The Official Videogame 4 isn’t a bad game at all, rather it’s just an incredibly difficult one that leaves no room for novices to enter the dirt track arena. If you are a pro, then you’re going to find a lot to love about this game. The multiple modes work well, the track creation is solid, and the customization in the game is on point.
