Monster Truck Madness 64 Nintendo 64 Publisher: Rockstar Developer: Edge of Reality Players: 1-4 Difficulty: Easy Camera: Far Chase, Close Chase, Closer Chase, Cockpit

Aside From The Monster Trucks, This Game's Graphics Are Under Par The Hover Powerup Is One Of The More Odd Powerups. TACH- O -METER Control: (2) Graphics: (2.5) Sound: (1) Replay Value: (1) Overall: (1.5)

Monster Trucks have been around for ages. Big trucks with enormous wheels. When I was younger my father took me to a monster truck event. All of my favorite monsters (Big Foot, Grave Digger, and Carolina Crusher) smashing beat-up cars to a pulp to see who can make it to the finish line the fastest. Kids and adults still go and watch these behemoths clash today and it is enjoyable but Monster Truck Madness for the Nintendo 64 is far from the events that I remember.

The one thing that makes Monster Truck Madness stand out is the actual trucks in the game. They have been beautifully rendered and look great. Plus all of the actual trucks are there. Older trucks (Big Foot, Grave Digger) and newer models including the wrestling models modeled after your favorite wrestling superstars (Hollywood Hogan, Sting) all make an appearance. But aside from the trucks, Monster Truck Madness falls short of a great racing game.

Circuit Mode is just selecting a truck and racing it on a numerous amount of tracks that are very bland. Water effects are horrible and the scenery leaves a lot to be desired for. Fog is very apparent as well. You can not see that far ahead in the track which sometimes can hurt you if you are unfamiliar with the track. The real bad thing about this is that the monster trucks are just boring to race. To help out are power-ups that just do not mix well with monster trucks. Some examples are missiles, invisibility, and a weird hover item that momentarily allows your truck to hover. This reminded me of the futuristic cars found in "Back to the Future" but hovering only works for Delorians not monster trucks. While I am playing this game I am wondering, "Where are the cars I am supposed to crush?".

Multi-player is the only mode that saves this title but not by much. Up to 4 players can compete in few modes. You can race head on with each other or try some mini games out. There is hockey and soccer that play about the same. Just hit the ball or puck head on and try to score in the oppositions goal. Chase and Tag are two other modes. In Tag one player is a chicken on wheels that has to ram an opponent to "tag" them. Then there is Summit Rumble where it is a "king of the mountain" style game where you try to stay on a platform the longest. But even these multi-player modes lack the depth to keep players playing for more then thirty minutes.

All the trucks look a lot different but all sound the exact same. To top that they do not even sound like the real sound that I used to remember. There is an announcer helping out with the action but he provides nothing but repetitive nonsense. The announcer should have had a lot more lines to say then just "YEEEEE HAHHHHH" and "There is nothing worse then a scorned monster truck!" or something like that.

Control is really bad in this game. It is like one giant powerslide the entire race. Learning how to control these bad boys is a tough thing. I believe the reason to this is because the actual monster trucks have 4 wheel steering which makes doing doughnuts on a dirt track extremely easy. Even after learning the controls the game still does not feel right.

Unless you are in need of a monster truck racing game, rent this. But if you are looking for a racing game pass this title over, WAY over!

-Nick Steinhauer