MMX Racing is Toy Trucks for Big Kids

Remember Monster Jam? With Big Foot and Grave Digger and all those poor, soon-to-be-crushed-and-re-crushed junk cars and crazy over-the-top pro wrestling-esque promos? Yes? Good.

No? No biggie. Monster Jam's essence, if not brand name, has found its way into MMX Racing, a monster-truck racing game that loses the steering and gains a whole lot of fun and accessibility in the process.

Clocking in at just under half a gigabyte, a great deal of that install size goes to MMX Racing's intense, high-res visuals. Tire treads, paint jobs, the sunshine, and even the asphalt are spectacularly rendered and mighty impressive - and the audio compliments this - the revving of the engines sounding suitably beefy.

But MMX Racing becomes a must-play because of what it doesn't do. By removing the need to steer, your focus is on the sounds, the sights, timing your acceleration just right, and most importantly, feel. In real life I've never been able to tap into this "feel" thing when it comes to cars - it turns on, it moves forward, and if it makes a funny noise I ignore it or ask someone smarter than I am.But in MMX Racing, I got that feel all right.

How your tires leave a jump, how your massive vehicle sails through the air, and how it lands all have roots in gameplay choices that begin and end with how you handle the gas pedal, and becoming one with your truck's various idiosyncrasies. 

Also, Dune Buggies!

Currently multiplayer races are just rolling out and are a struggle if you're a newbie, and the developers promise car-crushing challenges, more cars, more customization options - so basically more of everything. The business model is microtransaction based, but I've yet to be forced into buying 'race tickets', and even if I was, a few bucks for a lot more racing, or simply waiting for them to refill, is a small price to pay for such an elaborate and dare-I-say-eloquent package.

Yes, eloquent. In much the same way a great pro wrestling match resembles a stellar dance number, MMX Racing delivers the sights, sounds, and above-all-else thrills of monster truck racing by streamlining these massively complicated beasts into a single button and a stretch of track with epic jumps as far as the eye can see.