Since 1996, the Italian software house Milestone has developed video games mainly dedicated to the world of engines. In recent years in particular, it has launched on the market of officially licensed products dedicated to the world of two wheels such as Monster Energy Supercross Game in 2018 and Monster Energy Supercross - The Official Videogame 2 in 2019. This year it's the turn of the third chapter of the saga dedicated to the American Motocross Championship: Monster Energy Supercross - The Official Videogame 3.
For those unfamiliar with it, the American Motocross Championship - or AMA Supercross - is a sporting discipline sponsored by the giant Monster and dedicated to the world of two wheels, very popular especially in the stars and stripes country, so much so that official races are even organized. inside stadiums in order to contain the greatest number of fans.
We tested the new Monster Energy Supercross 3 for you venturing, joypad in hand, with a taste of definitive game which will be released in early February. The trial version of the game in our possession has allowed us to use only two of the various game modes or the time attack, where you basically compete alone to improve your time on the various circuits or therace event, real focus of the game. Being newbies to the discipline we initially decided to leave the default settings at least for the difficulty level and riding settings of our bike.
The game offers the possibility to customize your own rider in practically every aspect but it is also possible to choose to impersonate one of the numerous centaurs present with its motorbike as the game enjoys the official licenses of the 2019 Championship. All the protagonists of the championship just ended are present, each with their own team and their own bike. The polygonal models of the centaurs represented in the selection phase seemed to us a bit dated unlike the bikes that were reproduced in an obsessive way in every detail.
Choosing the track on which to compete among the many available, you enter the race through a presentation in perfect American style with ball music and pyrotechnic effects. Motocross is a very spectacular discipline and, although it may seem the opposite, it is very technical. It runs on dirt tracks created specifically to make the races spectacular. Basically the race is a set of rapid accelerations, sharp braking to tackle challenging curves and above all evolutions in flight. The numerous bumps of various sizes along the track literally allow you to soar in flight with your bike but it is not as simple as it seems as it is necessary to dose the throttle correctly in order to land well and thus earn precious thousandths of a second.
When in flight it is possible to carry out the so-called scrub or to fold the bike horizontally with the weight of the body to obtain a better aerodynamic posture. With the controller, time of flight permitting, it is also possible to perform other very spectacular but, at the same time, very difficult maneuvers. Mastering a motocross bike with a 450cc engine is not a simple thing and therefore it takes some time to get carried away. However, nothing transcendental as, with a little patience, and thanks also to the help of Dynamic Flow Aid, an ideal trajectory to be followed that can be deactivated at any time, you can get the first satisfactions after a few laps, especially using a low level. of difficulty.
The races, given the high number of participants, also include numerous contacts among the various competitors with related off-track or, worse still, falls. Is exactly the physics of falls that left us a little perplexed as the centaurs look like animated puppets thrown to the ground. Too bad because riding the Monster Energy Supercross 3 bike returns an excellent driving sensation in practically all fields: acceleration, braking and jumps.
The game is basically an arcade game even if, by increasing the difficulty and manually setting all the controls, the challenge level rises considerably thanks to an overall above average AI. Winning a race on the lowest difficulty level isn't as challenging as competing against tough opponents ready for contact to get you off-balance and get you off the track.
The general graphics are of a good standard and playing on a PC with an RTX 2080 at a resolution of 2560 x 1440 with maximum details Monster Energy Supercross 3 ran smoothly without any kind of slowdown. During the race, even in crowded situations, the frame rate never dropped below 80 FPS.
The liveries of the bikes are really impeccably made as are the suits and helmets of the riders. In our opinion, some more or less important details are missing, including a dynamic deformation of the ground based on the numerous passages of the bikes but we await the final version of the game to express ourselves definitively. The sound sector is in line with the product with some really interesting audio tracks.
Overall, considering our general approach to the fairly arcade game, we must say that we really enjoyed trying Monster Energy Supercross 3. Even if you are, like us, newbies to this discipline, we advise you to keep an eye on it and wait to test the game. full version of the game.
Monster Energy Supercross - The Official Videogame 3 will be released on February 4th 2020 for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Google Stadia and Nintendo Switch.
