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Trucker’s Edge

by Craig Grannell (November 22nd, 2010 at 3:00 pm)

Game: Monster Trucks Nitro. Publisher: RedLynx Ltd. Price: Free. Download the game

Vrrrmmmmm! MONSTER TRUCKS! Actually, I’m not Am-er-i-can, and since US import Grayson isn’t within earshot, I cannot ask what the appeal of BIG TRUCKS is, bar when you’re a kid and use them to run over next door’s cat. (That never happened, by the way, if you’re reading, Mr Griffiths of number 5. TIDDLES RAN AWAY.) What I can say is that they make for a pretty fun game, at least when they’re part of Monster Trucks Nitro. VRRRRRRMMMMMM!

Monster Trucks is a time-attack racer. You get ten tracks in Middleofnowhereville, USA, largely comprising gigantic leaps, and liberally peppered with boosts. Get a good time and you’re awarded with a medal, like in the Olympics, if the Olympics was all about monster trucks.

Get a bronze medal and another track is opened up to you. Get enough gold medals and you unlock two extra trucks: a monster truck school bus (excellent) and a monster truck F1 car (less excellent).

The controls in Monster Trucks Nitro work quite well—tilt to rock your truck, and use on-screen throttle/brake pedals to speed up and slow down. Usefully, there’s also a Cruise Control button, which is like shoving a breeze block on the accelerator before setting off.

Now and again, some dodgy track design rears its ugly head—a couple of courses are nigglingly precise regarding you collecting boosts at certain points in order to complete them. However, this is pretty rare, and it took me under an hour to unlock every track and truck. And at this point, I was still compelled to revisit some of the tracks and improve my times; this is because some of the tracks are amusingly SMASH EVERYTHING, with your truck sending cars flying, while others fling your truck into the air in ludicrous fashion. There’s something oddly beautiful about soaring through the air in a monster truck, the sun setting over desert scenery in the background; on iOS, only the glorious outside sections in Mirror’s Edge evoke the same feeling.

For 59p/€0,79/99¢, Monsters Trucks Nitro’s worth a punt, but it’s free at the time of writing, and so if you don’t download it, I’LL RUN YOU OVER, LIKE MR GRIFFITHS’ TIDDLES. OH NO! RUMBLED. *is arrested*

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