Monster Energy Supercross 4: Thrilling action, but only for experts

Motorsports – at least, which involve repeated laps on a circuit – are more about braking than actually accelerating. My job is to find the top, turning or turning in a direction that allows me to carry the most speed through it. in Monster Energy Supercross 4, Riders looking for optimal apex together Stand Axis, instead of a horizontal one.

When I get this proper jump height and distance – descending halfway down the side of a big dirt arch, connecting that speed to my bike’s acceleration, and then blasting through a long straight – it’s a unique and Has an exceptionally satisfying racing experience. More often, however, I end up stranded halfway through a bunker complex, unable to build enough momentum to follow the optimal “flow” path illustrated on the screen by the translucent blue arc.

All of this makes the milestone motorsports simulation game engagingly enjoyable and frustrating for a controller throwing point. Were more than a few What am I not doing here? Moments in my eight hours with this game, which has also been my first experience with the franchise. Monster Energy Supercross 4 For those familiar with the series, and / or with the game in real life. The rest of us, no matter how keen we are, will face a strict learning curve against a sim who rarely communicates what a player should do.

Let’s start with the weight of the rider. They can use it to leap or pull from behind to shape the bike’s midair trajectory. Starting out, I ticked the option for “semi-automatic” weight management, whose menu states that the CPU will handle this optimization for me. not. The long jump still requires a sharp, properly flickering forward on the right thumb if you are going to reach the next hill with the rear wheel on its crest. Again, manual weight management means that you have to manage it in parts where you are not jumping.

This is not made clear in the paper-thin tutorial run, which shows the commands available to you but not whether you have executed them properly or not. This race also does not specify what a “scrub” is or when or why I should try it. (“Scrubbing,” or putting the bike down almost horizontally after a jump, shortens its trajectory and accelerates the rider through the air.) This option would be obvious to an experienced rider, but not when every scrub. Should I try, then I should end up with a wipeout. , Instead teaches me not to use an advanced trick that I need to take seconds – not just a tenth of a second – from my qualifying time.

Likewise, the introduction of a very deep career mode, with a skill tree and dozens of customizable gear items and cosmetics, does nothing to bring or bring a ship on board with a rider. It took me forever to finally go up or complete the final series, the Minor League, a career debut, in the developmental stage. At first I thought if I was agreed To finish the final because I did not upgrade my bike. But I was running against “very easy AI”. Even after taking out some virtual bucks in the game’s time attack mode and buying better brakes, exhausts and shocks, I was still getting into the 22-bike arena.

It turns out that in real life, futures riders compete on modified, easier versions of the main event courses – but they are not in the game. In other words, I realized that I was carrying on top-flight expectations with level-1 equipment and rider skills. Around this time, I found out that the game’s deal was actually with Rider Weight Management, and I managed to get two seconds off my lap at both Anaheim and Oakland, now 18 instead of 22nd. Is ranked Progress!

Motorsports masochist that i am Really Want to throw yourself in this game. The feeling of flow, stitching together two big jumps similar to the blue arrow that I can say, and sticking to their landing, is the definition of a great gameplay loop. This is just not a repeatable often.

Image: Milestone

That blue “flow” arrow, for example, does not adjust if I land lower than the suggested target. It is up to me to fly again, my best left jump sequence to get out of this area. OK. But there is a training minigame where the flow fills arrows and changes color to show the rider that matches the proper speed and trajectory for optimal jumping. It teaches you to level your launch and take two or more hills, or just build higher speeds for higher jumps. Why can’t this arrow do the same thing in an actual race, where this information and sense of speed is more important?

It is a shame, because there is a depth of ton Monster Energy Supercross 4, Even to first-timers like myself. The career mode, which has event options ranging from one-shot qualifying and quick races to full-fat, real-life weekends, seems to support the 200-hour journey that I easily did to Kodmasters F1 and Katie Racing WRC franchise.

I am not sure that after dealing with those topics, I have a place in my calendar to develop a third set of unique motorsports skills. For those who already have them, I can reasonably assume they will get a tonne of value Monster Energy Supercross 4, And will appreciate the layers and layers of development and adaptation, especially in career mode.

But ultimately, Monster Energy Supercross 4 There is a game that caters to a base constituency as much as it expands an audience. Officially as a rather niche game’s licensed adaptation, this means that it is striving to land well of the biggest leap. Like i did.