Monster Energy Supercross – The Official Videogame 6 Review

The Monster Energy Supercross game series is a yearly motocross simulator racing game. The series was first released way back in 2018 and the development team introduces new tweaks and improvements every year, however, the core gameplay of the experience remains intact i.e. being a racing simulator. Fast forward to 2023 where we’re getting the sixth iteration of the Monster Energy Supercross – The Official Videogame series. Let’s see if it’s worth your time and investment.

Monster Energy Supercross – The Official Videogame 6 is a motocross racing sim where you race around on a muddy track where you’ll need to try and make your way through other (A.I. or player-controlled) aggressive racers also looking to get a spot in the top 3 and finish on top. The first few moments of a race feel like people rushing to Wal-Mart or Best Buy on a Black Friday morning as you bump into racers.

You can always try to bump other racers off the track so you can get some breathing room, but it’s a two-way streak meaning you could be the one bumped off and lose precious time. While racing sim also means a high difficulty curve, two-wheel vehicles are stiffer to control than four-wheel ones. I would like to point out that controls do feel a bit tighter; while the last one I had the privilege to play was Monster Energy Supercross – The Official Videogame 4, I did notice a slight difference in control “tightness”.

One thing is for sure, the game is packed with gameplay content and accessibility features. As far as the former is concerned, you can go through your virtual Career, Single Event, Time Attack, Rhythm Attack, Free Roaming, and Supercross Academy. As far as the accessibility features go, returning players or newcomers can adjust features such as Rear/front preload, low/high compression shock absorber, physics, joint break, and transmissions (just to name a few) in order to tailor the experience to their skills.

Thankfully, if you’re a newcomer or struggling through the races, the game still rewards players no matter the position you end up in during career mode so no one is penalized based on their skills. This means you can still accumulate experience points and credits so you can level up, get more in-game currency to upgrade your rides, and unlock goodies such as helmets as you level up.

The game does look good as a whole. Race tracks are well designed, characters do look a bit generic and given we’re not in an RPG, character customization is minimal. Although it does feel that visual improvements are more and more minimal with each release as there isn’t much difference between this one and the fourth entry two years ago. Seems like the developers are not taking full advantage of the power under the hood of current-gen consoles. I get if they want to reach a broader audience by being cross-gen, but it might be worth splitting the development process in the future. The soundtrack is fine; a stock generic hard rock soundtrack, but I can’t help but feel this is a missed opportunity to get licensed hard rock/metal music as you speed off through the mud. The announcing is pretty solid and the soundtrack is also drowned out by the sound of engines during events.

It does suffer from a few nuisances. Its learning curve still feels a bit steep, even on the easiest difficulty setting. It’s also not uber welcoming to newcomers; especially experience-wise. For example, the game doesn’t even give players an explanation of the Rhythm Attack mode. Sure, it’s pretty straightforward when you play it, but it would be nice to understand what you’re doing. Also for whatever reason during certain races, my bike would drive/accelerate by itself when I wasn’t holding the Right Trigger.

Monster Energy Supercross – The Official Videogame 6 remains the benchmark for the genre (and well the only option really). It offers a deep gameplay experience for fans of the sport and can be an enjoyable experience for newcomers as long as they don’t mind dedicating themselves to the game. However, it does feel like there aren’t many major updates/upgrades from previous entries. And it also makes my itch for an arcade supercross game akin to Freestyle grow even more. If you’ve invested in the five previous games, you’ll still enjoy this one. If you’re a newcomer and have the time to invest, Monster Energy Supercross – The Official Videogame 6 is a great racing simulator to jump into.