As they were working on releasing the next title in their running motocross series, developer and publisher Milestone was pushing that they were focusing on being newcomer-friendly in Monster Energy Supercross 5. With that being their focus, I decided to take on the review despite being more attuned to the 4-wheel equivalents. As a newcomer to the 2-wheeled dirt racing sport, I have to say that this game gave me everything I needed to get well acquainted with it.

Gameplay

When you first start the game, you are presented with a menu that lets you start off in any way you want. Whether you want to give a single race a test run, hit the free roam section to play with the controls, or dive right into the career mode, the choice is yours. I would definitely suggest going to the Future’s Academy if you are new to the game, otherwise head into the career mode.

Unlike in single-race where you pick from a preset of racers, you will be able to customize your character. From the character’s looks to their name and racer number, the choices are yours. I wouldn’t focus much on the clothes though because during the career mode you will be taking up contracts that will change your clothing. These contracts are definitely worth it as you can earn a ton of credit which is used to purchase a full range of customization options for use online and in the free roam.

During the career mode, you will be given the option to go into a training area after each race and use up to three attempts. In the training area, there are five different challenge options to choose from and in each challenge there are 10 total challenges to complete. Each challenge allows you the chance to earn up to 3 stars, each of which counts as a point towards your skill tree. It is really helpful to do this though because it helps build up your skill as well.

Along with the training option in between races, you can also do a Workout which will give you 3 tasks to complete in a short time limit. Completing these tasks can improve the condition of your racer, but if you fail to do so it can worsen it. If your character is injured, the workout can clear it up or you can just spend earned credits to remove the injury.

The skill tree will improve your racer overall and it carries over to all of the career modes that you play through. Since there is an East and West for the Rookie career mode and the Pro career mode, it is helpful to have a gradually improving racer along the way. Winning races, completing trainings, and beating your rival are all ways to earn skill points to improve your racer.

As for racing itself, the controls can be a bit hard to get used to at first, but after a few trainings, practices, and races you will start to get the hang of it. You turn best when using a bank, but braking and turning is useful when there isn’t a bank to use. Don’t always go for max air on ramps because the track in front of the ramp or hill might not give the proper spacing for a big jump. There will be a lot to consider, most of which will be on the spot, but your decision-making will get better the more you race.

Audio and Visual

When it comes to the audio of this game, it is exactly what you would expect. Plenty of engine revving, an announcer for each track, and a rock-based soundtrack. It is very fitting for this game and well done.

Graphically, this game isn’t exactly amazing but it does have the proper level of quality you need. The track and character quality is fittingly matched to each other. The free roam area, where they have a lot of various environment pieces placed out, is the main area that shows true quality in the graphics team.

Replayability

With the online mode, multiple career challenges, a track editor and community track list, a free roam area that is full of collectibles and challenges, and the various training aspects they put into this game, there is tons of replayability! As long as you are interested in dirt bike racing, this game has an option on how to do it for you or a challenge to test your skill.

What It Could Have Done Better

While they do give you a chance to adjust your bike’s settings, such as shocks, it didn’t really make a lot of sense to what each thing actually did. They did explain how shifting each option would affect the bike, but I wish they had a track or section set up to adjust the bike’s settings and then test it with the adjusted settings. This would make it easier for newcomers that don’t understand the more minute aspects of the bikes to adjust it to a controlled setting that works for them.

In the customization section of the game, they should have an “already owned” area so I can just see all the options I have without having to buy anything. It would make picking the gear my character wears easier to find rather than going through each brand option list to see what I have from each of them.

Verdict

Monster Energy Supercross 5 definitely achieves the beginner-friendly goal the developers set out while still being challenging and entertaining! I really enjoyed the game and feel that I understand the physics of dirt-bike racing a little better now. Managing to actually come out in first place in my first Rookie Career Circuit on the medium difficulty truly felt like an accomplishment with this being my first game and it definitely is because of the training section I was able to utilize after each race.

Monster Energy Supercross 5 is available starting March 17th on PC via Steam, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.