Chris InglisMonster Energy Supercross 6 is the latest in the series created by Milestone. It released on March 9, 2023, for PlayStation, Xbox and PC and includes a career mode that is guided by famous Motorcross/Supercross athlete Jeremy McGrath, a new free roaming Supercross Park where you can train your rider and complete quests for the coach, and the insane supercross racing events in real-world locations. As someone who has struggled with previous Milestone racing simulation titles like RIDE 4, this was a breath of fresh air. However, those who have played some or all of the Monster Energy Supercross series may not find enough of a step forward since last year’s Monster Energy Supercross 5.
My experience with the Monster Energy Supercross series goes back to the 4th game in 2021. I enlisted the help of a good mate’s brother who I grew up with and is right into motorbikes, both riding them but also as a mechanic. Having personally struggled to complete any of the starting races in RIDE 4, I wanted to see if a motorbike enthusiast could show me how to play that and Monster Energy Supercross 4. He did much better than me, especially knowing that motorbike have a separate braking system, but he still struggled to get a feel for controlling the bike and rider, and how best to handle the various tracks. He got the hang of it after a few hours though.
Knowing this, I was hesitant going into Monster Energy Supercross the Official Videogame 6 as I was expecting an equally as hefty learning curve and to struggle from the outset. To my surprise, the starting experience was great fun. We first customise the look of our rider, from adjusting the build and height, choosing a race number and country of origin we then get into customising the physical appearance of the rider. There are ample customisation options available for hair and beard styles, eye colours and so on which are viewable in the character stats screen where you can see your body performance and if you have injuries, more on that later. Lastly, we get to choose our bike manufacturer and I went with Kawasaki.
We are placed into the first tutorial race, and it is explained that we can use the rewind button a limited number of times. I’m familiar with such a thing from games like Forza Horizon, however I never used it once in my time with the game. The tutorial prompts you to press left trigger and move the left stick in the direction of the turn which causes you to drift, and this made turning corners infinitely better than me slipping around at full throttle. The ragdoll physics for when you stack it were great and reminded me a little of playing Trials Rising. After completing the initial tutorial race, the game announces, “Now you know everything you need to become number one.” Yeahhh, no.
From here it took me straight into main career mode which is where I spent most of my time, and there are three chapters to play through. The first chapter is called the futures league, we complete three races and earn a new outfit for the rider and our bike. This then unlocks the second chapter called the rookie league 250 series which adds rider shape/fitness, injuries, coach quests, training sessions and the market window which involves sponsors. It was here that, going through the game’s menu, I found there are a heap more tutorials which I highly recommend completing first.
There are 10 basic tutorials and 10 advanced tutorials. Completing the first 9 tutorials made me understand so much more about how to play the game. The 10th tutorial sees you racing against Jeremy McGrath who took me at least 10 attempts to beat, but boy did that hone my skills so much more. Completing all 10 basic tutorials nets you a new outfit, and completing career races nets you credits which you can use to unlock cosmetic items for your rider and your bike. You also start to earn some skill points which allows you to specialise in 5 skill trees – cornering, bike control, braking, scrub and physical resistance.
As you race, you should be leaning back over small bumps, landing ‘nicely’, leaning into turns, and so on, but eventually your rider is going to cop an injury. This ‘rider shape’ segment of the game was introduced in Monster Energy Supercross 5, so continuing players will already be aware of this. You can see the status of your major body parts in the rider shape menu, and if you do get an injury you will want to head to Supercross Park to do some training. There is also an extensive track editor where you can share your creations online, but I don’t have the patience for those kinds of modes. I take my hat off to those enthusiasts who can imagine their ultimate track and then translate that into a game such as this, and even better to show it off to the world.
In the centre of Supercross Park is a hub which looked a little like the central hub in Rider’s Republic, with big bright icons above tents where you can do the training, workout sessions and coach quests with McGrath. You can visit each of these stations once in between campaign races, indicated with red or green icon lights in the game’s menu if they are available. To attempt to heal injuries, you will need to race around collecting the letters S-H-A-P-E within a time limit to heal that body part. If you fail, it will take time for the injury(s) to heal.
There is a new mode added with Monster Energy Supercross 6 called Rhythm Attack. This is like a straight-line drag race but for motorbikes over a combination of standard race obstacles. Players compete in quick 1v1 shootout races on a straight section. There are no turns to negotiate, nor are there second chances. This can also be played in head-to-head split-screen mode. I didn’t try out any multiplayer as I was just enjoying learning to race better and improve my lines and corners. Unlocking skills in cornering and resistance helped a lot.
I found there was a good balance between career and free play modes which included time attack and rhythm races, all with the aim to make you a better rider. For proper supercross and motorbike enthusiasts, you can adjust a heap of things to do with how the bike handles like split braking system, gear ratios, accelerator mapping and a heap of assists. Some of these are locked depending on the AI difficulty level set, so you can play with these as your skills and knowledge get better. For me though, I know nothing about bikes so just left all that advanced stuff at default based on the AI difficulty I could handle.
Overall, I enjoyed my time in Monster Energy Supercross the Official Videogame 6, a lot more than I expected to given how I struggled at previous Milestone simulation games. I found there was a great balance between progressing the career mode with other more instant-gratification modes like rhythm and time attack modes. Supercross Park was a great escape from the repetition of doing stadium career races, and attempting to heal injuries through gameplay was intuitive rather than just waiting for them to heal over gametime. No doubt motorbike enthusiasts can pick holes in the game but for a novice like me, this was a lot of fun to play.
This review utilised a Xbox Series X key provided by Plaion ANZ and Monster Energy Supercross the Official Videogame 6 is available now on Xbox, PlayStation and PC.
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Str8JaktJim
