REVIEW: Monster Energy Supercross - The Official Videogame 5 (PS5)

Review by GamingCouchPotato.co.uk writer

The latest Supercross game is here, and this one has a ridiculously long name, just like previous games. Monster Energy Supercross - The Official Videogame 5 will from this point on be known as Supercross.

For those who don't know, Supercross is a fancy name for Dirt Bikes, in other words, powerful motorbikes that race on dirt. This game takes the official 2021 championship, and allows you to play in it. All the official tracks, bikes and stars are here. It is about as complete as you can get.

The control system might seem a bit strange to new players to the franchise, it offers a twin stick experience, which although tough to get used to at first, quickly becomes second nature. You need to use both analog sticks to precisely control the rider, this is most important when it comes to the smaller jumps, but also while sailing through the air on a big jump, trying to get that extra bit of flight.

The tracks can feel tight at times, meaning there is not much room for error, this is where the technical aspects of the game come before what you might consider a more arcade type feel. Luckily the game allows you rewind bars, so if you land on top of another rider, you can rewind and try to get it right. And as your ability to rewind drops, you can land tricks etc to refill the rewind bar.

There is a pretty detailed career mode, that has everything you could need across 3 classes.

The Good

The graphics are decent if not outstanding, which you would expect on a PS5. People new to the genre should enjoy the game, as it offers enough to keep you interested.

The Bad

The tracks can feel a bit repetitive, and the game really isn't that much of an improvement over previous games in the series. The difficulty settings too are not weighted very well. Easy is way too easy for a start, moving up to medium, and medium is way too hard.

There is an injury system, whereby you can spend credits you earn, to heal up, but it becomes pointless as you always have plenty of credits.

There are some graphic glitches/bugs I noticed too, which simply should not be there on such a big release.

Overall

The physics of the game feel authentic, and if you have not played any of the previous games in the franchise, then this is the one to get if you enjoy a bit of Supercross. However, can you justify paying £40+ for this, when you can get last year's version for half that? Probably not. (Available here https://amzn.to/3uf7nro)

I score Monster Energy Supercross - The Official Videogame 5 on PS5 a 6/10. (8/10 if you have never played a previous version)

Out now on PS5 at https://amzn.to/3N1lb1z