After having a bit of a pit stop last year, Monster Energy Supercross has returned. You may note a little name change as it has dropped the numbered instalment. Instead gone for the year. Monster Energy Supercross 25 – The Official Videogame is a mouthful for sure, but it’s also being billed as a re-boot of the series too.
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And so, the stakes are high. Hardcore fans will expect changes to be made to the formula, while also keeping that core feel and tone of the series, which is no easy task.
Literal and Figurative Balancing Act
The biggest change by far is the handling of the bikes now, as it’s gone for a very middle-of-the-road feel. That is to say, Monster Energy Supercross 25 attempts to blend arcade and sim-style racing together. You have to really think about how you ride. You can’t just jump on, and bomb it at 75mph into the first corner, lest you be met with mud facial.
Monster Energy Supercross 25 demands you work both sticks in a similar fashion to past games. The left stick steers the bike, while also letting you lift the front end or add weight to the back. The right stick then controls your rider, and their weight distribution, which is key when cornering. Get this right and you have maximum traction to drive through the corner.
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Also worth noting is that this isn’t a game for those looking to pull off over the top stunts and tricks while racing. Sure, you can do scrubs and whips, but these are to help get the angle you need to take a corner after you land a jump.
Track Master
Handling is only half the battle, the other half is you reading the tracks and picking the best routes as it will get carved up the longer the race goes. Meaning ruts and just general deformation happens in real time. Meaning the race evolves lap on lap and also adds to the overall SIM feeling of it as well.
And then there is the weather system that throws a whole new spanner in the works. Outdoor tracks will be affected by rain, making them muddy and more slippery – which not only you have to handle but the AI around you has to too, making that rush to the first corner of the start extremely tense.
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The biggest issue I had with the handling was that understeer was a constant. It can feel overly stiff. And it just isn’t fun fighting the bike at every corner. This constant understeer hits first before a fight out of oversteer ensues.
Missing the Middle
This is where aiming for a blend of arcade and sim starts to fall flat. The system 100% builds on that of Monster Energy Supercross 6 – The Official Videogame. If you’re not a fan of it, there is nothing here to change it. Plus, it’s a rough ride for newcomers, as even the basics take time to get to grips with.
Speaking of Monster Energy Supercross 6 – The Official Videogame, the overall ride animations feel like a direct lift from that title, and we mean that in a bad way. Riders are still very sluggish and rigid. It’s just plain odd looking when you take to the air and your rider is just sat there like a plank.
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This is a shame. Especially since this is the first game in the series to be built in Unreal Engine 5. There’s more than enough grunt there to make animations more fluid and to add touches. Stuff like dirt being kicked up on the cam as you gun it out a corner. Little things that would add an extra visual layer to the sim tone are missed.
Healthy Selection
You’ll find a healthy selection of 17 tracks to get to grips with, all based around the 2025 roster. On top of that, there are 65 riders to pick from, complete with accompanying bikes. Each bike feels different, or so it is claimed. However, other than the sound of the bikes I was hard pushed to spot any difference on the racing front.
And, any time spent on the bikes across modes will bank you EXP, which lets you unlock new parts for your ride. It must be noted that there is a real ‘live service’ feel to this system. It feels a bit more like the systems used in some like WWE 2K25, which I reviewed a few weeks back, than something you’d expect in a sim.
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There is also a nice, if simple, rider customisation system,. Here, you can grab your dream kit, and colour your bike how you see fit. Some of you will lose hours crafting different logos and liveries using the intuitive and well-realised vinyl decal creator.
The track editor returns in Monster Energy Supercross 25, but it isn’t the leap forward you may have hoped. You have two indoor and outdoor areas to build in, but the whole thing is very restrictive and limited, and the editing controls are a bit stiff.
University of Hard Knocks
There is a tutorial to help you understand its demanding central system. However, it’s a little hidden away behind a few menus, which is a odd move. Even more questionable is that the on-bike tutorial teaches you the bare minimum to get going. If you want to learn more, you’ll have to hunt down a separate text-based explanation.
Overall, the tutorial system is a joke and extremely unwelcoming to newcomers. I think Milestone forgot that this is a niche title, and that gatekeeping some essentials concepts from all but the returning hardcore, will instantly put some people off. Trial and error will only get you so far in Monster Energy Supercross 25.
Monster Ramping Loony Party
Online and local multiplayer all follow the Monster Energy Supercross 6 – The Official Videogame mould, albeit with a few minor tweaks. Odds are you’ll spend most of your time in the career mode, which follows the standard sports game template.
You start at the bottom with no rep, money or hope. Through grind and grit, you work your way to the top of that podium. It’s fine. There is an interesting social media quasi-mini-game when not racing. Here, uou grow fans, hear rumours and even troll your rivals.
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Again, after the Formula 1 games show you can have a gripping career mode with an actual story running through it. I had hoped other motorsport titles would have followed this new take, as it honestly adds to the overall thing, instead of just doom scrolling when not on track.
Team synergy also plays a factor as having better synergy within the team gets you buffs and better states, with each team having their own synergy settings based on their bikes.
Forwards and Backwards
Monster Energy Supercross 25 – The Official Videogame lands some of its changes, but has issues that will put off newcomers. It even has some issues that will put off the hardcore. Much of these can be explained as a result of trying to blend both arcade racing thrills, with a sim racing challenge. The result was a jack of all trades and master of none.
And this is a shame. Picking a side and sticking with it has yielded great results for the studio when handling niche sports. Once they nail the sport of Supercross, I have no doubt that they will capture the thrilling and adrenaline fuelled feel of the sport.
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