By: Tiger Chainsaw
A good monster truck game is as elusive as the real Bigfoot.
The monster truck, Bigfoot, was indeed the king of monster trucks in the 80s and 90s when the sport was taking off. The iconic blue car crusher is arguably the most famous monster truck. I loved it as a kid and admittedly as an adult. I watched Bigfoot crush millions of cars and win numerous championships, so when my wife randomly texted me that she was at Goodwill and saw a monster truck game for the Nintendo Wii, I knew I had to have it. Bigfoot: King of Crush is the latest game in my search for the greatest monster truck game. Developed by IndiePub, and published by Zoo Games in 2011 for the Wii, the game has gone under the radar for every publication. I had to play it to see if this was truly fit for the title that features Big Foot.
Story:
There’s no story for this game. Just crush cars and win races.
Gameplay:
The bar is set extremely low for monster trucks game. If you’ve been following along in my quest to find the greatest monster truck game you’ll remember that I’ve reviewed Monster Jam: Maximum Destruction for the PlayStation 2 (5.2/10), and Monster Truck Rally (3.5/10) for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Both failed miserably in gaining an ounce of respect.
With the license to the most famous monster truck in the world, I would expect Bigfoot: King of Crush to include some footage of the fan-favorite. Loading up the game results in no such luck. There’s no awesome video of Bigfoot crushing cars or ramping dirt mounds, just a boring menu. Even when you “beat’ the game which I did, there’s no reward video of Bigfoot highlights.
At the main menu, you’ll see an option for instant racing, multiplayer, championship, and option. I played through the entire championship but that’s not saying much as I beat the game in about four hours. Go ahead and toss out your Wii Steering Wheel. It’s useless and makes steering ten times harder than it needs to be. I don’t like the Wii Wheel anyway, but don’t bother trying to get a grip on it. After a few races, I adjusted to the steering and was able to start making my way through the championship gauntlet.
There are four circuits to compete in with the only difference being the racing segment. These courses are nothing special, but it’s okay for the game. A snow race, a beach race, a city race, and a mountain race. At first, I thought it was bogus that there was no difficulty option to select but found out that it’s not too difficult once you memorize the course. If I didn’t win in the first race, I won on the second or third.
You need to come in at least third place for each event on a circuit to unlock the next. There are about eight events to compete in for each circuit, that’s not an exact amount as I took bad notes, but that’s my guess from memory. Aside from a few different racing events, there’s a sprint challenge, weight-pull, and trick challenge. None of these require skill to win. I was excited when reading the back of the case because this is the type of event that I want in a monster truck game. An authentic simulation of monster trucks is all I want, but instead, I got more crappy arcade mini-games.
I want realism in my monster truck game. Mounting weapons on my truck or jumping thousands of feet in the air doesn’t do it for me. I can find those types of thrills in just about any car combat or racing game. When I finished all four circuits, I received a message that said “Congratulations! You are a Bigfoot megastar! You have finished every event in first place!”
That’s it, the big payoff for beating the game.
Wondering what trucks you can race with? They certainly put the trademark to good use giving you about eight versions of Bigfoot to race with. I always selected the classic 35th-anniversary edition from the 80s because that’s the truck I watched on all my VHS tapes. Admittedly, it was cool to race as the Bigfoot that I loved so dearly, but that joy vanished after the gameplay started. You can race as two versions of SnakeBite which was another version of the Bigfoot truck just with a different shell on him.
Immediately, after starting a race for the first time the game lost all of its audio and experienced extreme slow down. Not a good sign when I first started playing it. Thankfully, it didn’t happen again but beware there are bugs in it. When it’s not bugging out, the gameplay is mundane. They try and make the racing fun by having parts of the truck fly off when you crash, and it’s somewhat realistic with the fiberglass fittings that go on these trucks, but for 2011, the graphics look like it could be from 2002. This game was probably meant for gamers on a budget, and it certainly shows.
Memories:
I love Bigfoot and respect everything that the brand stands for. It doesn’t participate in Monster Jam. I miss the old events of drag racing over cars and short sprints with weight pulling events. Those are long gone except for small shows and fairs which Bigfoot still races. Everything is stunts, stunts, and stunts! That’s boring to me.
When I saw this game, I knew it was low budget but still had hoped with the description of the events on the back of the case. I settled in for a mediocre four-hour experience at best. Fun fact, it was the first Wii game I played after my wife got me a Wii for Christmas along with a ton of games for it.
Overall:
Bigfoot: King of Crush doesn’t do much for even the biggest fan of Bigfoot. There was a lot of potential wasted after securing the right to the truck. They have solid events, but they are too arcade-like to qualify for a real monster truck game. Alas, my search for the greatest monster truck game must go on.
Bigfoot: King of Crush scores a 5.4 out of 10.
Do you remember when Bigfoot: King of Crush first came out? Are you a fan of Bigfoot? If so, do you still watch monster truck racing? What’s the best monster truck game out there? Do all games that publisher Zoo Games produce suck? Let me know your memories and thoughts I’d love to read the comments.
If you’d like to own a copy of Bigfoot: King of Crush, you can purchase a used copy of it for the Nintendo Wii for $6 on eBay.
Tiger Chainsaw 