Monster Truck for Game Boy

Game Boy games are so short, I can write a review every day.

Monster Truck was only released in Japan, in October 1990. It was released after Motocross Maniacs (Jan 1990), a game that is considered a defining racing game on the Game Boy. Personally I think it was too complicated though.

These kind of 2D from the side racing games, including Motocross Maniacs but also Excitebike on the NES/Famicom, have fared better than the 3D race-into-the-screen games (F1 Race, Mach Rider). Racing games from an above perspective are playable too (Super Sprint and Micro Machines).

Nice to see gamefaqs has pictures.

You are racing in American cities such as Anaheim, "Huston" and "Indiana Polis".

Pretty alright graphics.

A store after each course. Upgrade your engine and stuff. All in English.

I spent longest time getting stuck, trying to figure out how to pass a car in front of me. I think it took 30-45 minutes until I understood you should drive into them nose down, then change to nose up, and the car will fly up into the air. It is unrealistic.

I don't think I need to say more on how to play because it is standard racing controls.

After some 12 races and 1-2 hours, you will be declared winner and see the end credits. 

Well that's it. It wasn't very hard, but I enjoyed it while it lasted. You die if you receive a lot of damage. I had to use two continues, so if I had died once more I might have been game over.

Since I played it to the end, maybe I should give it a 4, but the gameplay is very simplistic. The music is what you can expect, it sounds like a short loop of "dudelidudli".  You might make the game more challenging if you don't buy upgrades, but that's not really a good way.

I saw that the game was reviewed in a British gaming magazine in 1991, surprisingly. So I used my google skills to download the magazine and took a screenshot of the review.

If you click the image, and it is too small, you can right click and chose "view image".

I remember that games were harder on the old "brick" game boy. That probably explains why the reviewers said the game was hard.

I will only give the game 3/5, even though I enjoyed it. But it is not a game I will remember much about, because there isn't much to remember. I agree with the first reviewer: You shouldn't spend £25 in 1991's money on this game. You can probably get it for £1 in todays money.

It was depressing to buy an expensive crappy games in those days. If you did it too often, you got tired of buying games. I think that happened to me after the unplayable (at least for a kid) Rescue of Princess Blobette. Why couldn't I have gotten Metroid II or Zelda:Link's Awakening? They gave me the discounted games, I think.