The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

RedLynx makes games that I never would have expected to enjoy. However, one might recall how much I loved Trials 2. And I did love it! Would I have paid full price for it? No. But it is a damn fun little game. So when I heard that RedLynx had put out another game, called Monster Trucks Nitro, I was intrigued. It looked like a game that worked on the same basic control ideas as Trials 2, but put them in more of a racing setting, in order to, perhaps, lessen frustration and maximize feeling like a badass. I wanted to try.

But for $20 bucks? No way.

Then, last weekend, Steam had a “Bone-breaking Racing Package” that had both Trials 2 and Monster Trucks Nitro for only $4.50. That was a much more palatable price to try out Monster Trucks Nitro, and hey, I’d get a free copy of Trials 2 to give to Brer or something! So I bought it. Unfortunately, it is apparently only Valve games that do the “gift your extra copy” thing, and my extra copy of Trials 2 has gone completely to waste. A shame. But Monster Trucks Nitro is still pretty well worth that price of admission.

The game was pretty well exactly what I was expecting: It is a more casual, faster version of Trials 2. You accelerate with up, reverse with down, and lean yourself back and forward with the left and right arrows. You race down crazy tracks, which start out mostly as time-trials, but soon become as tricky as some of the stages in Trials 2. Along the course are Nitro canisters, which you can pick up and then deploy with Control for a boost of speed to help you up ramps, over gaps, etc. Much like Trials 2, it’s a fantastic podcast game, and it looks really nice, with weird crazy physics as you crush cars and slam into piles of tires to push them out of your way, while being on a 2D plane.

Still, you can tell that Trials 2 has been around longer and has much more support. The amount of levels in Trials 2 is pretty staggering. There are quite a few, and they continue to release downloadable level packs. Monster Trucks Nitro is still fairly new. While I have no doubt that they’ll put out more levels, I’ve almost beat all of them already. Granted, I think there is also something to be said about how long it takes to defeat a Trials 2 level as opposed to the easier, more casual Monster Trucks Nitro levels, but it is slightly disappointing. I don’t feel like I got cheated or anything, however.

As it is, for 5 bucks, I think that Monster Trucks Nitro is a great purchase. However, by the time you read this, it’ll probably be back up to $20, which is kind of a ridiculous price. $10 would be justified, but $20 is just kind of crazy. I’d wait for another sale, and then pick it up. But I’m having fun with it, and that’s what matters.