Somewhere along the line, sports games became obsessed with realism and everything else that wasn’t going offer itself up upon that altar (or weren’t going to made you absurd amounts of money by selling you card packs) just kind of died. The big games aside (Madden, FIFA, etc), an entire genre fell into a niche and never really climbed out. It’s neither inherently good nor bad, but it’s worth noting how samey so many sports titles feel now, even the ones in genres you might be unfamiliar with.

"Once you start turning off the assists and have to figure out how to shift gears properly, how to use a scrub to take a jump, and how to actually race without the game’s finger on the scale, things get wild."

Monster Energy Supercross 2 isn’t an exception. Despite its name, none of the playable characters have monster energy (I can only assume this is like having tiger blood or dragon energy) and the drink itself is largely absent from the proceedings. The former is kind of a bummer, and the latter is a bit unexpected since Monster has sponsored the entire supercross league since 1974. For those of you who are reading a review of a sports sim with absolutely no knowledge of what the sport in question is, supercross is a motorcycle race where riders careen around coiling dirt paths and navigate jumps of all heights to get into the lead, and Milestone, who is also known for developing Superbike and the MotoGP series, does an admirable job of capturing the intricacies of the sport.

This also means that the game is pretty complicated. You have to manage your direction, speed, and weight distribution at all times, lest you wipe out. Weight distribution is handled with the right stick, and the right amount of lean can mean the difference between an immaculately drifted corner or a perfectly placed jump, and eating dirt. Controlling your speed is crucial, because you want to grab enough air to clear the big jumps, but not too much for the little jumps. Spend too much time in the air on little jumps and your competition will bunnyhop right past you. Take a turn too fast, or at the wrong angle – always, always make sure your front wheel is in the direction you want to go before taking a jump or starting to accelerate – and you’ll slam, ragdoll style, into a barrier.

This is just the basic stuff, by the way. Once you start turning off the assists and have to figure out how to shift gears properly, how to use a scrub to take a jump, and how to actually race without the game’s finger on the scale, things get wild. You get used to it – I eventually started placing well, though I often used the game’s rewind function, which functions the same way it does in a Forza title, to do it – but even when you realize what you have to do, it’s not easy. Regardless, it’s nice that the game lets you play however you want to, and there’s a lot of depth here if you feel like mining it.

"he tracks you’ll race on are well-rendered; clumps of dirt fly into the camera, and barriers react in realistic ways when you hit them."

The tracks you’ll race on are well-rendered; clumps of dirt fly into the camera, and barriers react in realistic ways when you hit them. I can’t speak to how true the tracks are to their real-life counterparts – I’ve never watched Supercross – but the way they are set up makes me believe that Milestone has succeeded. They feel good to race on and flow naturally. There’s also some commentary at the beginning and end of races, but it’s incredibly generic stuff and you can skip it without missing much of anything. This minor niggle aside, the races are easily the best part of the game and it’s easy to see where Milestone’s focus was.

The same can’t be said for the rest of the game’s production values or customization of created riders. The models look odd and dated, and there’s not much here to fiddle with if you decide to create a character – 12 faces to choose from, and some colors (hair, eyes, etc) to change. You can grab hats and sunglasses to customize your character, but they’re very, very expensive (thousands of in-game credits) and are so hilariously oversized that they look like they’d be better suited to a clown costume.

The modes are equally barebones. Many of them are racing game staples: time trials, single events, and championships and you can customize a good deal of how they work. Wanna go through qualifiers for races? Go ahead. Want to just skip to the main event? Knock yourself out. There’s also a career mode for your created riders. It offers you some interesting options – you can train to better your rider, do promotions to make money or raise your fame, complete challenges, etc – and advance through more lucrative sponsorship deals if you do well enough, but aside from a few more cutscenes and the odd training or challenge, it’s just another way to get you into the next race.

"How much you enjoy Supercross 2 will largely depend on how much you enjoy either the races themselves or playing with the track creator. The compound is nice, but it’s about the only time the game deviates from its core gameplay loop. There just isn’t a lot of variety here."

Between races, you can hang out in the compound, a kind of free play area with jumps and turns you can use to practice. There’s also a track editor with a ton of options and strong tutorial that will walk you through how to use them, and the obligatory online modes which include custom lobbies and quick matches. But beyond that, the game doesn’t offer much to do; how much you enjoy it will largely depend on how much you enjoy either the races themselves or playing with the track creator. The compound is nice, but it’s about the only time the game deviates from its core gameplay loop. There just isn’t a lot of variety here.

And then there are the bugs: riders not loading in at the starting line pre-race, certain colors not displaying properly, stuff like that. Once, after giving me credits for accomplishing a sponsor objective, the game refused to stop playing the “credits are being deposited into your account” sound, which got so grating that I ended up having to restart the game.

It’s easy to see the appeal of Monster Energy Supercross 2. The game recreates the sport admirably, and there’s enough depth to the gameplay to satisfy even the more hardcore fans. Those who love the sport, and want to experience it as intensely as possible from the comfort of their couch, will find a lot to like here. But the presentation problems, bugs, and lack of gameplay variety do drag down the experience for someone who might be looking for a more casual experience. In many ways, it’s like a rider with one really great skill. That skill – the gameplay – is really cool, and it’s fun to watch them pull it off. But even the best tricks get old after a while. How much you love what Milestone has accomplished here will depend on how much you love Supercross 2’s gameplay, and how little you mind its lack of variety and inconsistencies. Like I said, it’s a good trick; let’s hope next time Milestone is ready to show us a few more.

This game was reviewed on the Xbox One.

"Our main goal was to improve the Career Mode, evolving it into something more engaging than a simple playlist of races."

How deep do the customization options go in Monster Energy Supercross 2?

In addition to an improved gear catalogue, both for rider and bike components, we wanted to focus our attention on a deeper character customization – for example, in Supercross 2 it’s possible to personalize the Custom Rider with hats, sunglasses, earrings and tattoos. Moreover, players will find a wide range of brand new buttpatches and unique special components, unlockable through in-game currency, challenges and prestige system.

Can players expect to see any new mechanics in the Track Editor?

The Track Editor is one of our favourite features in Monster Energy Supercross – The Videogame 2. We wanted the players to be able to recreate the track of their dreams with the maximum accuracy possible – that’s why we improved the Track Editor with lots of new modules and with the possibility to customize the starting grid.

Can you talk to us a bit about what improvements players can expect to see in the career mode?

Our main goal was to improve the Career Mode, evolving it into something more engaging than a simple playlist of races. Players will now be able to manage their Rider Agenda, setting up the days that precede the weekend race. For each available day, it’s possible to select one of four different activities within Trainings, Fame Days, Sponsor Days and Rider Challenges.

From a development perspective, how different of an experience is it to work on Supercross 2 as opposed to something like Ride or MotoGP?

As you can imagine, working on an IP as RIDE 3 or a licensed video games – Monster Energy Supercross – The Videogame 2 or MotoGP present clear differences in terms of approach to development, because this second option means deeply embedding licenses into each step of production. We work very closely with the people behind the licenses – they give us their feedback and access to all official tracks, bikes and athletes and approve from the early stage of creation, to guarantee a full immersive experience of their championships. On the other hand, working on your own IP means a complete freedom in terms of design of video game and creation of own rules for each race.

"Working on a licensed product is never a walk in the park. This game is no exception: players rightfully expect to be able to live and breathe the Supercross atmosphere at its best. From this perspective, we worked hard on reproducing faithfully the discipline, taking care of the smallest details in order to give the players the most realistic experience."

Given that Monster Energy Supercross 2 is a licensed product, does that place an added weight of expectation as far as authenticity in presentation is concerned?

Working on a licensed product is never a walk in the park. This game is no exception: players rightfully expect to be able to live and breathe the Supercross atmosphere at its best. From this perspective, we worked hard on reproducing faithfully the discipline, taking care of the smallest details in order to give the players the most realistic experience.

Can you talk to us about a bit about the Compound? More specifically, how destructible are the environments going to be? And can players expect to see any new features?

Monster Energy Supercross – The Videogame 2’s Compound will feature three different Supercross tracks and a Motocross tracks, all of them included in a huge free-roaming map set in a typical American farmland. It will be possible to race in Single Events, both online and offline, and Time Attack on all of the available tracks. Free-roaming lovers will enjoy the environment even more thanks to the Day-Night cycle and the dynamic weather.

Is this a game that caters more to hardcore Supercross aficionados or simulation enthusiasts, or is it something that will be accessible to more casual racing fans as well?

We always try to please all of our players. Even though it may seem impossible to satisfy everyone, we wanted both the casual and the hardcore gamer to enjoy the experience we delivered. That being said, there will be two different physics related options and five AI difficulties, able to change completely the gaming experience according to the user will. Moreover, we implemented the Flow Aid, a brand new feature, that can be turned on at will, useful for the players that want to learn the best flow for each track.

Can you talk to us a bit about what players can expect to see from the multiplayer side of things?

We are all gamers and we know how much people love to play online. During the development process we tried to gather as many feedback as we could from our community in order to improve the multiplayer experience.

"All of the gear and components can be unlocked through in-game credits, specific Challenges and the Prestige level-up system."

Will there be any microtransactions in the game?

Absolutely not. All of the gear and components can be unlocked through in-game credits, specific Challenges and the Prestige level-up system.

Will the game will feature Xbox One X specific enhancements. What can players expect if they are playing the game on Xbox One X? Is 4K/60fps on the cards?

Anyone who plays on an Xbox One X will be surprised by the enhanced graphic effects, reached to guarantee a better performance as well as the resolution which is higher than full HD. As you can imagine, this is a very early stage in development of the title – we are still working to reach 60fps, but we can’t still confirm anything just now.

And how will the PS4 Pro version turn out in terms of resolution and frame rate?

It’s a similar story. On PS4 Pro version, we’ve also achieved a higher resolution than full HD. At this stage the PS4 Pro version is running at 30 fps, but we’re working to have guarantee the same performance as the Xbox One X at 60 fps.

How is the game running on the original Xbox One and PS4, frame rate and resolution wise?

At present, the framerate is always 30fps on PS4 and Xbox One, with a 1080p resolution on PS4 and 900p on Xbox One.

What is the resolution and frame rate of the Switch version in docked and undocked modes?

Both the resolution and frame rate have been improved in comparison with the previous video game in the undocked mode, while in docked one we support 720p.

"Cross play would be a great opportunity for the industry to develop online games and multiplayer features with a different point of view. A solid and cohesive online community could benefit especially small and medium developers, which online users are widely spread through all the different platforms."

Next gen is coming sooner or later. From a development perspective, what is your biggest expectation from PS5 and Xbox Scarlett?

We are thrilled by the idea of working on always more powerful consoles, pushing the graphics and performances to their limits. The future of gaming might be around the corner, but it’s still a bit of a  mystery right now, and one not quite ready to be unveiled.

Do you think cross platform will be one of the defining features of next-gen consoles?

It would be a great opportunity for the industry to develop online games and multiplayer features with a different point of view. A solid and cohesive online community could benefit especially small and medium developers, which online users are widely spread through all the different platforms.

Motorcycle connoisseurs Milestone recently churned out the solid RIDE 3, but their next project is also already in the pipeline. Monster Energy Supercross 2 is due out early next year, and in anticipation of its release, we recently conducted an interview with Mauro Indini, game designer on the upcoming title. Among several other things, we asked Indini about the game’s technical aspects on each of the consoles it is releasing on, regarding both frame-rate and resolution, and got some interesting details.

Indini confirmed that on both the PS4 and the Xbox One, the game would run at a frame rate of 30 frames per second. As for the resolution, those figures are about what you would expect them to be- on the PS4, Monster Energy Supercross 2 will render at 1080p, and at 900p on the Xbox One.

As for the Switch, Indini told us that “both the resolution and frame rate have been improved in comparison with the previous video game in the undocked mode”, but didn’t go into the specifics of what those improvements are going to be. Meanwhile, in docked mode on the Switch, the game will run at 720p.

Monster Energy Supercross 2 is due out on February 8, 2019 for the PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC. Stay tuned to GamingBolt, our full interview with Indini will be going live soon.