For the first time in two years, Supercross fans have a new game in Monster Energy Supercross 25. A game built from the ground up in Unreal Engine 5, developer Milestone has taken what made the series fun in the past and worked to expand in ways to add to the longevity of the game.
But just how much fun is the first official Supercross game since 2023? In many ways it’s the best Supercross game Milestone has ever put out. In others, it leaves a lot to be desired.
Monster Energy Supercross 25 Review
Before diving into the modes, let’s talk about the gameplay. Monster Energy Supercross 25 is one of the more difficult racing games to get the hang of. But don’t let that scare you, that’s not a bad thing. Nor does that mean it’s not beginner friendly.
Whether you’ve never played a Supercross game before or it’s been years since the last one you touched, the settings available to you make it so you can have the easiest time of your life whipping around each track on your way to first place. Playing like that, however, quickly becomes boring, and you’ll want more of a challenge. And make no mistake about it, a challenge you will get.
From timing your acceleration out of a turn on a rain-soaked track to hitting the whoops in a way that keeps you from losing momentum, every single area on the track requires precision. I can’t begin to count the number of times I dumped my bike because I thought I could take a sharp turn like I was the world’s greatest racer. Fall after fall after fall in my first handful of races—I’m looking at you, Daytona—saw every opponent fly past as I watched my top 5 finish vanish.
As you get the hang of how each bike feels and reacts to your riding, you’ll find yourself improving in both control and speed. Nothing’s more satisfying than hitting a personal-best lap time on a track you’ve struggled with time and time again. Pair that with tracks that change on a lap-by-lap basis, and it makes success even more rewarding. That euphoric feeling you get after that first major win is something that’s hard to replicate in racers, and Supercross 25 does it well.
Without question, the franchise’s jump up to Unreal Engine 5 has not only improved the overall visual fidelity where the tracks and drivers look the best they ever have, but it’s helped the gameplay become the best it’s ever been. And it’s not even close.
Presentation itself is similar to what it had been. The commentary you hear only comes in before and after a race while the actual race is focused just on the action at hand. It’s fine, but nothing to write home about.
Of course, there are a couple frustrations with gameplay such as hitting a jump and landing directly on the head of the rider in front of you only to bounce off and keep going. Or when you are racing hard and simply bounce off the side of the rider next to you without even a little bit of slowdown. It’s little things like that that can hurt the on-track immersion that Supercross 25 is going for. Thankfully, it didn’t happen enough to ruin the on-track fun.
An Unfulfilling Career
Where the fun does kind of take a back seat is with Supercross 25’s career mode. The mode you’ll likely spend the most time in, the premise is simple: start in the Futures and work your way up to the 450 series.
On the surface, it looks like there’s a lot here. There are rivalries, team goals to achieve, sponsorship opportunities, social media to track, and more. The problem is that it’s all surface-level material. There’s no real meat to the career mode bones here.
First, rider customization might be the most limited in any sport game. I get that you don’t really see their face as you race, but having a bit more freedom would’ve been nice to have.
All the mode feels like as you progress through is one where you’re just trying to impress a team enough to give you your next contract. You constantly are looking at what’s out there and what it would take for a specific team to be interested in you. Some might want you to win your races while others just want consistent Top 10 or Top 5 finishes.
Each season of your career is split up into Acts that ends in a Climax with a specific goal based on what’s happened in the prior races. It adds a bit of intrigue and breakup to a mode that could start to feel monotonous without it.
Another way your career is broken up is in the form of motocross races and even rhythm attack events. They help you increase your fan count, which builds up your notoriety, but I failed to see where it actually impacts what happens throughout your career. It didn’t seem to increase/decrease the likelihood of signing with a better team. All that mattered was the performance on the track. Even in my limited social media responses where I intentionally tried to be the biggest jerk I possibly could, it still didn’t negatively affect me enough to warrant changing my plan.
All in all, the career mode just feels like something’s missing. Even upgrading your bike doesn’t feel as deep as it could. It’s just: choose your upgrade, wait, repeat.
I’m not saying I want a cutscene-filled story mode—I’m the furthest from a fan of that—but I would’ve liked more interaction with other drivers and more consequences. Any sort of poor performance on the track felt more like a bump in the road than anything to really be worried about. That takes out any potential drama that a career mode should include. There’s a solid foundation here for a truly great career mode, but this year’s isn’t it.
Outside of the career mode, there’s not much that will keep you busy aside from the one-off race weekends and a very barebones online multiplayer at launch. Multiplayer is expected to get updates post launch, but it’s nothing more than private lobbies and unranked races at the moment.
Monster Energy Supercross 25 Review Verdict
As mentioned at the beginning, Monster Energy Supercross 25 is the best Supercross game that Milestone has put out in so many ways. The racing is rewarding as you get the hang of it, and the visuals are second-to-none. Unfortunately, the career mode leaves you just wishing for more to do with the rest of the game feeling quite empty.
For that, it’s tough to recommend it as a day one purchase unless you are a diehard fan yearning to get back on the track. If not, it’s a game worth playing for sure, just after it drops a bit in price or planned DLC updates add more to do outside of career mode and in multiplayer.
VERDICT: WAIT
A copy of Monster Energy Supercross 25 for PC was provided for the purposes of this review.
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