Headlong Racing Demo

Monster trucks are not your typical vehicles, especially when it comes to shape and the way they maneuver out on the track. As such, monster truck racing competitions are not particularly popular, but destruction and demolition derbies featuring giant machines crushing regular cars are quite sensational and well-received by the public.

Headlong Racing is part simulator and part arcade, because although it tries to feature realistic physics and handling when it comes to the vehicles, they also come equipped with nitro boosters and they can survive horrible crashes at any speed. Hence, a bit of fun is guaranteed, but you may not enjoy yourself too much if you value realism because this is just not the game to provide it to you.

To begin with, the game comes with a very sketchy and simple career mode, which is definitely not what you would expect. In fact, all you can do is choose a vehicle and its color, while everything else is automatically selected for you. Hence, the career mode feels more like a succession of quick races, because you do not really have any control over the driver or anything else.

Part of what makes a racing game great or bad is the feeling you get during the race, including the handling and the sense of speed. Headlong Racing features decent gameplay mechanics, but it doesn’t present enough content for the players to form an informed opinion on the matter. Hence, although the handling feels nice and you can tell that a bit of work went into the physics aspect, there are times when everything feels too much like Need for Speed as well.

Things are a bit better in the technical department, because the controls are pretty responsive and the graphics look more than decent. Unfortunately, the tracks are rather simple and lackluster when it comes to the surrounding environment, but that can be overlooked in the demo. However, the sound is a tad too unrefined for most tastes, and it may force some to just turn it off entirely.

In the end, there’s no denying that monster trucks are exciting, regardless of age or whether or not you have a passion for cars. However, Headlong Racing doesn’t really manage to press on that excitement, probably because it takes itself too seriously to provide the players with fun and enjoyment.