Milestone specializes in racing games, but if you wanted to drill down, the developer focuses on motorcycles. It is a niche genre of racing, but if there's a game that primarily features motorcycles, there's a strong chance that Milestone is behind it. One of those games is Monster Energy Supercross, and after six consecutive annual releases of the series, the team took a break to do a big revamp. Monster Energy Supercross 25: The Official Video Game is the product of that revamp, but only a specific segment of the audience for this game will appreciate that.

If you're not familiar with the sport, motocross is essentially dirt bike racing against roughly 24 riders. While some of the courses take place outdoors, most are held in football or baseball stadiums that have been converted with airbags and tons of dirt. Most tracks are heavy on the turns, with wide banks to accommodate the number of racers while whoops (small consecutive hills down a straightaway) and jumps make up a majority of the track.

Compared to most other racing games, what you're getting in Monster Energy Supercross 25 is a very different racing experience, and that mostly comes down to the physics. The tracks and uneven dirt play a big part in this, and that's doubly so since the game has terrain deformation per lap that depends on racer habits. One turn can be completely fine during one lap but be quite treacherous on the next lap because everyone took the same line before. Jumps and bumps also change your racing habits, since taking things at full speed isn't ideal due to where you may land. Bike and body balance also dictate whether you'll land with your speed intact or come to a full stop — or perhaps land badly enough to crash out. In a way, you can consider this to be a motocross racing simulator, similar to what the company has tried to do with the Moto GP series.

The emphasis on physics and technical knowledge highlight the first limitation. This is a strictly simulation experience. No matter how many gameplay options you dial down, you aren't getting the kind of experience where you can simply steer and keep your foot on the gas and come in first place. You need to understand the nuances of motocross racing to finish in the middle of the pack, so be prepared for a steep learning curve.

To that end, those hoping for a good tutorial to bring you up to speed with the intricacies of motocross racing will be left very disappointed. You will get the basics of how to control your bike, but you won't be told why those things are important. You might inherently understand why it's necessary to shift your body weight in a turn, but you aren't told the differences or importance of moves like whips and scrubs. You can drill into each move to get more details, but the video to show off the move is small, and the text doesn't provide enough information to newcomers of the sport. The tutorial doesn't feel like it takes pacing into account, as failure doesn't automatically reset you to a spot where you can easily repeat the lesson. Fail to navigate the whoops properly, for example, and you'll be forced to go through the whole track again to find the specific section where you can retry the lesson. For a game on its seventh iteration, it's very disappointing that there's no meaningful way to learn the mechanics.

Monster Energy Supercross 25 has a number of game modes. The career mode is where you'll likely spend all of your single-player time, and it starts with character creation. The character creation system feels limited since there aren't many of the usual options for skin color, hair styles or faces, but that doesn't matter too much since those features are usually hidden behind a helmet and racing uniform. Those things are infinitely more customizable thanks to the livery section, which allows you to create a variety of decals for your uniform. The community has already shown how good these tools are in the right hands.

The career mode goes through the expected things in a modern racing game. You'll participate in several races from week to week, upgrading your standings so that you can move out of the rookie class and into the 250 and eventually 450 class of bikes. In between, you'll try to synergize with your team and gain sponsorships while also maintaining your fame through social media posts and responses. It all works fine, but it's all very perfunctory. The dialogue in text messages seems rather generic because your manager and team don't show any personality. The social media section is similarly benign, especially since it's painfully obvious the kind of mood each answer is going for. Your answers don't seem to change the trajectory of your career, so being courteous will get you the same results as being a jerk. Considering how engaging other racing game careers have been even a few console generations ago, this is a feature that definitely needs some improvement.

Beyond the career mode, there are several other solo modes. Time Attack and Single Event are self-explanatory. Rhythm Attack is the motocross version of a drag race and is easily the one mode where playing with an arcade mentality still works, since the tracks are all straight lines. Championship mode is essentially Career mode, except you can select from any number of pros and take them through the championship circuit on their way to the podium. You can choose your bike class, but there are no other differing stats, no matter which bike or rider you choose. If you don't like the current season setup, you can edit it down so the journey is never the same when you go through a new run. All in all, the modes are fine but nothing out of the ordinary.

Course creation is available, and like the game's other modes, it does the job and nothing more. You have a decent number of parts to build with, but the overall venue choices are limited to two outdoor and two indoor areas. This is definitely for those who want to build fantasy courses or classic ones from AMA Supercross history, and there are enough tools to do that once you come to grips with a not-so-intuitive building system. One good thing is that the courses can be shared online across all platforms, which is always nice since that isn't a common feature yet.

Online play is good. We didn't get to play in too many matches online, but the ones we participated in had no lag, so the experience felt smooth. The major new addition is cross-play support, and it is a godsend considering the niche audience. The expansion to all platforms doesn't mean that online matches are instantaneous, but it reduces the chances of finding no one online.

Graphically, Monster Energy Supercross 25 looks good, but the benefits of the engine change are minimal. The riders and bikes look good, but don't expect much when it comes to the animations. The environments look nice, and you see the tracks deform after every lap and are modified once the rain kicks in. Don't start looking at the rest of the environmental elements, as the bystanders at the track don't move, making you believe they are cardboard cutouts. The game moves at a locked 60fps most of the time, which is always a plus in a racing title.

Compared to the graphics, the audio is merely fine. The buzzing of the engine is the sound that'll be the most prevalent when playing this game, so you have to learn to love it or drop the volume. There isn't much in terms of music, and what is available is generic, lyric-less rock that's never heard in races and quickly forgotten once you transition away from the game menus. As for voices, there are none, except for the introductions that occur when you enter a track; that really emphasizes the game's shoestring budget.

Monster Energy Supercross 25: The Official Video Game is specifically for the hardcore motocross fanatic. Those fans will love things like the ability to play a current season of the sport and the presence of tangible track deformation. For everyone else, this is a difficult game to recommend. From the high difficulty level and steep learning curve to the bare-bones campaign, there's not enough to entice interested players to give this a try. At this rate, your best bet is to wait and see if this game or older entries in the series will reach Game Pass, so you can see if you can gel with this title.

Score: 6.0/10