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BIGFOOT: COLLISION COURSE (DS)
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Publisher: Zoo Games.
Developer: Destination Software. Released: July 2009 (Europe). Genre: Racing. Other versions: WII. Posted 20th February 2025. By Shane Battams © 2025 |
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In the history of monster trucks, none are perhaps as significant as Bigfoot. Bob Chandler’s modified Ford, a pioneer dubbed “The Original Monster Truck”, was the first to crush cars and thus gained immense popularity in the 1980s. Thus ensued several cameos in films, its own animated show and, of course, video games. Some thirty years after its heyday, Nintendo DS owners would be treated to Bigfoot: Collision Course, putting players in the driver’s seat of a handful of monster trucks, including the iconic Bigfoot, and letting you race through destructible locations. A competent game could’ve offered some mindless yet explosive fun, though needless to say, Collision Course proves almost the exact opposite of that.
Something feels amiss once you load up your first race, and the racers drop-spawn onto the track. There’s a deep sense of floatiness to the proceedings, with light physics seeing your truck lift off its front wheels just from hitting the throttle at the start. Handling is incredibly stiff, making turning awkward, and only sharp braking really aids steering. There’s also the aspect of driving into obstacles, which rewards boost that sends you speeding ahead once full. It’s a good idea in theory, and being able to smash cars, snowmen and cabins is weirdly satisfying. The trouble is, iffy collision detection can see you miss certain objects or worse, cause your truck to come to a standstill. Getting caught on certain objects, such as tree stumps or environmental walls, sees your monster grinding to a halt. Getting going again can prove awkward and requires significant effort, lest you snag the same object again.
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You'll have seen everything Bigfoot has to offer in less than two hours
You’d think these ailments would make races difficult, but actually, beating Bigfoot: Collision Course is a breeze. Dozy AI sees opponents fall behind and fail to catch up unless you really get caught out on the aforementioned scenery. Track design is incredibly basic, with only a trio of environmental styles (desert, forest and snow) and mostly circular paths, which soon become a bore. So long as you collect boost and avoid crashing to the best of your ability, most races can be cleared at the first attempt. New trucks unlock with each win, offering different stats, but earlier vehicles force you to suffer woeful steering or a ponderous lack of speed. Collision Course offers some of the most unpolished and blandest racing the system would see, which is no mean feat considering the amount of shovelware the DS houses.
Luckily, for the masochistic who dare to try this, most will be lucky to scrape two hours out of the experience. There are three modes: Quick Race, Practice and Career. There’s no multiplayer at all, a bit of a sin considering it’s a racing game. In all, there are eight courses to beat with a special ninth track rewarded at the end of the Career. The Amateur and Pro classes play almost identically, except your truck specs are higher on the latter, though dumb AI persists and you’re racing on the same bland tracks in both brackets. Other than single events in Quick Race, Practice lets you test out tracks without any opponents, but considering most players could likely beat every race on their first go, this seems redundant. To say this Bigfoot game represents bad value would be an understatement: there are likely free Flash games that last longer.
Luckily, for the masochistic who dare to try this, most will be lucky to scrape two hours out of the experience. There are three modes: Quick Race, Practice and Career. There’s no multiplayer at all, a bit of a sin considering it’s a racing game. In all, there are eight courses to beat with a special ninth track rewarded at the end of the Career. The Amateur and Pro classes play almost identically, except your truck specs are higher on the latter, though dumb AI persists and you’re racing on the same bland tracks in both brackets. Other than single events in Quick Race, Practice lets you test out tracks without any opponents, but considering most players could likely beat every race on their first go, this seems redundant. To say this Bigfoot game represents bad value would be an understatement: there are likely free Flash games that last longer.
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It doesn’t help that the presentation is awful. Visually, the game is grainier than a bag of sand, with poor texture work and lacklustre geometry looking closer to a bad original PlayStation game. Even the stars of the show, the monster trucks, look bad. There’s also a lot of stuttering, as while the game’s performance aims high, there’s a lot of jittering and drops in speed. The trucks struggle to break 100mph as is, so this issue only worsens the lack of momentum. The sound is perhaps even worse. The engine notes are genuinely terrible, resembling a used lawnmower and fading out when you gain speed. If you happen to let go of the throttle and then press it down again, the engine roars loudly before fading out, which is strangely funny. Less amusing is the music, a painful assortment of generic tracks trying to fit each theme. The guitar riff which plays in the menu, in particular, is woeful.
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Despite some potential with destructible scenery and different terrains, Bigfoot is a ponderous and thrill-free experience
Ultimately, it’s almost impossible to recommend Bigfoot: Collision Course. A painful racer which somehow manages to be poorly constructed yet incredibly easy, it’s clear little time and effort was invested in this game. Woeful physics, rigid handling and a dire presentation make for a bad time already. But when you factor in that you could likely clear this one in less time than two hours, then it becomes borderline insulting. Despite offering some destructive objects to smash, it’s not enough to save you from boredom. Even die-hard supporters of Bigfoot and monster trucks will have a hard time enjoying Collision Course.
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VERDICT"Woeful physics, rigid handling, and blighted by dire presentation. Bigfoot: Collision Course can be finished in two hours and is near-impossible to recommend." OVERALL: 2/10 |
SECOND OPINION | BIGFOOT: COLLISION COURSE (DS)
Collision Course is about as bog-standard a racer as you’ll find. Racing monster trucks may sound novel, but the large, ungainly vehicles may have been employed to make sense of a game engine that suffers from cripplingly stiff handling and pedestrian pacing. Battling three competitors in a sequence of single races, the game’s sole (relative) plus point is its courses, which feature forests, icy mountain paths and rocky canyons, with occasional jumps and destructible scenery that helps fill a nitrous bar. Whilst the gameplay’s ambitions are modest, it is nevertheless hamstrung by technical troubles. Some issues are irritating, such as when the trucks judder around seemingly without reason, or the engine notes loop horribly on acceleration. Other problems are harder to overlook, however. Clipping a wall often leaves the player beached and unable to turn for several seconds, whilst seemingly innocuous bumps can cause your truck to stop dead. Jumps might have been fun were it not for the floaty physics, and it’s disappointing that the trucks’ speed never fluctuates, even when you’ve strayed well away from the marked circuit. You can take as big a shortcut as you like and it makes no difference, which rather puts paid to any challenge the game might have presented. In terms of graphics and music BCC is below par. Nine easy courses, a handful of unlockable trucks and two speed classes amounts to a little under two hours of play. When coupled with its myriad troubles, these meagre returns ensure Bigfoot ranks amongst the worst racers on the DS. [2] – Tom Clare © 2025
OTHER DODGY RACING GAMES REVIEWED
NASCAR Challenge (1999, Game Boy Color)
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Anarchy: Rush Hour (2010, PlayStation 3)
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