Monster 4x4: Masters of Metal (lost early build of multi-platform racing game; 2003)

Monster 4x4: Masters of Metal box art

Status: Lost

Monster 4x4: Masters of Metal is an off-road racing game developed and published by Ubisoft and released for the Gamecube and Playstation 2 on November 25, 2003. It is the second and final Ubisoft game to utilize the license of the monster truck racing franchise Monster Jam. The game received mostly negative reception upon release. Being criticized for its repetitive gameplay, poor level design, and shoddy voice acting. From the day the game was first publicly announced to the day of its release to the public, several changes were made throughout its development, with several noticeable differences compared to the final release.

First announced on June 23, 2003, Monster 4x4: Masters of Metal was first advertised to have more than 50 trucks. Only 31 trucks made it past the drawing board, with 29 of the 31 trucks having full truck models and only 23 of the 31 making into the final release. Only 6 scrapped trucks have confirmed truck models that cannot be played through conventional means. The icons and logos for these 6 trucks are currently lost.

Early builds of the game contained trucks based on Marvel superheroes. These trucks never made it to the later builds due Monster Jam's contract with Marvel Comics expiring mid development.

Content

Unused Trucks

• Bounty Hunter
• Scarlet Bandit
• Thrasher
• Wolverine
• Spider-Man
• The Incredible Hulk

Unused/Altered Content

• The intro was longer than that in the final release as it included clips of the Bounty Hunter and Scarlet Bandit monster trucks.

• Pedestrians were going to be a feature in the South California off-road race. The pedestrians would run from a truck if it got too close. If the player got too close to a moving car, a door on the car would open and a pedestrian would run out.

• The HUD is slightly different. The word “TURBO” has a different font, as well as lacking a black outline in earlier versions.

• During stadium races, rounds would be labeled 1st Round, 2nd Round, and 3rd Round. In the final release, these were labeled as Round 1, Round 2, and Round 3.

• Stage selection has a scrapped classification option. It is unknown what this was used for.

• Offroad was spelled as OffRoad on the stage select screen.

• Trucks in off-road races would have unique flags with logos representing the characters the trucks were driven by. Some screenshots also show these flags being used in exhibition stages.

• The lap counter was in a different place than in the final release and used the fame font as the timer.

• The Swamp has different lighting. Lacking any fog and has a visible sun in the sky.

• American Guardian’s chassis is noticeably crooked. With the body of the truck slouched over the front end and the front suspension not lined up with the rear.

• Equipped power-ups in off-road races were interchangeable and would be switched out during the race by pushing a button. In the final release, each power-up had its own designated button.

• The player character’s portrait was a fixed part of the HUD. The reason for this is unknown.

Gallery

Screenshots

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  Screenshot of a Bounty Hunter clip from the early intro.

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  Screenshot of a Scarlet Bandit clip from the early intro.

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  Screenshot of the Eradicator truck crushing a car with unused pedestrians running in the background.

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  American Guardian with a crooked chassis and non-parallel suspension.

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  Alternate lighting in the swamp level. Containing a giant sun in the sky.

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  An early HUD for the off-road races. Containing only a single power-up and a mirrored reaction image of a driver.

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  Scarlet Bandit, an unused truck, with a slightly different HUD for the exhibition events.

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  Bounty Hunter, an unused truck.

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  Thrasher, an unused truck. This would’ve been the only truck with a non-American manufacturer body (Toyota).

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  Inferno with a flag using an early logo for Rookie.

Videos

An early trailer for the game. Using several clips from the beta.