Activision released their second title starring over 20 licensed monster trucks, but will the mighty trucks assault the player or will it disappoint?

For the ones that don't know, Monster Jam comes from the name of the show where monster trucks used to race. Monster trucks are around since the eighties and now it has become a special motorsport event.

Monster Jam - Urban Assault, which is the sequel to Monster Jam, also released by Activision in 2007, made its way to the handheld this year, in favor of next-gen consoles. The game features over 20 licensed trucks, big names like Grave Digger, Maximum Destruction, Stone Crusher, Monster Mutt and many more. The major feature of the game is the Championship, where you have four major gaming modes like World Series, Speedster, Smasher and Stuntman.

In the World Series you will compete in Freestyle and Stadium Racing. Freestyle represents smashing stuff and scoring as many points in the given time. The Stadium Racing on the other hand means speed and precision. You must finish the circuit as fast as you can. The second mode in Championship is the Speedster with Eliminator, Head to Head and Race Circuit available. Eliminator mode gets the last truck at the end of each lap eliminated. If you race against a single opponent in the opposite direction it means you're Head to Head. And Race Circuit, I guess it's obvious.

The third mode from Championship is called Smasher. You can only think what sorts of events are handled here. Air Strike gets you 3 attempts to score a lot of points while jumping off a platform. Devastator takes you through Industrial Parks, Construction Site and even Chinatown creating total mayhem. Score as many points to win.

The last major mode is Stuntman with challenges like Skill Jump, Monster Jump and Trickster. These are the most fun challenges from the rest of the game and Dennis Anderson seems to agree (interview on official webpage).

After finishing challenges, you will earn career points which will unlock monster trucks as well as movies. Monster trucks are also unlocked by meeting different specifications like winning a race under a certain amount of time, gain a 5 Star (Monster Spectacle) in another race, stuff like this. The movies are unlocked only if you will all the needed races in the first place and they can be viewed in the Showroom. I was a little disappointed in them, as they are a little uncolored and have choppy frame-rate.

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Monster Jam - Urban Assault is not necessarily a bad game, although it has more tracks, trucks and game modes than the previous title; take a good look at the screenshots and videos before spending $30 on this release.

Gameplay: 78

With the new trick system, handling and physics, Monster Jam can be a very enjoyable game. Even so, sometimes it may feel repetitive and boring, with no replayability to it.

Graphics: 77

The game looks good, with 26 urban tracks and city streets across the globe to race on, locations like the streets of New York, London or San Francisco. Thumbs up for the attention to detail which the developing team proved when creating the monster trucks.

Sound: 70

Nothing special about the sounds, but it's obvious that some effort has been put in the audio commentaries.

Multiplayer: 78

Up to 4 players can show their supremacy on any of the unlocked races in the Championship.