‘Monster Jam: Urban Assault’ Review (Nintendo Wii)

Monster Truck Rallies are all about three things: destruction, heavy metal, and gimmicky pyrotechnics. Switch the pyrotechnics for mind numbingly slow game play and you have Activision’s Monster Jam Urban Assault. With a mixture of maps containing conveniently placed quarter-pipes like Tony Hawk, and controls like a gun-less Twisted Metal, this game is finely tuned for the motor skills and interests of a 6-year old.

Getting beyond the intended demographic, this title keeps a lot of things authentic for fans. You begin with six trucks available and can unlock more for a total of 27 trucks. You begin with legendary trucks Grave Digger, Maximum Destruction, and Monster Mutt. Unfortunately, as you unlock more trucks, you’ll realize that none of them allow for mechanical upgrades.

A follow up to the original Monster Jam: Urban Assault takes these massive trucks out of the stadium circuit and into the urban jungle. Before, gameplay was all about arena-wide destruction. Now, you’re out of the arena and destroying everything in generic-looking shopping malls. Monster Jam: Urban Assault balances racing, breaking stuff, insane jumps, breaking stuff, destroying, and breaking stuff. Get the picture? Highlights are the mini-games that appear in the stuntman part of the championship. The skill jump game is like a giant skeeball ramp and is dangerously addictive.

Racing is the most painful part of the game. For the most part racing is linear with the occasional ramp or shortcut inserted. There’s a good reason why racing games don’t normally offer monster trucks. They’re big, top heavy, and not that fast. As with most games that are non-exclusive for Wii, the controls are cumbersome. You can use just the Wii controller but the turning is impossibly slow and inaccurate. You can also use the nunchuk and the controls are sharper, but this renders the Wii motion sensor capabilities useless.

There are three race challenges: standard 4 man, eliminator (like in the burnout games), and a unique 4-man race called head-to-head. In head-to-head everyone starts at the same line; the players are split, so two go clockwise and the other two go counter-clockwise. This leads to a lot of head on collisions and frustration for the lead car. The maps are simple, but also have a lot of areas that require sharp turns and accurate jumps.

I liked that they offered a 1st person camera for racing, but beyond that the graphics were mediocre. Yes, the maps were decent, but the surfaces lack defined textures and the cars look like shiny toy trucks. The best looking part of the game was the Monster Jam videos that you can unlock as you win.

The sound design was mostly the same painful vroom-vroom sounds you’d expect from monster truck samples. In the championship section, there is a move-by-move commentary that gets aggravating after hearing it for more than one round. The music tracks were unimpressionable and non-existent in the trick and stunt levels.

Overall, the game could be fun for a few hours, but if you’re an aggressive gamer or racing fanatic, leave this one for the Monster Jam fans. This game could be a great gift for 5-7 year olds. Just make sure you know they’re into, so that this game doesn’t become the Pink Bunny suit from A Christmas Story.