Better than you would excpect

Monster Jam: Urban Assault is title you probably will find from a bargain bin. If you do, grab a copy since this is not actually a bad game. I remember one of my first PC games that was Monster Truck Madness by Microsoft Game Studios. This before the first Xbox even. Ever since this awesome game I've hoped for a third sequel for this series and have tried to check most of monster truck games during the years if they manage to get the same crazy feel and solid game-play.

Monster Jam seems to be a popular motorsport show and this game naturally is based on it. Not a one-to-one simulated game but loosely based on with added wacky-ness.   

This game is a arcade type racer with four different game modes. Which are: Smasher,  Speedster, Stuntman and World Series. Each with 10-20+ races. Smasher game mode as the name implies evolves around crashing around and causing as much as chaos/damage as possible. The time races in speedster are done in closed monster truck tracks or on open streets as in the title. Third game mode, the stuntman is mostly jumping from a huge a slope ala ski-jumping style and hitting various targets. The last mode world series lets you drive in huge arenas doing crazy jumps and more wreckage. The latter on occasions remind of a skateboarding games with similar tricks and jumps, just as not well controlled naturally. 

As with most games there good share of unlockables which are in form of new monster trucks. Good thing with all these different races and race types is that these are not really tied to each. Well other than next race is unlocked when a reasonable position is reached in previous race. Races are from 10sec to 5min which is ideal for quick pick up and play. Controls are quite loose but work well for such a game.

Graphics are bit of a mixed bag. Everything is bit on blocky and grainy side. Not really ugly just bit generic. The monster trucks all look good and most of detailed details can be recognized. On the truck selection menu the trucks looks naturally much better. The mixed bag and the positive part of the graphics is the frame-rate. Even with screen full of trucks and objects the frame-rate never drops a frame. Really pleasant sense of speed and for me it feels that this is the factor that lifts the game. 

Audio part of the game is more disappointing. There is a few tracks from a band I've never heard of that get played during the game. The tracks itself are not too bad but these few songs get old really quickly. The engine sound is very tame. All obstacles that are being smashed or driven over have their own screeches and crash sounds.

Each time I see a game for such a price I find myself thinking that no game deserves such a low price and most times I am right. In this case, Monster Truck: Urban Assault is arcade monster truck racer for DS. That description itself has several drawbacks. Despite that, I can still say that I enjoyed this game and would recommend if you are after a quick and fun arcade racer. Accurate rating would be 3-