Monster Jam: Urban Assault

This is the fourth in a series of video games based on the popular live Monster Jam (truck) TV shows aired in the States that apparently draw large audiences sandwiched between baseball games and episodes of My Name Is Earl (shudder). Yes, it's monster trucks in the city time so fasten your seatbelts and aim for the biggest ramp you can find. Yee-haw!

There are 26 urban tracks for you to smash your way through, this time including the streets of London and New York, as well as the usual dirt stadiums. Since Monster Jam is set around the actual monster truck 'sport', all 27 vehicles are recreated here for you to drive - although most of these are locked until you breach a certain high score by causing destruction and performing stunts.

The action is broken down into four championships known as The World Series, Speedster, Smasher and Stuntman. There's also a four-way split-screen multi-player mode that offers all the games from the main championships, as well as a bonus Battle Royale event.

The World Series consists of 22 events; a mix of straight races, destruction derbies and free-style arenas. These all have the same thing in common though: you should try and smash anything in sight to win points and fill your turbo gauge. Except - tut tut - not everything is smashable. Garden fences are, but the houses they're attached to aren't. As for concrete pillars...sometimes they are, sometimes they ain't - which isn't playing fair.

Speedster mode has three kinds of racing events for the more competitive racer, such as elimination laps and racing rival trucks travelling in the opposite direction. Smasher mode is for the more destructive player, with Devastator rounds that challenge you to cause random damage in streets and stadiums with an eye to hitting a certain dollar amount that will put you in first place. Smasher mode is split exclusively into Devastator events and Air Strikes (sort of like bowls but with a truck running over helicopters and caravans at the end of the green).