You can tell a lot about a person by which games catch their eye on the shelf in a computer game store. For example, if you saw the box art for Monster Jam (a new Monster Truck themed racing title by independent Australian developer Torus Games) and you felt compelled to pick it up for closer inspection, I could deduce that you are either:

• a) a child between the ages of 4-12;
• b) love anything with four wheels, no matter the rim size; or
• c) think your cousin is hot and wished you had asked her out before your brother Cletus!

The point that I am making is that Monster Trucks appeal to a niche market. Kids love them and why wouldn't they? A brightly painted truck with giant wheels capable of crushing cars and busses under its massive frame is like crack for kids. A smaller segment of the Monster Truck fan club is the serial petrol head. These guys do not discriminate, if it has an engine and wheels, they are interested. The final interest group for Monster Trucks are to put it simply, Rednecks.

You will note however, that nowhere in that market definition did I mention the mainstream gamer. That is because a mainstream gamer would not play, let alone pick up Monster Jam from the shelf and they probably would not bother to read this review either. But if you fall into one of the above three categories or are a parent of one of the above, you should continue reading.

Monster Jam is based on the US motorsport and television show of the same name. It is a pure and simple arcade racing game focussing on action over realism and never pretends to be anything more. The fact that the game was released on multiple platforms is evident on first setting eyes on it. The games graphics can at best be described as higher resolution original Xbox quality instead of what Xbox 360 owners have become accustomed to. The 3D models are simplistic, textures are flat, graphical enhancements are sparse and it generally just looks dated.

Cars and obstacles go through obvious damage model transitions and truck damage is restricted for the most part to body panels flying off your vehicle. In a game that is all about crushing and destroying things, I would have expected a robust physics engine to be under the hood but alas that is not the case. Trucks fly scores of metres through the air, magically right themselves after rolling and either bounce off or drive through just about everything in their path. A true sense of scale and mass is missing and it looks more like you are driving a remote controlled truck than a full scale vehicle.

Players are encouraged to hit the numerous obstacles littered around the track which include boxes, scaffolding, car bodies, shipping containers and grain silos to name but a few. When an obstacle is hit, a boost meter is filled. Boost is used by holding the A button however this overheats your engine which will eventually blow, forcing you to wait a number of seconds before you can boost again. Hitting obstacles also clears your heat level, so if you continually hit things you may be able to boost around almost the whole track.

The main play mode in Monster Jam is Championship. Championship mode is split into four series of five track and four stadium events each. Track races are either standard six truck circuit races or elimination races where the last truck in each lap is eliminated until only the winner remains. Track races are extremely easy, even on the Pro difficulty setting. Crashing really is not a worry as your truck will plough through most obstacles. If you drive too far off course or off a cliff, you truck quickly respawns ensuring that you do not lose too much time. Even if you did fall behind, your AI opponents' vehicles will never be too far in front and all tend to stay bunched together in a tight group.

The arena events are either Freestyle where the aim is to earn maximum points through performing tricks and destroying obstacles or very short and tight sprint races. The freestyle events consist of an arena full of jumps, piles of car bodies and other destructible obstacles. You have a set time limit to gain as many points as possible by utilising all areas of the arena and by ensuring to mix up your tricks. Curiously, it is possible to lose a wheel or two and end up on your roof in arena events unlike in the track races.

Once players gain a podium finish in all of the nine events in a series, the next series is unlocked. Once all four series are completed, the final World Finals events are unlocked. While this may sound like a lot of events, it really isn't. The average gamer should be able to finish all of the events in as little as three hours. Once an event is cleared in Championship mode, it becomes available to play in the self-explanatory Single Race mode. Multiplayer is barely implemented with only up to four player split screen offered. There is no Xbox Live support or even system link.

There are 20 different (apparently famous) monster trucks to unlock but the differences between these vehicles are purely cosmetic. All trucks handle exactly the same and there is no means to tweak their performance to suit your driving style. Vehicles that perform differently or the ability to tweak at least basic performance attributes are a staple of racing games and the absence of this highlights the simplicity of Monster Jam.

After a short period of time with Monster Jam the camera proves to be less than ideal. There are only three views offered with a bonnet view the closest available to an in-car view. Unfortunately, there is no means to freely rotate the camera which can make the tight arena based races in particular very difficult. Sound effects are passable if a little repetitive but the provided soundtrack is a forgettable mix of generic rock. Custom soundtrack support is a welcome feature and allows you to replace the supplied music with some of your own tastes.