Hands-onMonster Jam GBA

Ubi Soft recently stopped by with an early build of the Game Boy Advance version of Monster Jam. An isometric interpretation of the PlayStation 2 game, Monster Jam the puts you in control of a pint-sized representation of a monster truck and throws you into vehicular combat. The game will offer a selection of 20 licensed trucks including famous names such as Grave Digger, Bulldozer, Gun Slinger, Predator, Wild Thang, Wolverine, and Spider-man, as well as a number of other vehicles. Combat will take place in six environments including such locations as Las Vegas, New York, and an Aztec temple.

Each area will contain hidden subarenas that contain a plethora of power-ups and pick-ups. To keep the hidden areas and their power-ups from being abused, the amount of time you can spend in them will be limited to a few seconds. Once you pass the time limit, your truck begins to take damage, forcing you to head back to the main arena and reenter the battle.

As mentioned above, you'll find a variety of items in the game to help you in your battles. The wrench power-up will repair your truck. Nitro will give your truck a speed boost. Super spring temporarily increases your truck's jumping capability. Super bumper increases the damage you inflict on other trucks when you slam into them. The sightline missile fires off a missile. Guided missile obviously shoots a homing missile. Machine gun equips your truck with some firepower. Electro magnetic pulse freezes all your opponents for a few seconds. The coin pick-up adds points to your scores, and money icons provide you with money that you can use to upgrade your truck.

The gameplay is accessible, with a fairly intuitive layout for acceleration and firing weapons. You'll find two modes in the game: arcade and championship season. Arcade lets you battle against computer-controlled monster trucks, while championship season offers a series of matches for you to go through. The combat is pretty basic--you can damage enemies by slamming into them or using a weapon power-up. In addition, you'll be able to increase the damage you inflict on enemies by performing various moves such as bounce, boost, spin, and flip in combinations before hitting them.

The game sported clean, detailed cars and environments that reflected "damage" when your truck hit objects in them such as fountains and lampposts. The color in the game was vibrant and added a nice touch to the various levels, and the action moved along at a nice pace and looked promising. Monster Jam is schedule for release on the GBA in Q2 2002.