Ah yes, I’ll admit it, the inner redneck in me longs to get behind the wheel of one of those massive trailer trucks driving that baby across two or three counties. Maybe its the diesel fumes talking but the trucker life, especially if you’re trucking for Ma Jackson, seems mighty appealing especially since there aren’t many trucking games available on the Xbox. While the original had its share of problems, Big Mutha Truckers 2 for the Xbox once again offers us something different from the usual illegal racing games out there and at a budget price.

Last we heard from Ma Jackson she was retiring from the position as head of her Big Mutha Truckers company in good ol’ Hick State County and had her four children (Cletus, Bobbie-Sue, Rawkus and Earl) go through a Trail by Trucking event to see who brings back the most cash. Well before Ma could even announce a winner, the county sheriffs come and arrest sweet, shotgun-toting Ma on a slew of charges. Determined to set her free, her children set off on another quest to gain money and bribe member’s of jurors overseeing Ma’s sentence. Yet with the local law enforcement on their trail and with the Death Riders o’ Satan causing trouble (they’re in town for their annual Biker Menace Festival), it’s not going to be easy.

Once again you get to choose from any of Ma’s four children but don’t think that they each possess unique driving skills that will set them apart from one another. All we’re getting here are personalities and different looking trucks that are fitting to each personality. Slack-jawed yokel Cletus drives around in a messy rig while the shapely Bobbie-Sue drives a colorful truck with her image on it. From there you begin the Trial by Trucking mode by purchasing goods in one county and delivering them for a profit in another. Making a profit is really your main goal in this game and Big Mutha Truckers 2 actually does a good job of representing the wheeling and dealings of truck drivers including hitching specific trailers (flatbed, refrigerated or tanker) to transport specific goods and the upgrades or repairs that will be costly but necessary for your truck.

Yet it’s not a Big Mutha Truckers game without the usual wackiness that comes your way in each mission you decide to take on during your trucking career while also attempting to bribe jurors like the six stereotypes you’ll encounter. There are outlaw biker gangs that will try to steal your valuable cargo and then there’s the local law that isn’t as easy to shake off this time around. Adding to the craziness are UFOs that will try to lock on to your truck using a tractor beam so you’ll have to shake them off as well or suffer damage to your truck or your payload.

Hick State County is composed of a number of locales such as Capital City, Salt Sea City, Bupkiss, Greenback, Clearview and Skeeters County. Aside from the main quest, which revolves around Ma Jackson, there are side quests throughout each city you’ll learn about visiting bars. These special missions usually have you transporting illegal goods (like missiles) or give hobos a lift into the next county for extra bucks. There are bonuses aplenty and most of these require you to crash into other vehicles Burnout-style to earn extra money for the producers of a reality show. In short, there’s no shortage of things to do in this game.

The problem is that even with plenty to do the game’s controls fall victim to the same sluggishness and poor response time much like the original. Never mind the repetitive cycle of picking up goods and delivering them and then doing it all over again. The game just doesn’t feel better nor were there any improvements made in the challenge department, although when you’re asked to be in a certain area at a certain time you’ll be challenged by the sluggishness of your own truck. Even the load times are a lot longer in this sequel so it’s unlikely that most gamers will come back for more when it comes to the game’s Mission Mode (that allows you to replay any sub-mission unlocked in the game’s main mode. Add the fact that the past game’s tongue-in-cheek humor is replaced by only a few really funny jabs at all things hillbilly.

Graphically, the Xbox clearly gets some sharper visuals and they certainly do outshine the PS2 version in almost every aspect. For one thing, the characters stand out more and the environments are somewhat more pronounced here. The vehicles look good in action too so expect some nicely detailed 18-wheeler trucks that fit each of Ma’s kin nicely. Even the animation looks pretty good, although the running gag here is clearly the stereotyped characters.

Well double-dang it, wouldn’t you know them yokels in Hick State County all sound the way you’d expect them to sound. For those who find the Blue Collar comedy routines funny there’s not a lot of laughs this time around, although I do get a kick out of hearing Cletus. There’s a radio station in this game and it plays everything from talk radio (that’s actually pretty funny) to country and rock tunes like “All Right Now” from Free.

You’d think the sequel would improve the imperfection of the first game but Big Mutha Truckers 2 is actually a step down from a game that was actually kind of fun. What we get instead is the same flaws that plagued the original, very little in terms of introducing new gameplay mechanics and so-so visuals. The redneck humor isn’t even as decent as the first game either so if you’re looking for a good chuckle you won’t find much to enjoy here.

Gameplay: 5.0
While the game does capture the feel of driving around in a truck, the sluggish and often unresponsive controls will not fail to annoy. Top that off with repetitive trucking missions and those pesky timed missions and you have a game with just a few really enjoyable missions.

Graphics: 6.0
The Xbox gets the prettier package with some sharper character models, detailed environments and trucks that look good slamming into on-coming traffic. There’s some good lighting and animations in the game but overall this has all the visual appeal of most budget titles.

Sound: 6.0
If the mere mention of cow tipping and purty pigs tickles your funny bone then this game has plenty of redneck humor but then again it gets old pretty quickly. At least the sound effects are decent enough and the long list of tunes is not bad but not great either. There are also just a few good tunes here, although the highlight is the talk radio show.

Difficulty: Medium
The mission objectives aren’t as challenging this time around but the hard part is keeping your truck from getting too heavily damaged. The biker gangs and police do offer some set back now and then but it’s nothing you won’t be able to handle after the fourth time you set out to accomplish the same type of mission.

Concept: 5.5
Most gamers would rather race through the streets in a sleek vehicle but for those who are looking for variety or just interesting in the trucking life

Overall: 5.6
As a fan of vehicular mayhem, I was prepared to like Big Mutha Truckers 2 seeing as there aren’t many games available that allow gamers to get behind the wheel of a trailer truck but this one just isn’t good at all. In fact, much of what was decent about the flawed original isn’t intact in a sequel that’s not so gosh darn fun or funny.