Game Review: Excite Truck (Wii)
Overview: Excite Truck is most likely one of the more overlooked Wii launch titles, what with the blinding star that is Twilight Princess sitting next to it on the shelf. Being one of the few racing titles that utilize the Wii's unique motion-sensing controls, Excite Truck fills a needed gap between now and the release of Mario Kart fot the Wii. Building on a brand new franchise based on the original ExciteBike for the NES, Excite Truck offers interesting tracks, a multitude of trucks to choose from, unlockables out the ass and a custom soundtrack feature. And yes, finally you can move the controller around and act like an imbecile in your living room and have it translate into actual gameplay on the screen. But is it worth your money? Hit the jump to find out. (GET IT?!)
Shininess: I'll just start all my Wii game reviews from now on with shininess, to get it out of the way. It's not that this game isn't pretty, Excite Truck's visuals are exactly how they should be: believable landscapes, realistic (enough) vehicles and a real sense of speed. Let's just say that the visuals aren't enough to distract you from the real important stuff - the gameplay. The graphics don't suck, but they don't impress, either. The music is generic alt-metal-guitar-shredding-EXTREME music, but lucky for you there is a custom soundtrack feature which reads off of the SD card. I loaded my card full of Super Mario World covers, The Go! Team and Neutral Milk Hotel and commenced the rockin'.
Funness: Excite Truck was difficult to get used to at first. While we all think that we naturally move the controller side to side while we play racing games, it's hard to translate that into actual movement on screen. It took me a while to get the nuances of steering and controlling your truck, but after some very helpful tutorial levels it all felt very natural. The object of the game is not only to just win races, but to earn stars for style. If you make a good jump, you get stars. If you drift for a long distance, you get stars. There are many different objectives during a race that may give you stars, and the better you are at achieving these objectives, the more stars you get, and the higher your ranking for that track. Also included are achievements, which unlock content. I am a big fan of a game with unlockables, so racking up stars in order to get that new paint job for my Jeep is very satisfying. Excite Truck offers a real sense of speed. Maybe not as fast-feeling as F-Zero GX, but enough to be EXCITING AND EXTREME. Also there is the ability to morph the landscape by hitting certain markers, creating jumps or activating rings in the air to get more stars. It's a simple enough formula to pick up and play, but deep enough to make you want to play until you get a perfect score for each track. Also returning from the original Excite Bike for the NES is the concept of turbo, and overheating. You can use turbo whenever you want to, but you gotta keep cool, man! Flying through the air over big jumps or driving in the water will cool you off quicker than just laying off the turbo, so there is a little extra strategy involved in the race.
Worthiness: I really don't have many gripes about Excite Truck. It is what it is: a solid racing title that uses the Wii remote like a steering wheel. It is exciting, just as advertised. It's not a deep racing game, like Gran Tourismo, but it never claims to be. It's good arcade style pick up and play fun. Something about the game feels a bit... hollow to me, however. Maybe it's the graphic design of the menus. Maybe it's because it feels a bit like a tech demo with some unlockables. Who knows, it doesn't really matter because the game is a blast, and even more fun with multiplayer. It only supports two players, and there is no online, but it is a more than adequate filler title until Nintendo releases a Mario Kart for the Wii. Until then, I deem Excite Truck worthy of your currency.
Score: 3/5 Buy it!
