FOREWORD:

I’d like to start by saying that there are NO spoilers to be found here. Rather, I will outline some of the features that can be unlocked in the game without giving away any specifics.

I hope you enjoy the review!

GAMEPLAY:

Welcome to Excite Truck�- the racer that inherits it’s genetics from the classic Excite series of games. �It bears much resemblence in play style to it’s Excite Bike�ancestors, making it an instant classic - yet it happen to be fresh enough in soo many ways that it can fairly be reffered to as a new IP aswell.

Excite Truck certainly delivers on it’s name, as it’s currently one of the best racers on the Wii, and it is likely to hold that honor for quite some time. This game is at it’s heart, an arcade style racer - you won’t see truck upgrades, speedometers, or gear shifting here. Rather, you will find one of the most accessible, replayable, and most entertaining racers of it’s kind since Burnout.

The core gameplay revolves around the tried and true race-for-rank system, where you must complete each race of each cup with a certain rating in order to advance to the next race and/or cup. This task may seem easy at first - but don’t let it fool you. As each cup is unlocked and you gradually make your way towards the Platinum Cup, the AI becomes much more challenging, and the courses become far more difficult to get a passing rank on.

As you progress, you are awarded trophies and awards for getting �S� (SUPER) grade ranks and various stunts on the courses. Getting an �S� grade is dependant on how many points you get during the race - not just your rank at the finish line. Getting a higher place at the finish line awards you with a larger bonus score at the end - and getting that score is key to getting �S� grades. On the later cups, getting in first is a challenge all by itself, but you really have to mix up your play style, trying to do as many tricks and Truck Smashes as you can in order to just get�a�passing grade.

Other obsticles make the game unique and challenging aswell. There are power-ups that deform terrain, add rings to jumps for increasing your score, and throw enemy vehicles into the air. Each one very fun to execute. All of the tracks have different routes to completion, and hidden power-ups that open up trails and shortcuts. There�s alot of ways to get to the finish line, but as I said before finishing first doesn�t gauruntee a good grade - you have to use all of the track features to your advantage to get the highest score possible.

The game is fun enough on it�s own to be replayed many times, but getting an �S� on every track in order to unlock Super Excite may offer many gamers weeks more play time. As you continue to get �S� grades, you will be awarded many new vehicles to play with - each one offering higher performance than the last. If you get many �S� grades with the same vehicle, you can even unlock an alternate paint scheme for it. Many other surprises that are well worth your time await you once you reach the Super Excite difficulty. I will add that the game only gets more fun as you unlock trucks that go faster, jump higher, and turn quicker - the trucks you start out with are just the tip of the iceberg.

Once you have played through the game, and gotten an “S” on everything (including Super Excite) - it’s still not over… Other modes are also included that give you reason to come back for more - such as Challenge Mode and split-screen multiplayer. The Challenge mode is a great diversion that focuses around each unique element of the normal race mode - these elements include Checkpoint Races, Truck Smash Tournaments, and Ring challenges. Each of these challenges are very difficult - the Checkpoint Race in particular - especially when you are shooting for an “S” grade. And once you get “S” grades on them all - Super Challenge will surely keep you busy for some time.

The addition of multiplayer is also a nice treat, and again adds to the replayability of this title. Some may find it disappointing that none of the Challenge Mode features are available in multiplayer - this seems to have been an inclusion that could not make it in time for launch. I hope that if there are future incarnations of the Excite Truck franchise, that they include such modes - Truck Smashing in free roam mode would be intense in multiplayer. Some other features - which you must unlock later in the game - are also not available in multiplayer, but I will not list them here. On the upside, all trucks you unlock in single player are available for use in multiplayer - however, none of the alternate paint schemes you unlock are available for use in multiplayer matches.

The small things that were left out are far over-shadowed by the majority of the things that were done right. One of those things is the scoring system. The scoring system in the Excite Truck is not only fun, but it’s also challenging - in a good way. There are a variety of special tricks�- such as getting Air Time, doing Spins, getting Truck Smashes, doing Tree Runs, and more�- that guage the score of each race.

Shooting hundreds of feet through the air at high speed, with motion blurring all around, and trying to to a 720 spin while flying through a set of 5 rings - and then landing perfectly to excecute a boost - is not only fun, it’s almost addictive. Playing other arcade racers, I come to expect a speed boost for a perfect landing now, but I am sorely disappointed when I land perfectly and nothing happens. This level of fun and excitement is further enhanced by the simple and intuitive - yet outstandingly involving controls.

The ability to control the tilt of the truck in the air came from the series first incarnation on the NES, and it�s a key part of what makes the game soo much fun. Excite Bike was defined by having the ability to control the tilt of the motorcycle while it was flying through the air, thus increasing the distance and height at which you traveled - Excite Truck is no different.

SCORE: 8.5/10

CONTROLS:

Controls - the highlight of the Wii - truly shine in Excite Truck. Many first-time players may feel that the controls are too sensative - but in time they adjust. Having played the game myself for weeks, and watched friends and family adjust to them, it seems that the majority of them wouldn’t have the controls any other way. Much of the control related issues lie with the individual grip strength and handling types of each vehicle - not soo much the sensativity of the Wii remote itself. A sensativity adjustment would have surely been used by many, however, and it’s lack of inclusion is boggling.

For steering, you rock the remote side to side. For accelleration and braking, you use 1 and 2. And for Turbo’s you press any direction on the D-Pad. Simple as that. But what seems soo simple, quickly becomes complex when you get the truck into the air. Once you’re in the air you can spin the remote to do rotations,�rock�it�to�steer�the�truck�through�the�air, and you can tilt it forward and back to tilt your truck so that it lands level with the terrain - which rewards you with a satisfying boost of speed.

The mid-air tilting also effects the wind drag on the truck, soo trying to keep it just up from level can greatly improve the distance of your jump - at the cost of speed. �The effects of wind drag on the truck add a certain amount of strategy to the game, as does the Turbo heat gauge. �If you hold�the�Turbos�on too long the truck will overheat until you drive long enough for it to cool down, or drive into water. �Those two control features greatly effect the outcome of each race - and getting boosts�by�tiliting�the�remote�and�landing�level is nearly essentially in order to win the later cups.

It all works great, and it all feels good. The controls really make the game, as it just wouldn’t be as fun without them.

SCORE: 9/10

GRAPHICS:

Excite Truck seems one of the few launch titles that actually utilise the more advanced Wii hardware. There are crisp textures everywhere, and lots of grass and trees all over the place - there’s even a fair amount of particle effects going on. There are also beautiful real-time reflections on the water - and even the paint on the trucks. Motion blurring is present when you use a boost, and it adds a great sence of speed to the game. It even runs in 480P and 16:9 - you’re in for a treat if you’re using Component Video cables.

On occassion, when there are large amounts of particle effects, trucks on the screen, grass in view, and motion blurring going on - the game may slug along a bit, but it rarely slows much. The game typically screams along at 60FPS - buttery smooth. This game also uses a VERY smooth LOD (Level Of Detail) engine, which is good to see on a launch title.

The collision damage is also fun to watch, as it reacts fairly accurately. You can wrap your truck around a tree, smash the cab in by landing upside-down, break off tires and bumpers, and much, much more. I can’t tell you how satisfying it is to get a Truck Smash on the guy ahaid of you that keeps taking 1st, and watching him roll and crunch up like a tin can when you knock him off the road or land on him.

The graphics are a great showcase for early Wii software, and only reiterate that the Wii is much more than a GameCube.

SCORE: 8.5/10

SOUND:

The default music is noisy, terrible, annoying - I just want to get that out of the way. Thankfully the game is the first to include support for SD cards and custom sound tracks. Playing the game with your favorite tunes really cranks up the excitement.

The sound, however, is well done. A bit generic, but it gets the job done. Good sounds for the vehicles, good smashing sounds, and other nice effects. The Wii remote speaker is even utilised, and will chime out sounds when you hit powerups or get Super Stunts - very nice. It all plays in 5.1 thanks to Dolby Pro Logic II - and can be enhanced further if your audio system supports DTS NEO:6.

SCORE: 7/10

OVERALL:

Overall, Excite Truck is a very fun game, and I reccomend it to anyone who just wants to have good time. It may appear a bit on the short side the first time through, but getting “S” grades on everything and unlocking all of the other goodies will tie up several weeks for the average player. This is not a simulation - instead, it’s the ultimate escape from simulating reality. Excite Truck pushes all of aspects of racing to the extreme - speed, air, crashing and smashing, and just plain fun. Don’t let the small flaws - or the rating - deter your from trying or buying this game. If you enjoy racers like RUSH and Burnout, you will enjoy Excite Truck.

Excellent

NINTENDOGAMER17