Wii Review: Excite Truck

Review by: Trogdor390

Well, 'tis a bit of an old one here, but non-the-less here we go! Welcome to the Wii-launch title (yes, that's how old it is) known as Excite Truck, which is a spiritual successor to the old Nintendo franchise Excite Bike.

I'm gonna mix things up a bit and start with sound. The music in this game is great! Well, I think so. The music harkens back to the Glam Metal and Hard Rock of the 80's and Early 90's. The guitar riffs and power chords are all here, in a set list that that sounds like it was ripped from Guitar Hero with out the vocals. Very similar to the music of the F-Zero Series (like the N64's F-Zero X). The music doesn't always fit the tracks, except for the last level which, as it should, has a "space-rock" feel. "But Troggie!", you might say. "I don't like Metal/ Rock! I like [insert genre here]!" That's fine! This game is unique in the fact that it is the first Wii game to let you select your own in-game music via MP3s on an SD card. So rejoice! You can listen to [insert your favorite band here] while still having sound effects! Speaking of sound effects, the roaring of the engines sounds real as can be and the crunching of metal makes you wonder how many cars they had to crash for the sounds!



Next is gameplay. Unlike the generic racing game, the point isn't to get 1st place, rather it is to get the most stars. How do you get stars? By pulling extremely high jumps, dangerously close tree-runs, long power drifts, smashing other cars, and more! But to still be a racing game there has to be incentive to get first, right? And there is! If you get first you extra bonus stars, with less bonuses the father down the Totem Pole you go, eventually resulting in zero stars. Challenge modes are hard has HELL!!! ARGGGG!!!! *throws chair across court* Well, yeah. There's that, sorry! The AI is brutal and until you get the awesome Monster Truck, your other cars (which have varying stats) either are great in one ore more areas but suck in others. Power ups like terrain morph and (yes Mario) the invincibility POWs, abound. But very solid and an enjoyable experience!

Controls are solid but have issues. Let me break it down. You hold the Wiimote sideways without the nunchuck (like a steering wheel on a car). Your gas is the 2 button where your B is your break. Any button on the D-Pad will activate turbo, but watch out! To much turbo will over heat your car. To un-heat, either wait, jump off a jump, or go in some water. My only problem is that the controls are often too sensitive and you have a hard time making precise movements, which is important when weaving dangerously close to trees. Also, to much turning and it won't register your movements. And lastly, one way to get stars is to spin your truck/ car mid-flight. The button and movement never works right and your only get one star usually for the spin. But of this is a launch title and Nintendo didn't screw it up to bad.

Graphics are beautiful. Exploding barrels on beaches shake the camera and are cool as hell! Fires from the tail pipes are nice looking, if cartoon-like and the environments are lush. Again, I don't think that the Wii is working over time here but they look good. Think a cartoon-like MotorStorm. And that what this game is like; cartoon-like the game tries to be realistic with good environmental physics engine and the crashed have good crumpling and dinting effects. But this going on when trucks are flying 20 stories in the air and landing fine and the crumpling only happens if you crash totally (and you will often). It's like a super-man comic. It tries to be cartoon-like and serious and crap at the same time.



So it comes to Replay Value. Again, you pretty much done once you beat the game, unless you want to play Two-Player with a buddy. There's no online play and no computers for you and you buddy to play with. So…yeah. That's about it. [I'm lazy…]

If you just bought a Wii congrats! There's better games out here than this, like GH3 and Twilight Princess, but this game is good runner up no matter how you look at it.