imerion's Full Review: Excite Truck for Nintendo Wii
When it comes to racing-games I have always liked the arcade-ish style better. Advanced simulations is not really my thing. Thus, Excite Truck seemed like the perfect game for me. And it only took me a few seconds of gameplay to realize I was correct.
Excite Truck is the spiritual successor to the NES classic Excite Bike, though they have very little in common.
Remember tilting the NES controller wildly in the air when playing Excite Bike, hoping it would help you turn faster? Well, due to the motion sensitive Wii-remote that kind of movement actually works now. Since in Excite Truck, you steer your car by tilting the controller left or right and while airborn, you can turn the controller in order to turn in the other. Landing straight is important in Excite Truck, since it will give you a speed-boost. There is also a button used for boosting; a very important feature of Excite Truck. Using it with good timing after a jump will send you flying with incredible speed.
Racing in Excite Truck is as simple as choosing a track, a truck and off you go. No advanced settings or anything. The main mode has various tracks sorted under cups and you can complete them in any order you want. The interesting part is that winning is not simply getting first place. Instead, you have to get a certain amount of stars on each track. More stars will get you a higher rating, with "S" being the best. Stars are gained by crashing other trucks, flying far, skillfully avoiding trees, flying through rings, etc. Getting in a good position will also earn you stars, but you can win a track without getting into first position. This shifts strategy from simply being the fastest to having to utilize the environment in the best way. And since the tracks are huge and open with multiple paths, there are certainly a lot of choices to consider each second. Also, scattered around the level there are pick-ups which come in two types : One gives you a massive speed boost which lasts a long time. While you have this, you can even run down trees without crashing. The other type will morph the track. A very impressive and interesting feature. Sometimes huge jumps will shoot out from the ground in front of you, or the ground will sink down leaving you opponents falling. All this happening at blazing speeds. There is certainly no time to relax in Excite Truck. And that is what makes the game so incredibly fun! It's a wicked adrenaline rush from start to finish and it has a very good balance of control and chaos. Even though the speed is high, you are in full control all the times. Quite an achievement indeed.
Apart from the main mode, there are also a number of challenges to play. In one you have to drive through gates, the second is about jumping through rings and the third is an arena-like mode where you try to trash the other trucks. These are very fun as well, but also very hard. In addition, there is a training mode which teaches the basics of the game. A good addition, since there are many small things in the game-play mechanics which are easy to overlook.
And then we have multiplayer! And Excite Truck is certainly no less fun when played against a friend. Still, it's only for two players, which is a bit sad. A four player mode would have been fantastic.
Another thing you notice immediately after starting Excite Truck is the graphics. It's very impressive, with enormous landscapes with loads of detail. And no matter how high you jump, you won't see any draw-in. There is also a great use of different effects. The water reflects the environment nicely, motion blur gives an amazing sense of speed and watching the landscape morph around you in realtime is marvelous. Track design is great and you will race around some very nice areas, like the great wall of china.
As for music, it's ok, but you will probably not listen to it. Because Excite Truck is the first Wii-game to include the option to use your own music! Just stick an SD-card with MP3's in your Wii and you can choose you own background music. A very nice function. Sound effects aren't good, but you won't notice them when listening to your favorite song.
Seems I have only said good things about the game this far. And truly, I really like this game. Sometimes it feels a bit easy to crash, since merely touching a tree will cause a crash. You are quickly only track again though, so it barely matters. It would also be nice with some more environments. But now i'm just nit-picking. The only real fault I see is the lack of a four player mode.
So if you like fast paced, arcade styled games which will instantly give you loads of fun, get Excite Truck!
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