Off the Shelf: Excite Truck

As one of the fortunate Journalists who got to play the Wii quite extensively before the launch date, I don't mind telling you that for some of us blokes, our favourite was Excite Truck.  It felt so rebelliously fun - we expected to find a truck game quite boring and slow compared to motorbike racing but we were proven wrong ... very wrong.

Excite Truck follows on as the spiritual successor to Excitebike (NES) and Excitebike 64 (N64), keeping much of the same crazy game play the originals had and then vamping it up ten times.  You'll spend so much time in the air while playing that other driving games feel restricted in comparison.  Like some very memorable games of the past (Carmageddon, anyone?) 'racing' isn't strictly what the game is about - yes, you drive round 19 main courses set in different countries (and a secret final bonus location) for 2 or 3 laps ... coming first helps, but what counts is the score you get, which is rated in stars.

Stars don't just come for your finishing placement; you will usually get more for what you actually do as you drive.  Skimming past trees without hitting them for tree runs, getting hang-time in the air, flying through mid-air rings, smashing other trucks, drifting round corners, spinning 360s and more in the air - all these get you stars and the longer you do them in a row the more stars you get.  Your final stars give you an overall RANK.  Often to get the best score you'll need to be more worried about getting extra tree runs and air time than you will finishing first, though first nets you 50 stars.  Second place is only 25, and it takes a lot of stunts to make up for that!

Also making a debut for Nintendo is the ability to play your own music during the race instead of the game soundtrack - you do this by loading mp3 files onto an SD card and selecting one of the tracks in sound options after you've selected your race.  This will appeal to people who always like to have their own tracks on while playing games, and is one more sign of gamer choice, which we always welcome.

You'll probably start off wrestling the sensitive steering controls since you steer the truck by tilting the Wii-mote.  No buttons or sticks - over time you'll come to find it natural and more fun for the arcade style game play.  You 'feel' the track you're going on, and you don't look an idiot for 'leaning' around with the controller which players have found themselves doing since the first computer racing games were made.

The Wii isn't the most graphically powerful console currently and Excite Truck looks as such.  But while frozen screenshots and close attention to the screen may show it suffers, the fact you're tearing around and flying through the air most of the time means that with all the graphical details and fairly impressive draw distance the game actually packs in means that the game doesn't look bad at all, it looks fine even on large HD TVs using the component cables.

For extra speed you get boost ability while driving, drifting or just after leaving a jump.  Boosting increases your temperature gauge and if you don't let it cool down or drive through water, you'll overheat. Adding to the crazy star gathering shenanigans is the ability to morph the actual tracks by collecting icons - these usually result in a giant ramp in front of you and often open up some rings to fly through when you shoot off the top.  If that's not enough, there are 'POW' icons around which supercharge your truck and make it invincible for a short period of time.

There are three cups to play through on the first difficulty level, each with 4-6 tracks.  Complete these in S rank and you'll unlock the harder difficulty.  Complete those on S rank to unlock an even harder 'mirror' difficulty level.  Complete those on S rank for the ultimate truck to select.  Speaking of trucks, there are 21 trucks to unlock, all with differing stats.  You can also unlock paintjobs for each of them by winning 10 races or getting 3 S ranks. 

If you want a break from 'racing' there are challenge modes to complete - gate mode sees you driving through slalom style gates against the clock, ring mode sees you concentrating on jumping through single rings which increase in value, and crush mode which dumps you down with other drivers and you simply have to crash into them all!  Multiplayer mode is excellent and a great mode for parties - you race another player in vertical split-screen mode.

With all that going on, sticking to the main track and driving competitively isn't foremost on your mind, most of the time you're either in a jump or driving towards the next.  With all the unlock-able content, scoreboards to compete on and multiplayer for head-to-head action, you'll find this game a fun adrenaline rush that keeps you playing and coming back for more, just what you want for your shiny Wii.

4 / 5   -- Ben Daniel