Excite Truck - Nintendo Wii
Quick Info
Multiplayer: 2 players
Online: nope
Rating: 6 out of 10
This is one of those rare games that make you feel awesome for beating the game because it makes you look so cool. Unlike other Wii games where you feel like a complete idiot waving your arms around. This game makes you feel as if you’re a skilful truck racing superstar. But if this game is so good, why have I given it just six out of ten.
The game involves racing your truck around various dirt tracks against other trucks. Interestingly where other racers require players to come in a position to win, Excite Truck’s aim is not to win the race but to get the most points. At this point there will be many comparisons between Excite truck and the Burnout series. Players get points by driving dangerously close to trees, doing mid air tricks in trucks, drifting and ramming into opponents. A major difference between these games is the boost methods in Burnout you are rewarded boost for dangerous driving, whereas here boost is given constantly however using it too much in one go will overheat your engine and leave you in the dust behind your opponents. So to be successful the player will have to balance out speed and caution.
The controls in this game are very akward to begin with, but once you get used to it, you’ll swear it’s the only way forward. You hold the Wii remote in your hands in the horizontal position and to turn in a direction you dip the controller in that direction. It’s so responsive that you can do all the stunts whenever you feel like it.
Other gameplay elements include challenge mode where you have to jump through rings, smash up your opponents’ cars and gate racing. These are nice little extras, but unfortunately this still doesn’t quite quench your thirst for more.
Even though the game is such pure brilliance, it fails to provide this awesomeness on other elements of the game. For starters there is no online mode which is fair enough since the game was a launch game and the Wii’s online system wasn’t ready yet. Embarrassingly, the multiplayer is only 2 player, and the AI racers from single player are no where to be seen, meaning there is none of the frantic bashing and ramming to get into first place, this gives the multiplayer mode a dull and empty feeling.
Visually, this game is rather good looking. Trucks are a bit on the plain side and environments are varied enough and well done. But it hardly matters when you’re zooming around the race track, concentrating on what’s ahead.
In terms of sound the game’s sound effects are again satisfying but nothing more, metal twists, engines rev etc. but the game’s music is a major selling point. The game has a decent rock soundtrack but by plugging in an SD card, a custom soundtrack can be made using all your favourite music, up to 100 tracks, which I think is more than enough.
Unfortunately I think this game could be toppled by Nitro Bike which has all the frantic madness of Excite Truck, plus decent multiplayer and online. We’ll just have to wait and see.
