Ureview by: Eraser
Ureview points: 28
Ureviewer since: April 2006
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Reviewed On: Friday March 16, 2007
Price paid: $60.00
| Rating: 8 | Recommends product: Yes
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Introduction
ExciteTruck is an action racing game for the Wii. This game is the successor of ExciteBike, which was first released on the Nintendo Entertainment System or NES (or Famicom if you're from Japan). ExciteBike's over-the-top jumps and speed is still present in ExciteTruck, but the Wii game has a lot more to offer.
Gameplay
When you first start up ExciteTruck you'll have to work your way through a handful of rather boring tutorials. Fortunately, each of these only last for less than a minute (if you do them right) and you'll be racing away for real soon enough. More tutorials can be done after the initial batch, which are slightly more interesting because they introduce some of the stunts you can do.
After the initial tutorials you find yourself entering the first races. ExciteTruck offers about 20 races spread across four cups, labelled bronze, silver, gold and platinum. Each of the cups increases in difficulty. Now the goal of ExciteTruck isn't to reach the finish first just like that, it doesn't guarantee actual victory. The goal is to score as many stars as you can get. Stars are earned by performing special actions, or stunts, such as long jumps (and you can fly quite a long way where you still have some control over your vehicle, allowing you to neatly place the truck back on the track), drifts, crashing into other trucks and so called tree runs, where you skim close past trees without actually crashing into them. A better finishing position earns you additional stars as well.
Each track has a minimum number of stars you have to earn to pass it. Depending on the amount of stars you've earned, you'll also get a D, C, B, A or S (which stands for Super I guess) rating. So while it's not strictly nescessary to run a fast race, it is nearly a requirement to get those S ratings, which, in turn, are again required to unlock the Super Excite mode. Super Excite mode is the same as the normal races but with all tracks mirrored and a harder difficulty.
Controls
ExciteTruck isn't a game that's about taking fast corners by following the fastest lines. You'll find that most of the time you'll be struggling to keep your car just under control. This isn't because the controls are awkward, non-responsive or bad in any way. It's just that you'll be wanting to push your Truck to it's limits to score those stars. The way the game is controlled is typical for the Wii, making superb use of the motion detection capabilities of the console. The Wii Remote is held horizontally with the buttons facing upwards and the d-pad to the left. Steering is done by tilting the controller left or right. Subtle movements are preferred over wildly swinging the remote around so it's pretty relaxed playing. The 2 button is used for throttle. This means that it's either on or off, but that doesn't feel like a limitation at all. Pressing any of the d-pad directions is used to activate your turbo, which gives a significant speed boost but will eventually overheat your engine if you push it too far. While you're in the air, tilting the Wii remote forward or backward tilts your truck forward or backward, giving you some control over the distance you jump. Also, if all four wheels of your truck hit the ground simoultaniously, you'll get an additional speed boost upon impact which is very useful.
Trucks and Tracks
The game offers about 20 different trucks. While you won't be picking one over the other for visuals (they all look slightly similar) but they do feel different to control. At the beginning of the game only 3 trucks are available to choose from. The rest of them has to be unlocked by playing races. For each truck an alternate paint job can be unlocked as well by driving ten races with the truck or winning three races with an S-rating.
While there's about 20 races in the game, most of them are variations on 6 different themes. These themes are Mexico, China, Finland, Canada, Scotland and Fiji. Each track is also partially the same as other tracks in the same theme, but in one track you'll go left and in the other you'll go right, entering a whole new part of the theme.
A great feature of ExciteTruck is the ability to change tracks during a race. Each track features a number of Morph powerups which, when driven through, morph the terrain into a different shape. A hill in front of you could simply morph down turning it into a canion. Usually morphing the terrain allows you to do bigger and better jumps and stunts. This allows for some quite interesting and spectacular tricks. My favourite morph is where the terrain doesn't so much as morph, but where a big oil tanker ship comes crashing through some icebergs, opening up a new path for you to follow.
Graphics
Graphically ExciteTruck is impressive. Even though it has nothing on XBox360 or PS3 racing games in terms of graphics, it does look nice considering it's a first generation Wii title. There's lots of detail in the trucks and environments. Each scene is stuffed with nice smoke, dust, light and water effects. The viewing distance is amazing. You can see really far ahead of you, sometimes creating pretty impressive views. There's absolutely none of the dreaded popup going on, where parts of the scenery suddenly pop up into the view once they enter drawing distance, which is something a lot of racing games suffer from.
Multiplayer
Unfortunately multiplayer is poorly supported. The only multiplayer mode it offers is 1 versus 1 split-screen and no online mode. When playing multiplayer with 2 people, there aren't any computer controller opponents in the race, taking away a bit of excitement all round.
Conclusion
If you're a racing purist, this game probably isn't for you. If you like a quick, easily accessible, over-the-top action racing game which emphasizes on being simply spectacular, then ExciteTruck is a jewel. While the game does offer a bunch of unlockables, mostly in the form of trucks, it could have had a little bit more content. ExciteTruck does offer a lot of fun, but it might not last for too long. That doesn't mean you should pass this one up, because it definitely is a great game and you'll certainly enjoy it.
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| Pros: nice graphics, brilliant action, easy-to-learn/hard-to-master gameplay |
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| Cons: slightly shallow, poor multiplayer, could have had more content |
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