Reviews// Excite Truck (Wii)

There's also a rather simple, but somewhat frustrating, 'trick system' involved. When first taking off from a jump, if the boost button is pressed at the right time, it will give you an added jump in distance and speed that results in 'trick points'. Once airborne, the controller can be rapidly twisted back and forth in an awkward steering wheel fashion to cause your vehicle to spin once. If timed properly, you can chain these spins together to increase your score. And that’s it. Ho hum.

The single player Excite Mode is standard racing game fare. You must progress through all the races in a particular circuit to unlock the next circuit. Lather, rinse, repeat. Once all the tracks have been sufficiently conquered, the even more exciting Super Excite Mode is unlocked, wherein you can play all the tracks over again, but a bit faster. Whoop-de-frickin'-doo! Also, as you’ve been beating courses and winning races, you will continually unlock new vehicles. Each has its own highs and lows as far as speed, handling and acceleration are concerned, so finding a vehicle that suits your playing style can definitely improve your enjoyment of the game.

The multiplayer portion of the game is the biggest disappointment. While the single-player may not be a groundbreaking game, it is simple fun that would and should work incredibly well with a group of friends. Ramming each other off ledges, stealing the shortcut power-ups to get ahead, and tossing your opponents hundreds of feet in the air would all equal a great time, if there were more than two of you. Without even checking the packaging or reading up on it ahead of time, we fully assumed this game would be of the four-player variety. How could it not be? Nearly every GameCube game release had four-way split screen action. The system only existed these past few years to play Metroid, RE4, and the four-player Mario games. It’s just sad and quite a bit of a let-down, frankly. It's what could have bumped up an averagely fun game to a must-buy multiplayer launch title.

As far as graphics are concerned, the game performs admirably. While there is very little 'wow' factor, it does have some of the nicest texture and lighting work of any of the launch titles. Models are smooth and the frame rate stays pretty consistent throughout. The only complaint we have is the aforementioned generic feel of the whole thing. The vehicles are dull, the landscapes lack character, and even the interface is just, “meh”. Again, there’s nothing inherently wrong with any of it, but there isn’t anything very right about it either.

The audio falls into a similar category as the graphics: generic southern-esque rock (read: Creedence Clearwater Revival) dully chugs along in the background. Thankfully it isn’t the harsh, overbearing metal-flavoured pain that makes up some of the Burnout games' soundtracks, but it certainly doesn’t inspire either. It’s almost as if Nintendo did this on purpose so you would learn how to put MP3’s on an SD card. (Which rocks, BTW).

In summary, Excite Truck has been a tough pill for me to swallow. When I first laid my hands on the game at E3 back in May of this year, I only played for a short while, and that brief period of time gave me a small taste that left me wanting for more. Nice but generic graphics, and a great sense of speed and control for a racing game like nothing I had ever played before all added to a strong urge to see the final product. Sadly, I am now painfully aware that there was no main course to follow that tasty, but not-so-filling appetiser.

SPOnG Score :C

A simple, fun game that shows off yet another way the Wiimote can be used. Nice looking but uninteresting graphics. Average audio fails to impress or annoy. Crippled multiplayer is unfortunate. Not a bad game by any means, but there are much better ways to spend your launch money.