Probably anyone who has owned a Nintendo has fond memories of any game with the Excitebike series of games which started on the original NES and migrated to the Nintendo 64 back in the day. With the launch of the Wii, Nintendo has released a new game called Excite Truck. While it’s not really a sequel, the game does borrow the high funfactor from the original game and brings it to the Wii.
In Excite Truck, the Wii-mote is used as a steering wheel. Unlike other racing games released at launch, a steering wheel “wiimote holder” is not included with the game, but it is not necessary. To play the game, you’ll hold the Wii-mote horizontally with the “+” pad on your left. You use the “+” pad for turbo, button 2 for gas and button 1 for the brake.
You’ll steer your truck by rotating the Wii mote like a racing wheel. To go straight, keep the wiimote at the 9 and 3 position on the clock. To turn right, rotate the wii mote clockwise. You use the d-pad for turbo and you can tilt the control up or down when getting air on a jump or landing. Gas is button 2, and the brake is button 1. Seems simple enough, right?
As always, it’s strongly recommended that you go through the tutorial first – as this isn’t solely a racing game – you’ll need to pick up ‘stars’ during a race. You do get stars when you finish the race, but you’ll also get stars for drifting, for a ‘tree run”, air spins and so forth. Most you’ll figure out on your own, but the air spin can be difficult. You see, you have to get some air then while you’re airborne, hit the brake and then rotate the steering wheel 360 degrees. A 360 is pretty easy to do but a 720 is rather difficult. This is one of those times that you prefer you have a control stick to do a circular motion.
The gameplay in Excite Truck is fun. It’s not deep, nor is it challenging, but it is enjoyable. Aside from the regular racing, there are other items in the game, which include a power up that allows you a nice speed boost and the ability to knock down the trees that cause so many crashes; there are also rings that you can hit for bonus stars while airborne; finally there are triggers on the track that morph the terrain – making a flat part of the track into a mountain and vice versa. It sure does make it fun to play. Those looking for this game to have a track creator are going to be disappointed, despite this feature being in older “excite” themed games for older consoles.
The Excite Race mode is fun, but it’s pretty easy to beat. You’re racing on multiple tracks against five other vehicles. You choose the vehicle and color and you’re good to go. There’s also a “versus” mode which allows for a 2 player split screen game. There is no internet or split screen for 3 or 4 players, unfortunately.
The graphics in the game are crisp and clear; however they do not wow you as say, the demo of “Motorstorm” on the PS3 does. They do get the job done however – the rippling water does look very good.
Speaking of water, let’s quickly talk about the turbo in game. As I mentioned before you use turbo by hitting the d-pad. Instead of having a turbo meter that depletes as you go along, you run the risk of overheating your engine with too much turbo. Your engine will cool off over time, or you can run through a pond to accelerate the cooling process. You also cool off by getting airborne. It’s a neat idea, although not very realistic. Of course, you could say that having a turbo meter that regenerates isn’t realistic either, right?
