Title: Excite Truck
Out: Now (US, JPN, EUR)
RRP: £35.00
Published by: Nintendo
Developed by: Monster Games, Inc
Genre: Racing
Number of Players: 1-2
You start off with four Stages to complete – Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum. You can complete each stage on to different modes – Easy and Hard. Each stage has five areas to unlock and complete, the main idea is to get the highest grade on each area – a S-Grade this requires you to collect a certain number of stars. You gain stars by coming in first, second or third place, by drifting, catching big air, smashing other trucks, driving through trees without smashing into them. You can get 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 stars but its best to try to aim for the big 5 which awards you with a point which adds on to your award points – more about that later. Excite Truck isn’t the prettiest game for the Wii but it does have some good moments like when your in mid air you get a nice view of what’s below and ahead of you, the reflects of the water and the water effects while driving through it, the truck detail and the flames which come out of your Truck. Excite Truck displays a great sense of speed while boosting everything turns blurry and looks amazing.
Awards – you get them by getting a five star on various stuff, which I mentioned above. By getting a five star on something you get one point nearer to a gold award.
There are icons around the track which when to drive through them they either - Shape the land for your advantage or add a set of rings in the middle of the air which if you go through them you get stars - hit each of them and you get five stars. There is also another Icon which will make your Truck invincible this is often near a set of Trees - use this to your advantage - use it while going through trees to get a five stars tree run without crashing or hit another opponent and that truck goes flying to give you a 5 stars truck smash.
While boosting you Temp (shown at the bottom, right) will increase if you get over the red mark then you engine will blow – you think that is it but no, you can still continue playing the game but at a slower pace. When the needle goes down back to the blue section you can boost. To make the Needle to go down quicker and your engine not to blow you must drive in water or in the air – the needle doesn’t go up while your boosting in your in the water and sudden ping blears out of the Wii remote speaker when your about to blow your engine and a warning sign appears. Now this may sound all good but there are just a few things that do get on my nerves. Controlling the Truck can be a pain, because it is Motion sensitive you can end out not turn enough ending up into a tree or turning to quickly again ending up into a tree. There’s another point – If your going to play this game be ready to get smashed into a lot of trees – not by the opponents but by the controls of different trucks. To get the most out of the controls the truck would need to be with full stats. Each truck has a different set of Stats – Some are good at speeding, some are good at catching air etc. You unlock different Trucks by completing areas with a good enough set of stars.
Overall: This isn’t such a shabby game – worth a look in if you are sick of playing the same game on your Wii. Sure some parts make you just want to give up but if you don’t you get a good experience out of it.
Controls:
Like every other racing game – Simple. You hold the Wii remote horizontal. Press and hold down the Number 2 button is to accelerate, Press any direction on the D-Pad to Boost. Using the tilt-sensitive to control your Truck. Number 2 button is mostly to select options from the main menu; Number 1 is to go back a menu.
Graphics:
Not exactly pushing the standards of the Wii but it looks lovely when you’re in mid air, shows off the speed of your Truck very well.
Sound:
Rock and thrash music, which sounds the same. Little sounds from the Wiimote speaker get annoying after a while. Option of using Music from a SD card is a good feature to replace that awful Thrashing music.
Gameplay:
Can be Challenging. Four stages to complete 2 different difficulty levels, Multiplayer, challenge mode that offers 3 difficulty levels. And finally a Tutorial.
