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Wii

North America

Excite Truck

by Jonathan Metts - November 11, 2006, 2:51 pm EST
Total comments: 9

Super Truck Smash!!!

Afraid that Zelda will grip me with an iron fist, I decided that the first game I would play on my shiny new Wii is Excite Truck. I was a fan of the game back at E3, where I found it to be a fast, visceral kind of racing game, not unlike the godly Burnout series. So far, my home impressions have not changed.

The steering controls are a bit tricky at first, but after less than an hour of playing, I'm already feeling more comfortable with them. Don't worry about the remote being over-sensitive – you're more likely to have the opposite problem. There are times when my remote is turned completely vertical, trying to steer as hard as I can. It's not uncomfortable, but I was at first worried that this movement would be required too often. It turns out that steering is heavily dependent on the vehicle you choose, as well as the terrain under your tires. If you drive well and stay on the paths, extreme steering won't be necessary.

You may remember that Excitebike 64 did a great job of capturing the angular details of the original Excitebike. Now Excite Truck carries on the legacy. How you take off from ramps, tilt the truck in the air, and land on the ground is extremely important to your success. It can be intimidating when you first launch into the air and realize that you have so much control in your hands, but once you settle down and get the feel of it, the level of control over the truck's flight is just awesome. It's a major part of the racing strategy needed to win.

I haven't tried the two-player mode yet, but Excite Truck looks to be a quality launch game for Nintendo. It does a nice job of filling that Pilotwings / Wave Race slot in the lineup, and more importantly, it's just a fun racing game.

Talkback

trip1eXNovember 11, 2006

Sounds sweet. I Love these arcade racing games. The crazier the better.

MaleficentOgreNovember 11, 2006

Two Player mode is a lot of fun. unfortunately it is only for two players (like, no cpu cars or anything). But as long as one of the opponents isn't horrible at the game it's fun. The moving enviroments add a lot of value to it and the different cars actually do control differently. This is one of those deals where after playing this for a lot of hours you honestly wouldn't want to drive with a normal controller again. It helps to unlock a lot of stuff.

BloodworthDaniel Bloodworth, Staff AlumnusNovember 11, 2006

The air you catch in this game is just fantastic. Seriously crazy stuff.

Bill AurionNovember 11, 2006

Hahaha, I watched one video where the truck went so bloody high that the music actually FADED OUT into silence for a second...It was so awesome...

Jome20November 11, 2006

If anyone's interested in the game but still not sure if they wanna buy Excite Truck or not my local GameStop / EB Games stores have the final version copy of the game as their Wii playable demo. I think this is how all the GameStop stores across the country have it set up.

So if you wanna try before you buy you can check it out. It was definitely awesome to get my hands on the Wii before the launch.

KDR_11kNovember 11, 2006

Four axis control? Can you flip your truck into hyperspace or what?

Now that I think about it...it may only be two axes because you can only rotate the truck, not move it around in space while it's airborne. Well, it is moving in space but you can't control that once you take off.

ArtimusNovember 12, 2006

Four axis? Two axis? What crap! Why would we want a Wii with it's horrible 2 or 4 axis when we can have a PS3 with its amazing SIXAXIS!!!!!

KDR_11kNovember 12, 2006

The PS3's controller only has six axises when it explodes and they go flying all over the room.

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Excite Truck Box Art

Genre Racing
Developer Monster Games
Players1 - 2

Worldwide Releases

na: Excite Truck
Release Nov 19, 2006
PublisherNintendo
RatingEveryone
jpn: Excite Truck
Release Jan 18, 2007
PublisherNintendo
RatingAll Ages
eu: Excite Truck
Release Feb 16, 2007
PublisherNintendo
Rating7+
aus: Excite Truck
Release Feb 22, 2007
PublisherNintendo
RatingGeneral
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