Taking a cue from classic arcade style racing games such as Midway's San Francisco Rush, SingleTrac's Jet Moto, or even Electronic Arts' vastly underrated Rumble Racing, Nintendo's Excite Truck for the Wii offers all of the spills and thrills you'd expect from a balls-to-the-wall racer, complete with a host of unlockables, shortcuts, and manic speed.
In the run up the Wii's debut, screenshots, videos, and even comments from Nintendo representatives have painted the console as one that will feature software that comes well below the established bar in terms of visual fidelity. Because of this, it comes as little shock to note that Excite Truck is not what one would consider to be especially pretty. It's not ugly, but players coming off of graphical masterpieces such as Epic's Gears of War or Electronic Arts' Need for Speed: Carbon, for example might have a hard time looking at this game initially with the same set of eyes. Rest assured, however, that if there was ever a textbook example of not judging a book by its cover, Excite Truck would be that game.
Once you dig beyond the game's visual splendor or lack there of, the real beauty of Excite Truck, the racing itself, becomes evident. While it's unfortunate, and perhaps a bit irritating, that the game forces you to sit through the first few legs of a training session before actually letting you race, the fact that this is a launch title for an unconventional system sporting and equally unconventional control paradigm makes this at bit more forgivable. Driving in Excite Truck requires you to turn the Wii remote sideways, clutching it in both hands. Tilting the remote side to side turns your truck or moves it side to side while in mid air, while pulling up or pushing it down while flying through the air extends or cuts your jumps short.
And that, as they say, is that. Excite Truck's controls are simple, and for good reason. Once you wrap your head and hands around how to manhandle the Wii remote on the track, driving becomes second nature. Most of the time, that is. There are occasions when the Wii's motion sensing faculties have trouble interpreting the movements of the Wii remote, but these occasions were found to be few and far between.
While driving, you will seldom if ever let up on the gas, denoted as the 2 button on the Wii remote. This is a game all about speed and high flying antics, not about finesse. There are plenty of other racing games out there that emphasize style. Excite Truck is about fun, and it is unapologetic in its pursuit. The key element in this is the d-pad, the pressing of which in any direction executes a turbo boost. While on land this is helpful in short, controlled bursts, care must be taken not to boost for too long else your truck's engine will overheat, eventually slowing your vehicle to a crawl. Should this happen, you are left without the ability to boost until your engine cools down.
Where boost truly shows its usefulness is in jumps, as pressing the d-pad just before the crest of a hill causes your truck to fly through the air as if fired from a slingshot, and the terrain in Excite Truck is designed in such a way as to accommodate these sort of jumps with multiple hills for chaining together jumping combos for more and more points, or stars. The terrain even shifts over the course of the races by collecting Excite icons on the track so that new shortcuts and jumps become available, thus opening up the possibility for even more star accumulation.
Speaking of stars, one of the most non-racing elements about the game is that winning is not key to progressing through Excite Truck's various racing cups. Sure it helps, but the real key is accumulating a set number of stars through crashing, jumping, navigating trees, and other similar tactics. Sure, beating the other racers across the finish line nets stars as well, but coming in first without earning a healthy cache of stars beforehand will get you nowhere. It can be frustrating to skid across the finish line in the lead only to be awarded too low of a grade to move on to the next cup, but given Excite Truck's short, branching tracks that come littered with obstacles, you'll find yourself gathering stars without even trying. Now, gathering enough to move on that's another story.
Like other arcade style racers, crashing has little bearing on your performance. In fact, besides the fact that the game awards a few paltry stars for trashing your truck, upon colliding with a tree, rock, or a giant oil tanker you are prompted to mash the 2 button a few times the result of which is a free few seconds boost to easily catch up to the other drivers. It seems as if no matter how badly you race, the game always results in a close finish. As said, finishing first is not the key, and that fact is further emphasized here.
Collecting enough stars or competing in a set number of races also yields unlockables, and there are a number of these in this game. From numerous trucks to even new paint jobs and extra tracks, Excite Truck is never at a loss for content. However, the game is not very challenging either, and once players acclimate to the the controls, most will find themselves getting a good enough grade to move on from each cup after their first few tries. Excite Truck does include an additional mode featuring a set of increasingly difficult challenges, but even these are not overly taxing. You always feel like you are doing well in Excite Truck, but likewise the game seems to inspire a desire to do better through its award system. A 'B' rank may be good enough to move on, but can you get an 'A', or even the elusive 'S' rank?
Racing games often times live or die by their multiplayer component, and unfortunately this is the one area where Excite Truck comes up far short of other such titles on the market. Supporting just two players in split screen, with no online multiplayer support whatsoever, racing with friends in the game fun as it is feels a bit anemic. If Nintendo is dead set on competing in the next-generation console marketplace, online gameplay is going to have to be emphasized in future titles, as its absence is sorely felt here.
Altogether, Excite Truck as a very fun, fast, and dare I say it exciting return to grass roots arcade style racing. There no tuning to worry about, no license tests, and no underground street cred here. All of those things can be found elsewhere. Excite Truck is just about racing, and it excels in this regard. While the controls are removed from the norm, they work surprisingly well most of the time. The only real sore spots left in the wake of the game's release are to do with its visuals, a forgivable shortcoming, and listless multiplayer, which is far more detrimental. A terrific game regardless, hopefully Nintendo and developer Monster Games will embrace the online community with their next outing. Until then, you'll have to beat your friends one at a time.