One of those near-universal memories men seem to have is playing with toy cars as a young boy. We'd take our Hot Wheels in hand, speed them across the floor, up the makeshift ramp, and have them soar off the top—maybe banking or doing crazy tricks, supported by our fingers as we twisted and turned them in the air as we imagined the thrill of riding in that car, performing stunts that defied the very laws of physics.
That feeling has a quality to it that pays no heed to how many years I've been at it; likewise, Excite Truck—a title whose control scheme is quite like manuevering those little cars in mid-air—also holds a special place in my heart with a similar timelessness. It's a title that's been out on these shores as long as Wii itself, and one that's been in my library a majority of that time; and yet, I'm writing about it today, arguably long after the freshness date that reviews generally abide by. I'm writing about it because it's still on my mind today, and playing it still evokes those old feelings.
Excite Truck is played entirely with the Wii Remote, held NES-style in your hands. Though it utilizes standard-issue controls for braking, accelerating, and turbo, you maneuver your truck by moving the Wii Remote around in space. While you're on the ground, you tilt the Remote side-to-side to steer, straightforwardly enough; but when you're in the air (and you will spend a lot of time in the air, defying the aforementioned physics), a whole world of midair motion opens up to you. Learning how to do it as the game expects takes a little effort, but once you do, it's that same childhood feeling over again.
Although there's a racing element to the game (and one you should not ignore, as a first-place finish gives you a sizable bonus), you won't get very far just getting there first: you'll need to use those mid-air manipulation skills to pull off as many tricks as possible, earning you stars that count toward your final grade. Your repertoire ranges from the simplistic turbo jump (boosting just before the crest of a hill to get airborne) to twisting and turning the Remote to fly through rings in the air and spinning your truck as many times as possible to rack up the stars.
The track design is simply excellent, offering you obvious, hidden, and even apparently unintended opportunities to pull off tricks and skillfully navigate shortcuts. An especially cool feature are little icons you can pick up on the road to morph sections of the track, throwing unlucky opponents into the air and opening up new possibilities for performing tricks both simplistic and complex. Monster Games' designers were clearly in their element designing tracks for this game.
My single regret with Excite Truck is how abysmal the multiplayer game turned out. It's already inaccessible enough since new players have a bit of a curve to crest before they can become effective at the game, but the side-by-side two-truck-only manages to sap nearly all the fun from the single-player game, even when two expert players are at the controls vying for superiority. Maybe it's the lack of additional trucks on the field (the single-player game has six), maybe it's just that the game really isn't suited well to two-player contests, or maybe it's even just that the split screen yields an inappropriate viewport for play; the unfortunate result is that it's just not a compelling mode.
Thankfully, the game more than makes up for it with substantially enduring playability stretching over a handful of modes and challenges. In our household, each new challenge (from clearing Excite mode, to S-ranking all tracks, to Super Excite mode, etc.) found us gradually improving our skills, giving us that unmatchable feeling that even though we hadn't quite mastered the current challenge, that we could—and we did—improve and emerge victorious. This is probably what's behind the game's longevity; we've been playing Excite Truck more and longer than any other Wii title we own. We put it down from time to time, of course, but it still comes out to be challenged, and it's always just as much fun to play as it was the last time.
Excite Truck would be quite accurately classified as a veteran entry in Wii's lineup today, but I felt it was worth calling attention to, especially considering how long we've been continuing to play it and in light of the number of people I still encounter who wrote it off many months ago and never came back. I believe these people have done themselves a disservice; Excite Truck is a game that deserves their playtime, and will reward them in spades. It may not be something you pick up now, with a trifecta of great Wii games both out and coming from Nintendo's own studios by the end of the year—but next time you find yourself in a Wii lull, get it. If you enjoyed flying your Hot Wheels through the air back in the day, this game was made for you.
That feeling has a quality to it that pays no heed to how many years I've been at it; likewise, Excite Truck—a title whose control scheme is quite like manuevering those little cars in mid-air—also holds a special place in my heart with a similar timelessness. It's a title that's been out on these shores as long as Wii itself, and one that's been in my library a majority of that time; and yet, I'm writing about it today, arguably long after the freshness date that reviews generally abide by. I'm writing about it because it's still on my mind today, and playing it still evokes those old feelings.
Excite Truck is played entirely with the Wii Remote, held NES-style in your hands. Though it utilizes standard-issue controls for braking, accelerating, and turbo, you maneuver your truck by moving the Wii Remote around in space. While you're on the ground, you tilt the Remote side-to-side to steer, straightforwardly enough; but when you're in the air (and you will spend a lot of time in the air, defying the aforementioned physics), a whole world of midair motion opens up to you. Learning how to do it as the game expects takes a little effort, but once you do, it's that same childhood feeling over again.
Although there's a racing element to the game (and one you should not ignore, as a first-place finish gives you a sizable bonus), you won't get very far just getting there first: you'll need to use those mid-air manipulation skills to pull off as many tricks as possible, earning you stars that count toward your final grade. Your repertoire ranges from the simplistic turbo jump (boosting just before the crest of a hill to get airborne) to twisting and turning the Remote to fly through rings in the air and spinning your truck as many times as possible to rack up the stars.
The track design is simply excellent, offering you obvious, hidden, and even apparently unintended opportunities to pull off tricks and skillfully navigate shortcuts. An especially cool feature are little icons you can pick up on the road to morph sections of the track, throwing unlucky opponents into the air and opening up new possibilities for performing tricks both simplistic and complex. Monster Games' designers were clearly in their element designing tracks for this game.
My single regret with Excite Truck is how abysmal the multiplayer game turned out. It's already inaccessible enough since new players have a bit of a curve to crest before they can become effective at the game, but the side-by-side two-truck-only manages to sap nearly all the fun from the single-player game, even when two expert players are at the controls vying for superiority. Maybe it's the lack of additional trucks on the field (the single-player game has six), maybe it's just that the game really isn't suited well to two-player contests, or maybe it's even just that the split screen yields an inappropriate viewport for play; the unfortunate result is that it's just not a compelling mode.
Thankfully, the game more than makes up for it with substantially enduring playability stretching over a handful of modes and challenges. In our household, each new challenge (from clearing Excite mode, to S-ranking all tracks, to Super Excite mode, etc.) found us gradually improving our skills, giving us that unmatchable feeling that even though we hadn't quite mastered the current challenge, that we could—and we did—improve and emerge victorious. This is probably what's behind the game's longevity; we've been playing Excite Truck more and longer than any other Wii title we own. We put it down from time to time, of course, but it still comes out to be challenged, and it's always just as much fun to play as it was the last time.
Excite Truck would be quite accurately classified as a veteran entry in Wii's lineup today, but I felt it was worth calling attention to, especially considering how long we've been continuing to play it and in light of the number of people I still encounter who wrote it off many months ago and never came back. I believe these people have done themselves a disservice; Excite Truck is a game that deserves their playtime, and will reward them in spades. It may not be something you pick up now, with a trifecta of great Wii games both out and coming from Nintendo's own studios by the end of the year—but next time you find yourself in a Wii lull, get it. If you enjoyed flying your Hot Wheels through the air back in the day, this game was made for you.