Review: Excite Truck (Wii)

What do you get if you breed Wave Race with motion controls, truck racing and a whole heap of fun? Excite Truck, of course. The second best reason so far to own a Nintendo Wii.

Playing Excite Truck takes us back to a time when games weren't simply about aesthetics; instead they were about entertaining the player. In Excite Truck the Wii motion control is used to its full potential, as you simply hold the Wiimote lengthwise using it as a steering wheel. From here just turn it in whichever direction you wish, pushing forward to dive over hills and pulling back to expand airtime. It works better than you may think. Far from looking like a complete idiot (hello Warhawk) the sensor picks up your precise movements perfectly giving you no reason to blame the game when your truck sinks into the water. But the controls are nothing when you don't have interesting courses to navigate and fortunately Excite Truck delivers this in spades.

Like arcade racers of old, the terrain for each track ranges from ice to sandy plains, with insane jumps and numerous hazards across the route. What's best about each track are the power ups and most prominently the exclamation markers that can morph the terrain. Hit them and the land ahead changes. Sometimes it creates landslides or other disasters, but mostly it creates massive jumps or dips into canyons. It makes the races a joyride from beginning to end, leaving you no time to rest your arms. The other power up that can be hit is the POW icon. With a name like that it's no surprise that this makes you invulnerable and gives you unlimited boost, letting you mow down trees along the way (always handy when each course has plenty of trees to crash into). Luckily crashing constantly doesn't always mean you lag behind the pack, instead you're quickly placed back into the race and even have the opportunity (after hammering the '2' button) to gain a quick boost.

The boost, much like in the Burnout series, is integral to winning. With good timing you can super jump over cliffs and use it to ram your opponents off the road, but use it too much and you risk your truck overheating and slowing down considerably. Like we said, it's integral to winning, but the clever thing about this game is that coming first doesn't necessarily mean you've won. For each stunt, jump or truck smash you perform you're given a star rating, with the best being five. It's the same style of setup as the Kudos system in Project Gotham Racing - only less about serious racing and more concerned about your insane Wiimote skills. It also means that you go back to previous races hoping to beat your old score thereby adding some much needed longevity to what can otherwise be described as a simple game.

Aside from the main races in Excite Race mode you have the challenges. Essentially just a host of mini-games, there is gate challenge, ring challenge and crush challenge. You don't need us to explain each one as the names are fairly self-explanatory. It doesn't really add anything to the game and we only really played each game once before tiring of them.

Of course, the challenge mode is an insignificant addition to Excite Truck in order to boost longevity. Excite Race is the main brunt of the game with each set of races classed under Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum - each being unlocked as you proceed. Ranks are also handed out after each race, giving you an excuse to replay each race hoping to get the coveted S ranks. Along with this there is also the added allure of unlockable trucks and an even harder difficulty - not to mention the brilliance of multi-player.

Graphically Excite Truck is obviously nowhere near the visual delight of Xbox 360 or PS3 titles, but because this game has been built from the ground up for the Wii it certainly showcases the power of the console better than the majority of post-launch titles. Draw distance is most impressive: from massive jumps, you're able to see the far end of the track with no fogging or pop-up visible. We even found ourselves loving the cheesy rock soundtrack.

Possibly one of the most underappreciated titles for the Wii, Excite Truck reminds us of why we started playing games in the first place - pure, unadulterated fun. If we get treated to an Excite Truck 2 we will be very, very happy.

Rating: 8 / 10

Words by Adam Gulliver