Excite Truck

The third installation in the Excite series, Excite Truck comes after Excitebike, and Excitebike64 in this series. Like the other games in this series, this is a racing game that allows you to speed through courses at exhilarating speeds as you navigate tough turns and other moves.

While some of the controls are similar to that of the others in the series, Excite Truck also has some new features that make it stand out all on its own.

Unique controls

Unlike many other games, you control Excite Truck by turning the Wii controller sideways. The D pad is on your left, the 2 buttons on the control to your right. When you play, the buttons are your brake and gas pedals, and you turn by tilting the controls left and right.

You can also control your truck during jumps. If you tilt the controller back your truck will climb higher, and if you tilt it forward it will descend more sharply.

Win by earning stars

Unlike some racing simulators where the goal is to be in first place, this goal is secondary in Excite Truck. The main goal for this game is to earn gold stars. If you earn a lot of gold stars, you’ll win even if you didn’t cross the finish line first. You can earn stars through landing well after a jump (all four tires landing at the same time), drifting around corners, and other tests of skill can all net you stars. You need a certain amount of stars in order to complete the course, and only then will a new track open up for you.

Besides the main mode, there’s also a multiplayer mode which allows 2 players, and a challenge mode where you can do things like jump through rings and other tasks. This can help keep things interesting even after initial game play.

Can be repetitive

While the game itself is exciting at first, there’s relatively few hours of gameplay before you have played through all the material. While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, if you were expecting a hundred hours of game play for the price, you may feel disappointed by the lack of material in this game. The graphics are also somewhat disappointing, with them looking too sharp at their highest resolution, or blurry and poor looking in lower resolutions. The trucks themselves are also nothing special, although these are just plain rather than blurry.

Excite Truck has some unique features compared to other racing games, but not enough unique game play to keep adults entertained for long periods of time. This combined with poor graphics gives it a lower ranking, but if you enjoy racing for the sake of racing this is still a worthwhile game.

Pros

• Thrilling race tracks
• Unique controls
• Perfect for kids

Cons

• Can be repetitive
• Underwhelming graphics