N-Philes

Page 11

Steven: Monster Game's first title for the Wii comes in the form of Excite Truck, a high-speed, action-packed thrillercoaster of a racing game where you control a truck that rips through levels based on real-life locales. The truck is controlled by holding a gas button while turning the nunchaku controller left and right, as you would a normal steering wheel. In addition to racing against five other computer players, the demo showed off a feature where you gained points by performing various stunts. Stunts included drifting, turning in mid-air, causing some pretty nasty-looking crashes, and of course, advancing past your opponents. The game's sense of speed is so intense that you'll only want to go faster, and I never once found myself reaching for the brake button. In the vein of older games based on the Excite name, Excite Truck has a turbo mode that can be used at any point during the race. It also has a meter that can cause your truck to overheat if said turbo is abused.

The demo that was displayed at E3 had two different maps for the player to choose from. I chose the Mexico track. This track was basically an all off-road course covered in mud and littered with palm trees. The course design was solid but the textures were bland and uninspired. This didn't seem to matter much to me though, as I was racing through the map so quickly that I didn't even have time to appreciate any sort of detail given to the level. When turbo is used, a stream of fire came out of the back of my truck and the land in front of me blurred. The trees and bushes looked like they were ripped straight from the Nintendo 64 and inflated to look like balloons. They were strewn along the outside of the course, and were what I noticed the most, because I drove into them quite frequently.




I couldn't seem to get the hang of the controls while playing the demo. This wasn't really due to the sensitivity of the hardware, but in the software itself. The developers clearly intended for the trucks to be somewhat difficult to maneuver, because slamming into trees barely penalizes the player at all. When you wreck your truck, the game goes into slow motion and prompts you to repeatedly tap the 2 button. If you can do this properly, you'll wind up back on the course with an added turbo boost and a perfectly undamaged truck, as if nothing had happened at all. You even get star points for causing more extreme wreckage. It wasn't clear to me exactly how these points would be used in the final game, but there was a counter at the top of the screen that ranked me based on how many points I had acquired through the race.

Excite Truck is an interesting game, to me, because it shows Nintendo's willingness to not only revive their old franchises for the Wii, but consider entirely new takes and spins on them. What's next? A new Mach Rider? What about a new Balloon Fight game where instead of sending penguins to their watery graves, you shoot down mafiosi drug lords in 1980s Chicago using a neo-futuristic Glock while riding around on a giant hippopotamus that teaches the main character the importance of a strong and meaningful friendship? Oh man, Nintendo should pay me to write this stuff.

 

Jordan: Along with Sonic, this was one of the nicer surprises for me at Nintendo's Wii booth. I wasn't expecting much, so maybe that's why I was taken aback by how fun it was to play. Simply hold the remote sideways and tilt it left or right to steer and, when you launch into the air, tilt the controller forwards and back to balance the car and stick a perfect landing.

It all sounds very simple and, well, it is. The nice thing about the Excite Truck demo was that it was long enough for you to be able to mess up at the start and still have time to finish in decent position. I know I was crashing into trees and driving off track pretty frequently the first part of the race yet was still able to reel in first place. Hopefully it's not because of elastic AI, as seen in games like Mario Kart, and because I really got the hang of the controls and how to trigger the boosts.

 

Desiré: Surprisingly fun, although very easy. The control is a little sensitive and remarkably easy to pick up. However, it really didn't have too much else to it other than going really fast and purposefully crashing into trees to get a "Great Crash!". Just not my kind of game.

 

Danny: Excite Truck was easily one of the best demos on the floor. Driving is the most natural application of the Wiimote I experienced and Excite Truck adds pleasing depth. When you're launched into the air while navigating the crazy hills of the desert or island, you have the chance of leaning forward or backwards to get the flattest landing possible. If you land well, you're awarded with nitro which helps the game get even crazier. In the level I chose the trackside is littered with trees, so avoiding trees, turning well in the short spurts of land time you have, and landing your jumps well adds up to a very intense, fun experience.

The graphics are pretty decent too. Water looks really good (except it does not deform at all) and draw distance is excellent; there are thousands of trees, even though they're all cubic, and all the graphics related to the trucks look nice (suspension, reflection, destruction, dirtiness, and different chassis types). The best stylistic asset is the camera; it goes from behind you to give a great sense of speed (plus motion blur) to a crazy overhead fisheye view of the sprawling track for a sickening (in a good way) sense of altitude. I am definitely looking forward to this game, and I really hope it has online multiplayer.

 

Jared: The first Wii game I played that had the twin charm of feeling like a full game and also making competent use of the Wiimote's capabilities. It steers beautifully (simply, sure, but beautifully nonetheless) and the emphasis on making solid landings is a great way to push the capabilities of the Wii. It's nothing testicle-grabbingly awesome, but it's a solid racing game that I wouldn't mind having in my Wii library come launch.

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