Ladies and gentlemen, you are about to experience a life changing event … or at least that is what should appear when popping Excite Truck into your Wii for the very first time. Oh yes, and the standard epilepsy warnings are actually applicable to this title so take regular breaks to rest your eyes… yeah right, you and whose army is going to make me! Yes, it is all that and more so be prepared to cancel all social engagements that don’t involve your mates crashing in your living room for a marathon unlocking session as you get sucked into the Excite world.

You have been forewarned, so be sure to stock up on essential gaming supplies…you know the ones, WiiMote batteries, soda, chips etc… anything that can be consumed without have to leave the living room for more than a couple of minutes. Call in sick, take the phone off the hook and you may need to temporarily move the microwave into the lounge just to get some dinners going to keep the adrenaline and sugar from doing permanent damage.

Excitebike fanboy? What are you waiting for!

Now understand that having not played Excitebike, I was completely unprepared for the effect Excite Truck was going to have on my life. So let me bring you all up to speed on what Excite Truck is so you can ease yourself into it and avoid unnecessary palpitations. For those who have played Excitebike et al, you just need to stop reading and take a trip down to your local console shop and purchase it. No questions, no whining about money or what else you can get that is better…this is a no brainer, go now!

Shew, for those readers still with me, don’t worry there is plenty of stock, so stick in there and let’s take a closer look at what Excite Truck has to offer. Simplicity is the name of this game and this is superbly implemented through the use of the WiiMote. You do not use the Nunchuk, steering wheel or anything “remotely” complicated. Just hold the WiiMote with both hands as you would for a Virtual Console game. i.e. horizontally. Now comes the fun part where you hold down the ‘2’ button and simply tilt the controller from side to side as you would a normal steering wheel. It just doesn’t get any simpler than that!

The first thing you will probably do is over compensate on the steering as I did, but after a couple of races you’ll learn how to tilt moderately to achieve maximum drift and control. Given that there is no force feedback, you need to throttle down the wild motions and practice some degree of restraint to master your tilting motion. There are bound to be a couple of hardcore driving enthusiasts yearning to know all there is to about the braking mechanism…so what you need to do is press the ‘1’ button. This is Excite Truck though and the point is to accelerate, so try and get past the temptation to break at every opportunity. Remember, out of control is good…that’s what this game is all about.

Racking up Star points

The general premise of Excite Truck is to gain sufficient score to unlock the next track. Repeat after me, I must not rest until I have unlocked everything. Good. Now scoring is achieved through a handful of on the ground and some in the air maneuvers, as well as additional points based on where you finish. So you don’t need to come first to achieve victory, although the 50 points 1st place bonus does become essential as you level up. Each race has a time limit so you can’t mess around enjoying the scenery people, get momentum and maintain it throughout the race. Remember the quicker you unlock the quicker everyone’s life can return to normal, so stay focused on the goal!

Terrain deformation is a key feature of the Excite experience. You pick up items on the course that deform the terrain just in front of you, providing just enough time to correct your angle to make the most use of them. A hill turns into a valley to provide a major shortcut, a mountain erupts raining lava on your competitors, a simple hill turns into a massive ramp giving you the air to perform your ultimate spin maneuver. I love it, everyone who I have seen playing it loved it and you will love it. There is nothing more satisfying than deforming the terrain and sending your opponents truck wheeling into the abyss as the track disappears from beneath them.

Boost your way to victory

Boosting is one of the most satisfying aspects of the game and is so addictive that I need to install some NOS to remove the drudgery from my morning drive to work. All you need do is hold down any direction on the D-Pad for as long as you desire a boost. Time your boost right at the top of a ramp and you can achieve an insane amount of air. Boosting is limited by the engine temperature and excessive boosting will reduce the top speed of your slick ride. Fortunately the temperature can be reduced by traveling through water or just by not boosting for a short period of time. Indeed restraint is difficult so keep a keen eye out for those water features and make the most of them.

Once airborne you need to look out for rings and aim your vehicle through to gain points. In addition you can spin whilst in the air and if you get sufficient height, the right truck and master the spin motion you can achieve the highly coveted 1440 degree spin for maximum points. To top off this ultimate point scoring maneuver you need to align your wheels for a perfect 4 point landing. If you get this right additional points to you as well as a turbo boost to keep you ahead of the pack.

The air experience is brilliant but what you are really going to enjoy is the dirt road carnage. Smash into your opponent’s to quickly rack up points and prevent them from getting to the finish before you do. If you are sneaky and have lightening fast reflexes you can attempt a tree run. The trick here is to dodge the trees but not miss them by too much. So basically you need to polish your vehicle with tree bark without crashing and you will be awarded many points that will become a necessity to unlock tracks as you progress in difficulty.

Have a tune that gets your motor going?

Excite Truck is pretty bare boned when it comes to features but it does have the ability to play mp3’s from a SD card as the backing track whilst you mash through the courses. This is great if you start to tire of the in-game score which personally I love but in a year’s time I will probably be thanking the developers for this feature.

For me the multiplayer feature was not a huge draw card but it is a close second. I got hours of entertainment with the crew taking turns to work through the single player tracks and unlock them fully. This was far more entertaining than racing against each other. That aside, now that we have all but 100%ed it, we will probably appreciate the two player split screen mode a wii bit more.

Excite Truck is a true gem of a game and certainly builds on the success of the Excitebike. It will be favorably remembered for the hours of entertainment it has provided thus far and gets a prime position on my game collection shelf. Well done to Monster Games for delivering an amazing experience!

Pros: Addictive game play; perfect use of motion sensor; well placed power-ups.
Cons: Split screen multiplayer exhibited some slowdown; not much variation in game play modes.

Purchase: