Since the birth of 3D games, the racing genre hasn’t changed a whole lot. Fundamentally, it’s the same as it was almost ten years ago. It’s true that some developers and publishers have evolved the genre by tweaking controls, adding more extras, taking it all online and improving visuals to the point of near photo realism, but these things haven’t groundbreakingly advanced the genre.

That’s why we’re so excited about Wii. The controller, which can detect all sorts of motion, seems ideal to shake-up the racing genre in more ways than one. Take a look at Monster Game’s Wii launch title, Excite Truck. Although incredibly simple and basic, it offers something that no other racing game on any other console does: unique control that let you tilt the Wii controller to steer your in-game vehicles.

In Excite Truck, you hold the Wii-mote like a NES or SNES controller -– horizontally –- and tilt it left and right to steer the game’s many trucks through terrain-diverse courses. Some might be put off by the fact that the game requires you tilt the controller to move the trucks in the game, but thanks to the smart design of the Wii controller, you can actually hold the remote up –- like a steering wheel, really –- and turn it left and right. Although the game was designed to be played by tilting, this slight modification in the way you hold the controller might make hardcore racing fans a little happier.

With that noted, we prefer the game’s default controls. They work very well. Tilting creates a control experience that feels completely fresh and several times more engaging than conventional control offered by last-gen racers. There are some other control mechanics, such as a boost function, that add depth, as well. By pressing any direction on the D-Pad, you will employ a powerful boost that will propel your truck forward at intense speeds. What makes the boost system rewarding and slightly skillful, however, is the limit gauge, which you must keep an eye on if you want to avoid overheating your engine by using too much boost. If you happen to overheat, your truck’s speed will drop dramatically, leaving opponents ample time to pass you up. On top of this, you have to be careful not to smack into any trees –- or any obstacles on the map, such as rocks and walls –- otherwise you’ll have to rapidly tap the 2 button to avoid coming to a complete stop.

Excite features a varied amount of trucks to choose from, and as you play through the game’s single-player modes, you’ll unlock even more. Different trucks offer different attributes, such as speed and weight differences. What’s more, they come in an assortment of shapes and sizes, and you can choose what color your ride is prior to every match (although challenge mode pits you against challenges in a specific truck). Control itself is not loose, but the way most trucks steer is, but that’s actually not a bad thing. The game encourages you to drift as much as possible and even rewards you for doing so, thus it’s easy to slide around corners and make last-minute changes in the direction your truck is moving.

Perhaps you’ve noticed the word “Excite” in the game’s title. This is no mistake, nor is it a copyright infringement. The racer is in fact the spiritual successor to Nintendo’s popular Excitebike franchise -- a series that was conceived on NES. Like Excitebike on NES, or even on Nintendo 64, Monster Game’s incarnation has a huge focus on three things: speed, jumps and tricks. This gives Excite Truck a decidedly arcade-y feel, and we think fans looking for that in a racer will walk away happy with this Wii launch title.




Every course in the game is built around power-ups and rough terrain that help give you a healthy marriage of speed and big air. Power-ups play an important part in the game, allowing you a number of advantages. There are only a couple of these special icons strategically placed around each track (and in truth we wish there were a few more), but what there is is fun. The most important of these is probably a power-up that transforms terrain in front of your very eyes. This happens real-time, as both you and your opponents speed through the track. Picking up one of these bad boys can translate into one of two things. Some of these will morph the ground under your very tires into oftentimes huge piles of dirt. Others, though, will flatten the terrain, creating a canyon of sorts. In one stage, picking up one of these power items forms a canyon in front of you, allowing the surrounding lake water to spill in, creating a huge puddle of water. What’s so great about this? The fact that driving through shallow water in Excite cools down your engine, allowing you to use extra boost. However, it’s more often that these power-ups trigger hills to be formed, which can be a great thing.

For instance, if you pick up the terrain power-up and a hill is born, you can take your truck off that ramp to grab huge air, which will give you time to pull off tricks and rack up star points. Unfortunately, the only real trick while in-air involves you spinning your truck around in circles. Tony Hawk this is not, we agree, but it would have been nice if Excite Truck offered more in the way of in-air tricks. This aside, there is actually some more depth. Boosting at the very moment you hit the ground after a jump will thrust your ride forward with an automatic boost. The jolt triggered by successfully timing this move gives you a rewarding feeling and entices you to successfully do so more often in the future. And more, landing with all four tires on the ground simultaneously –- by tilting the Wii-mote forwards or backwards in midair –- scores you a “nice landing,” also giving you extra boost.