PlayStation 2

The King of Route 66

Road trips. They're fun to watch in movies, and they're fun to think about...but are they ever really that great? The rides are long, bathrooms are scarce, and the most common food comes from the Golden Arches. If that's a vacation, I think I'd rather stay home.

I already previewed this game a while back, so I'll avoid repeating myself and get right to the strong opinion: King of Route 66 has two fundamental flaws. One, it's so blatantly a coin-op that it should have shipped with a token slot peripheral; you can play it for five minutes or two hours at a time and receive an identically average experience. Two, big rigs don't exactly provide an adrenalized driving experience, as evidenced by the fact that real-life truck drivers resort to illegal stimulants, X-rated CB talk, and self-administered electric shocks to keep themselves awake on cross-country trips.

So you want to drive an 18-wheeler but can’t afford that pricey ticket for a week at truck driver fantasy camp? Well you are in luck, with The King of Route 66 for the PlayStation 2, you too can get behind the wheel of a big rig. All in all it is a pretty deep game, with plenty of game modes and truck options. But I must ask this one question. Quality or quantity?

The King of Route 66 is the sequel to 18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker, Sega's previous entry into the wonderful world of truck driving. Originally released in arcades and developed by Sega-AM2, King of Route 66 attempts to improve upon many of 18 Wheeler's shortcomings, adding a few new modes to give the game some much-needed depth and undergoing a graphical overhaul to make better use of the PlayStation 2's capabilities. While all of this is well and good, The King of Route 66 still suffers from a lot of its predecessor's problems.

One can certainly call Sega an eclectic game company without any hesitation. It tries different things, and...it gets atypical results. Take for instance, arcade-style 18-wheeler driving. Who would have thought that driving an 18-wheeler would be so much damn fun? In the arcades it's a visceral, horn-blowing blast. The steering wheel is heavy and stylized, the cabinet is massive, and the whole rig gives you the undeniable feeling that you are as close to driving an 18-wheeler as possible.

When Acclaim released 18 Wheeler on the PS2, the game developed a small but fervent fan base that adored every minute of gameplay?all 20 or so of them. The King of Route 66 is the exact same thing?race a giant truck all around the country and beat your rivals to the ground?but extends the concept to its barely sustainable limits, adding more stuff to do but making the game?s limitations even more obvious.

Route 66 includes several other modes, but these are simply collections of mini-games, many of which take longer to load than to play. Some involve collecting tokens in a certain amount of time, which is incredibly tedious when you're driving an 18-Wheeler. The two-player split screen "race" is absolutely no fun at all. Route 66 is an uninspired game with mediocre gameplay, ludicrous AI, and excruciating load times.