Excite Truck

The Good
Excite Truck is a surprisingly fun game with slick controls, fun courses, and a decent challenge. The courses take place at different locations throughout the world offering a nice change of scenery with each new level. Speaking of scenery, the game looks quite nice and, while probably not up to the level of Forza 2 or even Gran Turismo 4, most players won't notice with the great sense of speed the game offers.

The controls are intuitive and allow virtually anyone to get in on the action relatively quickly. Subtle touches like water dropping the turbo's "heat meter" instantly really allow the player to strategically plow through the game's levels. Certain power-ups actually allow the player to restructure the level suddenly creating a ramp in front of them where before there was just flat space. Another power-up lets you drive at super speed mowing down any trees in your way that you would normally crash into.

My friend described Excite Truck as "a racing game where you don't need to come in first place to win." Indeed this is true. The game features much more of a task-based structure forcing players to earn a given amount of stars to proceed past each course. This makes the game feel fresh and fun!

The Bad
The game is challenging and offers the "super excite" difficulty for people who find the normal difficulty too easy, but it still seemed like the game could be blazed through in several hours. Racing game purists may also find the controls to be too simple missing options such as manual transmission.

The Bottom Line
When it comes to Nintendo, they usually have that release title that just seems like a "b" release. For their Gamecube system it was Wave Race: Blue Storm. Before that, other launch titles also bore the shame of being a "b" release. Before I played Excite Truck, I was convinced it would be just that. I was, however, surprisingly very pleased with this game. Anyone who doubts its fun factor should at least grace it with a rental.