Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that this racing game showcases big crashes and rewards players for smashing into other trucks. Players can also throw competitors into the air or knock them off course by altering the racecourse during a race. The action is always cartoon-ish, though, and the wrecks never involve more than a few parts flying off the vehicles. The use of the Wii controller as a steering wheel is innovative, but it may take awhile for some players to get used to it.
Families can talk about the best way to win a race. Do players like to drive as skillfully and as quickly as they can, or do they enjoy knocking other racers off course in order to win? Families can also discuss safe driving and contrast the game's over-the-top action with the responsibilities of real driving.
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Chris Jozefowicz
EXCITE TRUCK is one of the least realistic racing games in recent memory, and that's a good thing. Like the motocross motorcycles of the Excite Bike games, the trucks in Excite Truck spend almost as much time flying through the air as they do zooming along the track. The over-the-top action and good use of the Wii controller combine to make this one of the best games available close to the launch of Nintendo's Wii system.
To control these jumping jalopies, players hold the Wii remote sideways and turn it as if it were a steering wheel, with one button for gas and one for breaks. Players may struggle to keep their truck on the track for the first few races, but before long, they'll be sliding around corners and slamming opponents off the course with ease.
But winning races in Excite Truck takes more than careful driving. In fact, it takes insane, impossible driving using special turbo-boosting powers. Boosting increases a truck's speed and is essential to winning a race, but players need to carefully manage their boosting to prevent the trucks from overheating and stalling. Boosting also helps the trucks launch off ramps to truly ridiculous heights; turning and tilting the controller in mid-air steers the vehicle during flight.
These automobile acrobatics will be put to good use on 20 tracks spread over five countries (Mexico, Scotland, China, Canada, Finland, and Fiji). Each track is a jumbled collection of ramps and obstacles, and the landscape constantly shifts and evolves over the course of a race. This happens when players drive through special icons spread around the track. An icon might carve a valley or push up a hill right in front of the trucks. Or it might create obstacles by knocking over water towers or even initiating a meteor shower.
Between the controls and the shifting tracks, Excite Truck might sound complicated, but the races and controls are actually pretty forgiving. Advancing through the game is not strictly tied to winning, but rather to collecting stars in each race. Coming in first nets racers a lot of stars, but so does stunt driving, like jumping through floating rings or racing along forested sections of the course.
In fact, serious racing-game fans might find Excite Truck to be a bit easy. The game does have two difficulty levels, but many players will see all the tracks in a few hours' time. And although there is a two-player racing mode, many video game racing fans will note the lack of any online racing capabilities.
But for players interested in short blasts of arcade-style racing, Excite Truck should provide plenty of fast, fantastic action.
Families looking for kid-friendly, arcade-style racing that's a little less fanciful might want to try Cars, based on the Disney/Pixar movie; serious racing fans interested in simulations-style racing should check out Forza Motorsport for the Xbox.
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ViolencePlayers are rewarded for crashes and one game mode encourages players to crash into other trucks; the trucks roll and dent without graphic damage. |
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