Wow. I might have to consider getting this one, after all. Or at least renting it ASAP. I like the sound of how the trophy system keeps you coming, and the airtime being a large part of the game: The one problem I have with most racing games is that, except for a few gems, they eventually become a little repetitive. Both of these things will alleviate that for me.
I played it last night at eb for a few minutes. It was fun, but I’m not a huge racing fan, the star system is pretty nice. Control wise, I did have trouble with turning as I was never sure if I gave it too much or not enough. Is there a point to turning the mote down while in air or is it only to land faster?
You know what? Until I saw the screenshots attached to that review, I thought this game was about driving big eighteen-wheelers.
what about this game couldn’t be done with a control stick?
then again, I prefer Frequency to Guitar Hero these days, so maybe pretending isn’t my strong suit.
Argh. I was going to resist this one, thinking that it would be shallow or flawed or quickly overtaken by another Wii arcade racer… now I have to get it. Saying “Burnout & Smuggler’s Run” is making me weak.
Finally got to play this yesterday! I did two Versus races and they were an absolute blast. I love the sound effects from the wiimote. Great sense of speed. Graphically it was better than I expected (played Canada and Scotland Bronze tracks). The controls are very easy to use and feel really good.
I’ve heard less than stellar things about the multiplayer, but I quite enjoyed it (bearing in mind I haven’t played SP races). I liked the way the person that crosses the finish line first gets some bonus stars but could still lose.
I thought so too, until now. Guess I have to read the review.
I spent some time with this again today, and I really like it. It’s not as polished as Burnout, but it’s really fun once you get into it, in a very similar way.
I only wish I could figure out how to do multiple 360’s. I can get it to work, but only occasionally.
Oh this is great - seems like Excite Truck won’t be available for PAL launch. It’s not listed at any shop at all. Thanks a lot, Nintendo!
-Julian
I had trouble with this at first, but now I’ve got it down pretty pat. Say you tilt the controller left, then right to do your first 360 well then while the 360 is in progress tilt the controller left again. Now just as the current 360 finishes tilt the controller right again and you should start a new one.
Hope this helps. I’m not near a Wii right now, so I’m only going by my muscle memory of the procedure, but that should be right.
Played Excite Truck at a Gamestop for 15 minutes… I really liked it on first impression. Flying around is fun and going a bit off the path is interesting too.
Much more accessible than Wave Race: Blue Storm, which had this role in the Cube launch.
I broke down and bought it, and it grabbed me just like Burnout games grab me. I’m a racing fan, from all types like Mario Kart and Burnout to realistic sims like GT-R and rFactor.
Excite truck is just damn fun. Everyone I know who has tried it also seems to really enjoy it. The controller is very intuitive, and takes only a few runs to get it down. I do recommend it to anyone that likes the Burnout series, and wants something in the similar vein for the Wii.
Just to give this one a bit of a boost, probably the most Wii time this weekend was spent with Excite Truck. We alternated passing the Wiimote around to try to unlock the higher difficulty level by getting an ‘S’ on all the tracks, which doesn’t seem that outrageous a prospect with the better vehicles. It turned out to be quite a crowd pleaser, and it really shows off the Wii’s controls and graphics.
Which raises the question, what the hell is up with its mid-70s ratings on Gamerankings and Metacritic? How can people not like Excite Truck? Sheesh.
-TomI played some more of the silver cup today, and the rubberband AI was getting pretty obvious. I came in second place one round. The next round I beat my previous time by 25 seconds and still came in second place.
As someone who normally detests rubberbanding, I don’t mind it in Excite Truck. Because of the star system, beating a track isn’t the same thing as coming in first place. Besides, you want the other trucks around you to get stars for truck smashes and truck throws.
-TomYeah, I found I did much better with my star total when I stopped racing for first all the time. I was hoping you’d get stars with fast times but it was not to be and the 50 for first place can easily be made up elsewhere. I’ve gotten S rank on all but 3 Platinum races and 1 challenge. Has anyone unlocked super excite yet? I wonder what the difference is.
It has scored as low as 60 (GameSpy) according to GameRankings. There’s an interesting phenomenon occurring where there is a remarkably wide spread in ratings on some of the Wii titles. For instance Wii Sports has received scores ranging from 40% to 90%.
Hrmm, I wasn’t impressed playing it on a kiosk, but the extremely positive vibe from this thread has me thinking that 10 minute playtest was a fluke.
I kind of doubt it. I had really enjoyed videos of it and had a blast from the moment I started playing.