Review: Excite Truck
One of the launch titles for the Nintendo Wii that didn't get a lot of credit was Excite Truck. Not surprisingly, seeing that it was launched beside Zelda: Twilight Princess, and those Zelda fanboys really pushed TP into the limelight immediately, leaving Excite Truck unfairly behind. However, this is sincerely a solid title. I picked it up last night - and the Excite series of games (ExciteBike for both NES and N64) did not disappoint.
First impressions: Great graphics, unique gameplay thanks to the motion-sensing Wii remote, and a pretty quick learning curve once you remember to not steer using the D-pad. After years and years of playing racing games on consoles and using the D-pad and analog sticks to steer, it is kind of hard to change those habits and start steering by tilting the remote. Once you get it, though, you will never play another racing title the same way.
Sound: The soundtrack for this game isn't all that great to be honest: it's full of mediocre, japanese rock bands that I could live without hearing. But Excite Truck doesn't stop there. Nintendo made a fantastic decision to allow for custom music stored on a SD card. I am lucky enough to own a couple 512mb SD cards for my digital camera, so before I even loaded the game for the first time, I copied a whole pile of music onto the SD card and popped it into the slot. Very easy, the Wii automatically finds all MP3's on the card, and adds them to the playlist. You can even tell the game to ignore the standard music and play straight from your custom playlist.
Visuals: We all know that of the 3 next-gen consoles available, the Wii comes in third for graphics processor. But that doesn't stop Excite Truck from looking great. Sharp details on trucks, and items in the background and foreground, make this look very clean and crisp. Hit the boost and you get the speed-blur we are used to from games such as NFS and Burnout. A quality HUD shows what you need, without cluttering the screen. Everything comes together to really put you in the action.
Overall: Take my advice - this is a title not to be missed. Whether you rent or buy, check this game out. And considering this is one of the first titles to hit the Wii, I can assure you this console will kick ass for years to come.
First impressions: Great graphics, unique gameplay thanks to the motion-sensing Wii remote, and a pretty quick learning curve once you remember to not steer using the D-pad. After years and years of playing racing games on consoles and using the D-pad and analog sticks to steer, it is kind of hard to change those habits and start steering by tilting the remote. Once you get it, though, you will never play another racing title the same way.
Sound: The soundtrack for this game isn't all that great to be honest: it's full of mediocre, japanese rock bands that I could live without hearing. But Excite Truck doesn't stop there. Nintendo made a fantastic decision to allow for custom music stored on a SD card. I am lucky enough to own a couple 512mb SD cards for my digital camera, so before I even loaded the game for the first time, I copied a whole pile of music onto the SD card and popped it into the slot. Very easy, the Wii automatically finds all MP3's on the card, and adds them to the playlist. You can even tell the game to ignore the standard music and play straight from your custom playlist.
Visuals: We all know that of the 3 next-gen consoles available, the Wii comes in third for graphics processor. But that doesn't stop Excite Truck from looking great. Sharp details on trucks, and items in the background and foreground, make this look very clean and crisp. Hit the boost and you get the speed-blur we are used to from games such as NFS and Burnout. A quality HUD shows what you need, without cluttering the screen. Everything comes together to really put you in the action.
Overall: Take my advice - this is a title not to be missed. Whether you rent or buy, check this game out. And considering this is one of the first titles to hit the Wii, I can assure you this console will kick ass for years to come.
2 comments:
I might have to check this one... was it a rental or purchase James?
purchase.
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