Wii Nation

My answer: in the beginning, yes. After a few rounds of play, no.

I wanted to rent Excite Truck because I thought it would be fun to choose different styles of monster trucks to race and smash around visually pleasing courses. The truck options are ok, but the number of tracks are limited. The trucks do seem to be flying at incredible speeds around “real” locations such as Fiji, Canada, and Scotland. Plus I like the fact that you get style points for nice crashes. You begin the game by being forced to go thru some quick training modes. I wouldn’t have gone thru the training if they didn’t make me, but I’m glad I did or I wouldn’t know what I was doing. As you could expect, Excite Truck makes use of the Wii remotes motion sensor capabilities. The remote is held horizontally and players use the remote as a steering wheel. It’s fairly easy to catch on, although it’s very sensitive, so you can’t get too crazy or you’ll be all over the road.

Single player Excite Race and the Challenge modes are by far the best. Racers compete in standard four-cup, multiple-stage courses where the idea is to score big and come in first place. During the Challenge mode racers try to beat specific goals by smashing into other trucks, jumping through rings in the air, or completing a series of gates on the ground. To gain stars (points) players try to finish first and perform moves along the way, that include nice landings and crashes, tree runs, and massive air. I enjoyed that part of the game, but after a while it became tedious.

Now on to the multi-player mode which was disappointing. The only option is a two-player split-screen racing mode. And no online play. Excite Truck is definitely worth renting and giving it a try, but I wouldn’t want to add it to my collection.