Excite Truck

It's very clear from the title screen that Excite Truck is a first-generation Wii game; you can't even use the pointer to navigate menus, or to type your profile name on a virtual keyboard. Then it forces you to play the Tutorial mode before you're allowed to actually race. Just the same, for such a 'primitive' game, it's pretty fun.

The remarkable thing about Excite Truck is that it isn't about what you might know as Racing - getting first place is not really what counts. Each race has a goal number of stars, which are earned by performing stunts: getting air, drifting, driving through trees, crashing into other trucks, what have you. Colliding with a blunt surface or falling in deep water only ends the race very temporarily, as pressing the 2 button rapidly will put you right back in.

Placing at the end of the race is worth stars too, many of them; but stunts throughout the race can more than make up for it. There are also pickups throughout each course that will change the landscape in front of you, creating hills, valleys, and other arenas for performing off-the-cuff stunts.

So put all this together, and what does it mean? This isn't a typical racing game that balances safety with outpacing your competition. Excite Truck is all about going fast and being crazy. I don't really care if I'm in fifth place if I see an invincibility powerup and a big forest ahead of me. And if I crash, oh well. It's hectic, it's fast-paced, and it's fun, albeit shallow.

Progress: Finished the Silver Cup