{"id":9910,"date":"2018-01-09T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-01-09T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/news\/2018\/01\/soapbox_why_you_should_consider_catching_big_air_with_wiis_excite_truck"},"modified":"2018-01-09T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-01-09T09:00:00","slug":"soapbox-why-you-should-consider-catching-big-air-with-wiis-excite-truck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2018\/01\/09\/soapbox-why-you-should-consider-catching-big-air-with-wiis-excite-truck\/","title":{"rendered":"Soapbox: Why You Should Consider Catching Big Air With Wii&#8217;s Excite Truck"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"picture strip\">\n<div class=\"img\"><a href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/news\/2018\/01\/soapbox_why_you_should_consider_catching_big_air_with_excite_truck_if_you_havent_already\/attachment\/0\/original.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/news\/2018\/01\/soapbox_why_you_should_consider_catching_big_air_with_excite_truck_if_you_havent_already\/attachment\/0\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Excite Truck\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p><em>Soapbox features enable our individual writers to voice their own opinions on a wide range of topics, opinions that may not necessarily be the voice of the site. In this edition, Dave Letcavage discusses his somewhat recent introduction to the divisive Wii launch game<\/em> <em>Excite Truck<\/em><em>, and makes a case for why it&#8217;s worth adding to your collection if you missed it when it initially left the starting line.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Back in the N64 days, I lived for racing games that allowed my vehicle to catch big air and soar through the sky with reckless abandon. The original <strong>San Francisco Rush<\/strong> was the catalyst for this mild obsession, while other games such as\u00a0<strong>Freekstyle<\/strong>, <strong>Rush 2049<\/strong> (stunt mode!!), and <strong>Hydro Thunder<\/strong> furthered my love for gravity-defying, head-spinning heights.\u00a0In real life, my equilibrium gets all wacky when I look out the window of a skyscraper or glance over the railing\u00a0on the second floor of a shopping mall, so it\u2019s no wonder that confronting this quasi-phobia within a virtual world provides me with such a thrill.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture strip\">\n<div class=\"img\"><a href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/news\/2018\/01\/soapbox_why_you_should_consider_catching_big_air_with_excite_truck_if_you_havent_already\/attachment\/1\/original.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/news\/2018\/01\/soapbox_why_you_should_consider_catching_big_air_with_excite_truck_if_you_havent_already\/attachment\/1\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Wouldn't be &quot;extreme&quot; without volcanic eruptions, would it?\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>Wouldn&#8217;t be &#8220;extreme&#8221; without volcanic eruptions, would it?<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/wii\/excite_truck\">Excite Truck<\/a><\/strong>, developed by Monster Games and published by Nintendo as a launch game for Wii, follows in the tracks\u00a0of <em>extreme<\/em> &#8217;90s arcade racers by delivering an experience centered around blazing fast speeds, simple stunts, and, most importantly, massive air. It\u2019s a game about racing, but it\u2019s also about earning as many points as possible to finish the race with a score high enough to advance. This means you\u2019re gonna have to take big risks if you want to show up the competition \u2013 and these &#8216;big risks&#8217; usually\u00a0involve launching your vehicle skyward from every dirt, snow or grass-covered incline in sight.<\/p>\n<p>Knowing that, it should go without saying that this game should be right up my alley.<\/p>\n<p>But I didn&#8217;t have a Wii at launch; I waited until the summer before the release of <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/wii\/donkey_kong_country_returns\">Donkey Kong Country Returns<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>in the summer 2010,<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>to invest in the console. By the time I had an opportunity to purchase Excite Truck, I&#8217;d heard so many people say it wasn&#8217;t worth my money because it was shallow, and because its sequel, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/wii\/excitebots_trick_racing\">Excitebots: Trick Racing<\/a><\/strong>, was a major improvement. So, at some point down the road I bought Excitebots and passed on Excite Truck \u2013 that is, until a couple years ago when my curiosity and its affordability convinced me that Excite Truck should at the very least be a part of my Wii collection.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture strip\">\n<div class=\"img\"><a href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/news\/2018\/01\/soapbox_why_you_should_consider_catching_big_air_with_excite_truck_if_you_havent_already\/attachment\/2\/original.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/news\/2018\/01\/soapbox_why_you_should_consider_catching_big_air_with_excite_truck_if_you_havent_already\/attachment\/2\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Gorging on that aforementioned &quot;big air&quot;\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>Gorging on that aforementioned &#8220;big air&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Fast forward to last year, to 2017 to be specific. I was in the mood for something mindless and commitment-free, so I slipped Excite Truck from its cozy spot on the shelf, dusted it off, and gave it an opportunity to rev my engine. It did just that.<\/p>\n<p>Tilting a sideways Wiimote to steer\u00a0your truck is an intuitive and simple method of control, one that clicked with me right from the start\u00a0\u2013 same as Excitebots. Is it gimmicky? Obviously. Would an analog stick offer greater precision? Absolutely. But the truth is that the motion controls work well enough\u00a0here that this is the rare occasion where I wouldn\u2019t have it any other way. I&#8217;m a lost cause when it comes to steering with the motion controls in <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/wii\/mario_kart_wii\">Mario Kart Wii<\/a><\/strong>, but I\u00a0have no problems with\u00a0Excite Truck. It\u2019s an amusing and surprisingly reliable means of interaction, and it only contributes to the game\u2019s arcade-like appeal.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture strip\">\n<div class=\"img\"><a href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/news\/2018\/01\/soapbox_why_you_should_consider_catching_big_air_with_excite_truck_if_you_havent_already\/attachment\/4\/original.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/news\/2018\/01\/soapbox_why_you_should_consider_catching_big_air_with_excite_truck_if_you_havent_already\/attachment\/4\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Going snow-verboard\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>Going snow-verboard<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>That\u2019s because Excite Truck\u2019s core gameplay\u00a0is so darn satisfying. The moment-to-moment racing is intense and constantly engaging, and discovering which routes ultimately lead to the best trick opportunities has keeps me compulsively selecting &#8216;Retry&#8217; at the end of a race even if I\u2019ve earned enough points to move on. There&#8217;s something about collecting an\u00a0S rating &#8211; other than unlocking additional difficulty modes &#8211; that I\u00a0find so inexplicably\u00a0irresistible. It certainly doesn&#8217;t hurt that you&#8217;re frequently unlocking vehicles, paint jobs and in-game trophies for your stunts and wins.\u00a0I hate to overuse a word as plain and broad as &#8216;fun&#8217; but in this case, it&#8217;s such an apt descriptor that it feels wrong\u00a0not to use it.\u00a0So here it goes: Excite Truck is, simply put, a truckload of fun.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ll admit, if I had purchased a copy for its original retail price of $49.99, I might have wound up slightly disappointed. Mainly because it&#8217;s somewhat unambitious\u00a0in terms of modes and options. There&#8217;s no less content than an N64 racer such as San Francisco\u00a0Rush or <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/n64\/beetle_adventure_racing\">Beetle Adventure Racing<\/a><\/strong>; instead, the main issue is that these modes aren&#8217;t all that deep\u00a0or unique. Excite Race, which is a standard world tour-type mode, has you partaking in the same stunt-laden race type through six re-purposed environments (seven if you count a secret level tucked away deep in the game), while Challenge offers a few &#8216;smash all opponents&#8217; and &#8216;drive through the rings&#8217; variants to spice things up. And that&#8217;s about the extent of the variety.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture strip\">\n<div class=\"img\"><a href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/news\/2018\/01\/soapbox_why_you_should_consider_catching_big_air_with_excite_truck_if_you_havent_already\/attachment\/5\/original.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/news\/2018\/01\/soapbox_why_you_should_consider_catching_big_air_with_excite_truck_if_you_havent_already\/attachment\/5\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Dodging trees at max speed for max points\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>Dodging trees at max speed for max points<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Luckily, I didn&#8217;t pay $50 for Excite Truck. I was able to obtain a like-new copy for less than $10. The way I see it, that price renders any value-related concerns irrelevant. I&#8217;ve already extracted way more than enough entertainment from this package during the many nights I&#8217;ve spent knocking out a few races or dabbling in split-screen mode, and I imagine anyone else with an affinity for balls-to-the-wall racing will feel the same. There&#8217;s something about its easy-to-play yet tough-to-master nature that reminds me of an NES game (and, no, it has nothing to do with its <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nes\/excitebike\"><strong>Excitebike<\/strong><\/a> lineage) that keeps me coming back for more every few weeks when I\u00a0need to blow off some steam and de-stress.\u00a0Heck, at this point I think I&#8217;ve spent more time with it than Excitebots.<\/p>\n<p>If you still have a Wii or Wii U sitting around, and you want an accessible, high-energy game to spend at least a couple weekends with, I highly recommend Excite Truck. It&#8217;s oft overshadowed by its more inventive successor, and that&#8217;s understandable, but that doesn&#8217;t mean it doesn&#8217;t also deserve a reserved parking space in your collection, especially now that it&#8217;s so cheap.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Soapbox features enable our individual writers to voice their own opinions on a wide range of topics, opinions that may not necessarily be the voice of the site. In this edition, Dave Letcavage discusses his somewhat recent introduction to the divisive Wii launch game Excite Truck, and makes a case for why it&#8217;s worth adding [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nintendo-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9910\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}