Pros: High-speed, big-air stunt-racing action over well-rendered bump courses.
Cons: Weak two-player mode.
The bottom line: This is a very fun and exciting game that the entire family can enjoy. Its creative, high-speed, physics-bending style will peak your interest for at least 2 months.
I'm not quite sure what it is about Nintendo. Their game systems always seem to lag in horsepower by a generation or so behind the competition, but their skilled game designers are outlandishly adept at squeezing every last morsel of performance from them. The result: enjoyable games that equip us with enough peace of mind to deal with the jerks and half-wits we meet on a day-to-day basis. "Excite Truck" for the Nintendo Wii is no exception to this rule.

Based loosely on the game "Excitebike" for the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), "Excite Truck" is everything that game wasn't. Now don't get me wrong. "Excitebike" was a great game...but there's only so much that can be done with an 8-bit, 1.8 MHz CPU. Now fast-forward 20 years: dozens more bits, hundreds more megahertz...es...and one awesome game! Like "Excitebike", "Excite Truck" is a racer. But not just any racer. A ridiculously fast-paced, physics-bending racer!

When you first crack open the box and insert the game, you will be able to choose from 3 trucks with which to race. As you progress through and win the "Excite" races, you will unlock additional trucks with a variety of abilities and paint jobs. Races can take place in one of 5 countries: Canada, Finland, Fiji, China, or Scotland. Sounds pretty boring, huh? Well it would be if it weren't for the quadruple adrenaline overdose accompanied by each race. You see, "Excite Truck" has the unique ability to turn the physical universe on its ear.

Let's start with speed. Although there's no speedometer to be found anywhere in the game (probably to help maintain the illusion of speed), trucks seem to scoot along at about twice the rate recommended to keep from becoming a splatter mark on the side of a cliff. And depending on the landing angle of your truck after a jump, this speed appears to double, which can make maneuvering between a narrow stretch of trees extremely challenging, but a whole lot of fun.

An even more notable aspect of the game's ability to excite is the air jump that is a staple of each and every race course. That is because jumps are measured not in feet or yards, but in kilometers. As with the unlikely aerial stunts performed in any give episode of the "Dukes of Hazzard", you are blessed with the ability to jump hundreds of feet vertically and thousands of feet laterally without so much as a scratch to either you or your seemingly indestructible ride! (I highly advise you NOT to attempt this for real!)

But the terrain is the real star here. The tracks in each of the countries mentioned above are designed for maximum testosterone boost. Each is equipped with enough curves, hills (some hundreds of feet high), and challenging obstacles to keep the player's heart pumping and eyes on the screen. The constant readjusting needed to stay on course, as well as the sense of urgency for passing the other drivers, enhances the awareness of speed discussed earlier. The terrains are also wonderfully rendered, providing rich natural details and a wide sense of perspective. But the most creative feature regarding the terrain is its ability to morph when a truck runs over tokens strewn throughout the countryside. Depending on their location, these will trigger the spontaneous growth of new hills, volcanic eruptions, rock slides, and other surprises.

Another unique aspect of this game is that you don't need to win in order to WIN. The only thing that really matters is points. You can cross the finish line dead last, but you'll win the race if you've gained the most points. How? By doing tricks. From "grabbing air" to "nice landings" to "super rings" to "tree runs" to "combos" to "air spins" to "drifts" you will gain enough points to best the competition. Heck, you're even encouraged to take out the competition by smashing into them at top speed! (Did I mention that your truck is indestructible?) There's a lot of moves to learn, but they are all fairly intuitive. Just in case, the game has a neat tutorial feature to help perfect these moves.

Yet another nice feature about this game is the variety of trucks to choose from. Sure, you only start out with three, but you unlock upwards of 17 more as you win races. Each of these has its own set of abilities (air time, speed, handling, etc.). There is a real strategy to picking the right truck for the right track.

The Wii remote is surprisingly responsive and easy to use. You are required to hold it end-to-end and tilt it back an forth to steer. Although the tactile feedback is almost non-existent, the motion feels very natural and well-integrated with the game. You may oversteer a bit at first, but after a few minutes you will get the hang of it.

There are also a few mini-games like ring-jumping, slalom racing, and truck-smashing to help enhance the game's staying power. They are relatively short and shallow, but provide enough of a challenge to keep the player engaged.

I'm told the music is annoying, but being that I absolutely despise most forms of music I don't really notice or care. Fear not, however, because there is a feature that will allow you to superimpose your own tunes over the race using an SD memory card.

Perhaps the weakest part of the game is the multi-player option and - like all Wii games so far - lack of an on-line play feature. Basically, you can play against one other player. There's not even any other computerized players playing against you to help widen the ranks between you and your human opponent. An on-line feature that pits you against other components may also keep this game from being placed on the back shelf after the first two months or so.

Another feature that would be nice is the track design feature that was present in "Excitebike". However, given the complexity of designing these courses in the first place, I am certainly not going to be that picky about a feature that is probably next to impossible to implement.

All in all, this is a very fun and exciting game. It's a great stress reliever, and provides a mysterious (and completely undeserved) sense of accomplishment each time you win a race. I recommend you race to the store and pick this one up today.