is a video game published by Nintendo

Nintendo

is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....

 and developed by Monster Games

Monster Games

Monster Games, Inc. is an independent video game development studio in Northfield, Minnesota, USA that specializes in racing games. The company was founded in 1996.-Games developed:*1998 - Viper Racing *2000 - NASCAR Heat...

 for the Wii

Wii

The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...

 video game system. It features malleable environments and tilt-based controls. The game was one of the Wii launch

Wii launch

The Wii launch was the release of Nintendo's seventh generation video game console. This successor to the Nintendo GameCube was released in most territories in November and December 2006...

 titles in North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

. It is a spiritual successor to the Excitebike series (Excitebike

Excitebike

is a motocross racing video game franchise made by Nintendo. It first debuted as a game for the Famicom in Japan in 1984 and as a launch title for the NES in 1985. It is the first game of the Excite series, succeeded by its direct sequel Excitebike 64, its spiritual successors Excite Truck and...

and Excitebike 64

Excitebike 64

is a video game published by Nintendo and developed by Left Field Productions. It was initally released in North America on April 30, 2000 for the Nintendo 64 video game console. It is the second installment in the Excitebike series, but is the first 3D game in the series. It is the sequel to the...

). Excitebike was released on the Virtual Console

Virtual console

A virtual console – also known as a virtual terminal – is a conceptual combination of the keyboard and display for a computer user interface. It is a feature of some operating systems such as UnixWare, Linux, and BSD, in which the system console of the computer can be used to switch between...

 service in Europe on February 16, to mark the European release of Excite Truck.

Excite Truck is the first Wii game to let people select music, in the form of MP3

MP3

MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...

s from an SD card, to be played in the background while they are playing instead of the music provided by the game. This feature is also used by Endless Ocean.

Gameplay

Excite Truck does not use the Nunchuk attachment; it is controlled entirely with the Wii Remote

Wii Remote

The , also known as the Wiimote, is the primary controller for Nintendo's Wii console. A main feature of the Wii Remote is its motion sensing capability, which allows the user to interact with and manipulate items on screen via gesture recognition and pointing through the use of accelerometer and...

. When first starting the game the player must go through a series of tests or practice runs before they are allowed to play the full game. After finishing the training levels, both single and multiplayer modes are available. The player first starts with three trucks. They must unlock additional trucks by reaching various benchmarks. The game also supports split screen two player multiplayer.

Scoring

Crossing the finish line first is not the goal of Excite Truck, but rather another avenue for gaining stars. Stars are scored for a variety of stunts, and for the player's placement at the end of the race. A letter grade is awarded for each race, corresponding to the number of stars obtained, with the S rank being the highest grade possible. Getting S ranks in all tracks on the regular Excite difficulty level unlocks a harder "Super Excite" difficulty level. Getting S ranks in all tracks on the Super Excite difficulty level unlocks an even more difficult Mirror Mode level.

In single player Excite mode, all tracks have a required number of stars to advance further in the game. The player is not required to finish in first place as long as they gain the number of stars required during the race. Races are timed to prevent players from reversing back across high-star areas and completing the same stunts over and over again.

Winning races

In single player mode, the player receives bonus stars following the race depending on how they placed. These stars are applied to your score before determining if the player has completed the track's minimum score.

In multiplayer races, the player who crosses the finish line first receives a bonus of 15 stars. Additionally, once the first player has crossed the line, a 30 second countdown is triggered for the second player. For each second that the second player has not completed the race, an extra star is awarded the first finisher. If the timer expires, the second player is disqualified with no score.

Play modes

Excite Truck features several gameplay modes, most of them for a single player.

• Excite Race: The player competes in several cup races. After completing each race in a cup (a race is completed by racing it and scoring the required number of stars), a new cup will be opened, and new tracks can be raced. The new tracks are accessible immediately in Excite Race and Versus modes.
• Super Excite Race: The harder difficulty unlocked after completing every race in the Excite Race mode with a score of "S".
• Mirror Race Mode: An even more difficult mode in which all the tracks are in reverse and the rings are smaller, unlocked after completing every race in the Super Excite Race with a score of "S".
• Challenge: The player must maneuver their vehicle through a series of Gate, Ring, and Crush Challenges.
• Super Challenge: A more difficult series of Gate, Ring, and Crush Challenges.
• Versus: The multiplayer aspect of the game, which allows two players to race one another.

Racing areas

Excite Truck features seven locales to race in--China, Scotland, Mexico, Fiji, Finland and Canada. A bonus track is a fantasy crystal mountain named Nebula, which, as the name describes, is under a purple nebula

Nebula

A nebula is an interstellar cloud of dust, hydrogen gas, helium gas and other ionized gases...

.

Release

The game was first playable during E3 2006, and an updated build was also playable during the 2006 Nintendo Fusion Tour

Nintendo Fusion Tour

Nintendo Fusion Tour is a touring rock music and video game festival sponsored by Nintendo, which began in 2003.Nintendo's Fusion Tour has provided early exposure for then-developing bands such as Evanescence, Story of the Year, My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy, Anberlin and Panic! at the Disco...

, with four different courses playable. Prior to its release at the Wii launch, the game was one of the first titles to be playable on the first Wii Kiosks, along with Wii Sports

Wii Sports

is a sports game developed and published by Nintendo as a launch title for the Wii video game console , and part of the Touch! Generations. The game was first released in North America along with the Wii on November 19, 2006, and was released in Japan, Australia, and Europe the following month...

and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

is an action-adventure game developed by Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development, and published by Nintendo for the GameCube and Wii video game consoles. It is the thirteenth installment in The Legend of Zelda series...

.

The game was released in the US on November 19, 2006, simultaneous with the launch of the Wii. Excite Truck was the 9th best selling game for the Wii

Wii

The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...

 during November.

The game was released January 18, 2007 in Japan, February 16, 2007 in Europe and February 22, 2007 in Australia. An Excite Truck themed toy truck was offered with Wendy's

Wendy's

Wendy's is an international fast food chain restaurant founded by Dave Thomas on November 15, 1969, in Columbus, Ohio, United States. The company decided to move its headquarters to Dublin, Ohio, on January 29, 2006. It has been owned by Triarc since 2008...

 Kids Meals as part of a promotion with Nintendo.

Reception

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