Howdy GA faithful and welcome to a sort of recurring (at least while the charm of a new system lasts) new feature. This isn't a new feature like the Flaming Sword, just a reusable titled for me to post my thoughts on the Wii games I have and what I think of them so far... 'cause I'm lazy.

First up is the not so highly anticipated, lackluster (for a Nintendo game) "Excite Truck". For those of you who played the original Excite Bike for the NES many years ago (God, I'm getting old) you'll instantly feel completley lost, but with odd moments of deja vu. Like the original Excite Bike, turbo is limited by the heat gauge on your engine. Ride it too long and you'll overheat, loosing precious time. Don't do it enough and the competition will get the better of you. Also held over form the original is the importance of the pitch of your vehicle when in mid-jump. Keeping the front of your truck up causes you to get more distance and but can also lead to overshooting your intended landing spot. Point your nose down and you'll reach the saftey of mother Earth sooner, but at the cost of a lot of speed.

All of this is controlled with just the Wii-mote, turned sideways in classic NES style. Holding the controller level in both hands you just tip it left and right to stear and forward and back for the tilt of your truck in the air. At first this felt very loose and awkward, but after playing for a while you begin to realize your just swinging the controller around like a twit and not really doing exactly what you think. Moving it left, for example, doesn't cause your truck to magicaly change its position in space. DAMN!

Having gone through a cup and a half as well as all the training, I can safely say this is a fun, if a bit average, game. The graphics are very... whats the word?... "meh." Not bad in the classic, shabby-textures sense, but just very generic. It doesn't look realistic, but it doesnt look stylized either. This game could have been made better with a fully featured multiplayer, as its a very arcadey setup, but sadly it only supports two player split-screen.

If you're looking for a good solid racer, be it Gran Turismo or Burnout style, this is neither. It's just simple fun. The sort fo game that parents could play with their kids, but not really great for the "hardcore" set.