Topic: The Official "I've played ExciteTruck at GameStop" thread

[IceCold]

Ugh, OverHeat, you're killing me here.. great impressions, but I wish I hadn't read them. Now I'm dying to play the system. What's 10 or so days, though, right? Right?

[Mario]

Basically an eternity.

[Ceric]

I stopped by EB today with 2 goals.

1) To play the Wii.
2) To play Gear of War.

What I got:

1) I got to see the Zelda Standee.

I struck out on my day quest.

[OverHeat]

Heh, yeah. You mean, 10 days in internet time?
Well I hate to kill anyone, but I'm glad you enjoyed the impressions. Thought I'd throw a secondary deal up here. My wife got home from work and I told her she had to go check out the Wii. She could care less, not being a "gamer" (although she plays Dr. Mario on her GBA religously for an hour every night) so she took advantage of the fact, getting me to do all kinds of chores around the house if I want her to go check out the system. So what with me being a pretty responsible guy, most of the things she wanted done were already done, so we were on our way within 15 minutes. Now, keep in mind this is the type who, when I put on a game and plead with her try it will constantly give me sidelong glances while she plays like I'm forcing her to sit still while I pull her toenails out with pliers. Outside 5 minutes she starts to whine and, at MAX 20 minutes will just straight drop the controller and not talk to me for the rest of the night for making her play "some stupid game".

I start her off with something I know she'll enjoy. Making her own little Mii. As I thought she would, she really digs it, giggling as she blows the eyes way out of proportion, or rotating the eyebrows to the point where they almost look like nosehairs. After she finally has herself "Mii-ified", I start up Excitetruck and immediatly feel the "pulling toe-nails with pliers" look boring into the side of my head. I quickly explain the control setup to her and she is off.

So she starts racing and is just having a blast with it right off the bat. She is a fairly dramatic person as it is, so that just helped to add to the theatrics.  Twice during her first race she made herself laugh so hard she stopped playing to continue her guffaws. Then she raced again. And again, and again. I got a little bored and started to play a round of Guitar Hero. See now, normally if I ask her to try a video game the INSTANT I stop paying attention to her she drops the controller like a bad habit. So I finish my song. She's still playing..."Huh" I think to myself. "Must be the same race". So I play another song. And another. Before I know it my buddy who is working says "Alright man, I need to lock the place up." I blink. "Wait, WHAT?!! She's still playing??" When she hears this she obliges and hands over the controller and we head out the door. As we are walking home I ask her, "So what did you think?" She says "I wish I could have tried tennis. That game is just too much stuff. It's too fast. I dont really like it." "Oh really?" I say. "You realize you just played that game for over a half an hour, right?" Slight moment of silence."......did I??" "Yes babe, you did." I respond.

We hop in the car to drive to the super market. About 5 minutes into the drive it starts to sink in. "That game was FUN." She says. "It was neat playing a game so different. Even though I wasn't doing good, I felt more in control than those other type of games. ...and it was FUN. I really want to play tennis..."

Well I though I would share this little piece of my night with you guys. Pretty enlightening I must say. She isn't really adverse to video games per say, but she most assuredly is NOT a gamer. I have been invited by our Nintendo rep to come over and check out the Wii and the games he has this weekend. If you all are interested, I would be happy to post up my impressions of what I got a chance to play. Understand however, I will be avoiding Zelda like the PLAGUE.....wait, no, not YOU Blackplague! You know, like a REAL Plague.  I really do not want to spoil a single thing about that game for myself. Well this damn wait just keeps getting longer and longer dont it?  :p

[Kairon]

Overheat, can you take your wife with you to those impressions? I'm sure the Nintendo rep would love to have a non-gamer come too!

~Carmine M. Red
Kairon@aol.com

[IceCold]

I really want to try it out with my parents - my dad used to play on the NES but stopped playing until the DS. I'm sure they'll enjoy it..

[OverHeat]

Kairon: Yes, I can! I was told I may bring my wife and a friend. It just so happens that one of my childhood friends who now lives in Santa Cruz will be visiting me this weekend, but he is a gamer. I am patiently awaiting  the reps email with the info that will have the time to come/directions.

IceCold: I totally hear you. My dad never gave a crap about video games. But one day he got ahold of a little game called Dragon Warrior. For the next 4 days I had to go to friends houses if I wanted to play video games. He called in sick to work for 4 straight days. Then at around 3 am on a school night he came tearing up the stairs and threw my and my brother's doors open shouting "Guys! Guys! Wake up! Get down stairs quick!!' I was thinking "WTF? Is it a fire? Suprise guest?? What is-" *Dad stands proudly infront of the TV* "LOOK! I BEAT it!" And that was the first, and last time he ever really played a video game.

[Spak-Spang]

I have put what I consider a lot of time in the demo unit at the store.  I have probably played a total of 2-3 hours visiting the store almost every day, and playing for 30 minutes or more.  I have also shared the love, and given personal demos, helping people that never played the game out.

The more I play this game the more impressed I am with the game.  You can actually FEEL yourself get better as you play the game.  And it does take time to adjust to the controls...each time I had to readjust...but it didn't bother me, because the game is actually FUN to play.  

What really impresses me about the game is the later levels of game play, and how challenging it becomes.  We are on the second set of levels (We being my Game Stop) and two single tracks still need to be beaten to unlock the next tracks.  I have played each race several times over, and can't get enough stars to win.  You really have to race not only a first place win, but a skilled trick run at the same time.  If you think this game is going to be easy, you will be surprised.

The controls become second nature after you learn the drift system, and you can do some precise driving...and this works great in multi-player.  The reason is simple, the best driver will win the race.  Or at least, that is how it feels.  There is a definite skill involved in racing, and if you race clean you will win.  That is something many arcade racers with power ups and boosts just doesn't have...the feeling of truly skilled driving.

This game is moving up my list of games I want to buy.  Right now it is fourth on my list....Zelda, Red Steel, Super Monkey Ball, Excite Truck...and if I had the money I definitely pick it up.

[Kraven]

I work at EBGames, and I get to demo it for people.  Its awesome.  I teach people how to actually play.  Its awesome seeing everybody's face when they actually start playing,  there has been nothing negative said about the controls.  Only the supposedly subpar graphics.  I think it looks nice.  The only problem that i have seen is that the remote sensor gets blocked if someone walks in front of it.  

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

You must fill the sensor corridor with SPIKES and protect the sacred area.

[Smash_Brother]

Quote
Originally posted by: Dirk Temporo Well remember, your local mall is the Fox Run, same as me. And the guys there said the kiosks shipped out yesterday, so I'd think they'd be up and running within a week.

Who did you talk to who told you that?

Everyone I've talked to has said "13th".

[Chris1]

alright, its good to see a few positive experiences with excite truck!  wish I had a demo near me

[Rhoq]

Quote
Originally posted by: Kraven
I work at EBGames, and I get to demo it for people.  Its awesome.  I teach people how to actually play.  Its awesome seeing everybody's face when they actually start playing,  there has been nothing negative said about the controls.  Only the supposedly subpar graphics.

Good news about how the average Joe feels about the controls. Only graphics whores will complain about the Wii's graphics capabilities. I personally feel that the system's visuals look pretty damn nice, then again I've only got whatever screenshots and videos that I have seen on-line as a gauge.

[Kairon]

Quote
Originally posted by: Spak-Spang
I have put what I consider a lot of time in the demo unit at the store.  I have probably played a total of 2-3 hours visiting the store almost every day, and playing for 30 minutes or more.  I have also shared the love, and given personal demos, helping people that never played the game out.

The more I play this game the more impressed I am with the game.  You can actually FEEL yourself get better as you play the game.  And it does take time to adjust to the controls...each time I had to readjust...but it didn't bother me, because the game is actually FUN to play.  

What really impresses me about the game is the later levels of game play, and how challenging it becomes.  We are on the second set of levels (We being my Game Stop) and two single tracks still need to be beaten to unlock the next tracks.  I have played each race several times over, and can't get enough stars to win.  You really have to race not only a first place win, but a skilled trick run at the same time.  If you think this game is going to be easy, you will be surprised.

The controls become second nature after you learn the drift system, and you can do some precise driving...and this works great in multi-player.  The reason is simple, the best driver will win the race.  Or at least, that is how it feels.  There is a definite skill involved in racing, and if you race clean you will win.  That is something many arcade racers with power ups and boosts just doesn't have...the feeling of truly skilled driving.

This game is moving up my list of games I want to buy.  Right now it is fourth on my list....Zelda, Red Steel, Super Monkey Ball, Excite Truck...and if I had the money I definitely pick it up.

Wow... thanks to your impressions Excite Truck is now on my radar...

~Carmine M. Red
Kairon@aol.com

[Ceric]

Quote
Originally posted by: Professional 666
You must fill the sensor corridor with SPIKES and protect the sacred area.

Megaman style spikes!  Energy Explosions For ALLLL!!!!

[Dirk Temporo]

Quote
Originally posted by: Smash_Brother

Quote
Originally posted by: Dirk Temporo Well remember, your local mall is the Fox Run, same as me. And the guys there said the kiosks shipped out yesterday, so I'd think they'd be up and running within a week.

Who did you talk to who told you that?

Everyone I've talked to has said "13th".

I dunno his name. >.>

They might've meant that they would be up and running by the 13th.

[Donutt007]

Can we maybe have a list of locations that have it, I live in Oakland, CA and I've checked different Best Buys, Game Stops and EB games all over the place including San Francisco, still haven't found one yet.

I'm heading out to a different city tonight (El Cerrito, if you really care) and I know they have a GS there, maybe I'll stop by and check it out. sigh

[Bill Aurion]

Game Videos has a bunch of direct-feed videos of the game, and holy crap its place as my secondary game has been set in stone...SO FREAKING AMAZING...  

[Bill Aurion]

Custom Soundtracks CONFIRMED!

[Shecky]

GameStop Ridgepark Square, Brookpark, OH has a functioning station.  The one in the Pleasant Valley shopping strip should have it running by Saturday.

Seeing as I didn't plan on picking up Excite Truck at launch and the novelty of handling the controller for the first time ever after purchase is not a huge draw in my book, I forked over my drivers license to play for a bit.  Impressions:

1) The game controls taunt traditional players.  You hold the pad horizontal and your left thumb naturally rests over a d-pad.  Even though I *knew* what the controls were, on the first turn I rocketed straight into a 20ft pine tree as I tried to push left on the dpad to go left (and the dpad is boost).

2) After the first race I had the "hang of it".  Leveling off jumps (tilting beyond steering) was something I still haven't explored.

3) I didn't seem to see many competing trucks during the race.  I placed 2nd and 1st in the two races.

3) After the races, I tried to play around with the pointer by going to the main Wii menu.  Unfortunately, I foobar'd something as the controller got mad and began flashing all 4 lights on any button inputs.  Turns out that the controller had become deregistered (or something like that).  A message came to the screen asking the user to press "home" on the first controller to fix the problem, but I didn't seem to do anything.  The sales associate tried to just swap with the second player controller to let me keep playing, but the system didn't want to back down until we fixed player one's controller.  We finally got clear of the situation by getting into some menu where you can assign controllers to input positions by pressing 1 and 2 simultaneously.  That brought both controllers back to life.

Will I now get Excite Truck at Launch / Ever?:  No / Doubtful

[Smoke39]

Quote
Originally posted by: Bill Aurion
Custom Soundtracks CONFIRMED!

Cool.  I like what I've heard of the music in the game, but it'll be fun to blast Poison while flying through the air all over the place.

[Donutt007]

This just in, If you live in the Bay Area the Game Stop in the El Cerrito Plaza has a Wii demo! It's right off the BART train, too! I'll write more about it tomorrow.

[GoldenPhoenix]

OK I know I'm a bit late to the party, but I finally got my hands on the Wiimote today along with a decent amount of time with Excite Truck at my local gamestop. To begin I was blown away by how well the Wiimote felt in my hands, it was surprisingly lite without being TOO lite, in fact it felt just right. It was kind of funny when I got the Wiimote the guy told me "You know you have to hold it in both hands and tilt it to play", after feeling a bit insulted he explained that some kid tried it and was trying to play Excite Truck by holding the Wiimote, like, well a remote. That would have been a riot to see, I guess he was getting pretty frustrated.

Well I tried my first race in Excite Truck, now keep in mind I am not a big fan of racing games (Mario Kart series is about the only one I like in the way of arcade racers) so I was a bit pessimistic not only because of that but because I worried that it would feel overly awkward to steer with tilt motion. Anyway, I fired up the race and off I went, right into a tree, in fact I hit multiple trees and walls. The controls felt, like I worried, about awkward. But during that first race I started to adapt and it turned from awkard to FUN. Yeah I crashed a few times, but I was getting better and in fact ended up winning the race (I was amazed by how forgiving the computer was because I was embarassingly bad at the beginning).

After I completed that race I tried out the tutorial where I learned some other things, like um, how to TURBO blast. Yeah I know I had no idea you could do that, along with the face that you can control your truck in midair by rotating the Wiimote up or down. The only area that I did not find intuitve was spinning your 360 degrees in midair, I managed to do it a couple times but it usually did not work. You do it be holding button 1 along with the control pad in midair and tilting the controller left and right rapidly.

Once I was through with the tutorial (well at least up to the point where you had to turn in the air not once, but TWICE) I went back to racing. This is where I truly had a blast, I picked the hardest course and had an amazing time, the controls were feeling second nature and revealed to me just how unique the Wii can make even the simplest of games. It felt like a whole new way of playing and I  felt more involved than any racer previously.

After getting first on that race I quit because I seen some people watching me, and felt it would be polite to give them a try. Now I don't know if I'll be getting Excite Truck because honestly I don't know if it will have the depth to sustain it but I think it is the perfect game to truly show people why Wii will make the old seem fresh once again.

Some minor issues I found was of course the above mentioned difficulty of spinning around, though that may be a none issue if you get more experience. In addition to that the visuals looked kind of, well, ugly but I think I can contribute that to the LCD screen, I dunno everything looked grainy and washed out (Even my GC games don't look look that bad on my 27 inch TV with SVIDEO!). Also I did notice a lack of a smooth framerate on that final track I tried, it was a heavily wooded area and the game seemed be alot less smooth (still very playable), at least in comparison to the other tracks I tried which were relatively smooth. Anyway I recommend for you guys to check this game out, it is a blast once you get the hang of it (BTW it is extremely satisfying to shift the land mass and throw an opponents truck into the air so they crash).

[Dirk Temporo]

Quote
Originally posted by: Bill Aurion
Custom Soundtracks CONFIRMED!

EXCUSE ME I HAVE TO GO CHANGE MY PANTS NOW.

Seriously, I was waiting for that news forever. I'm so excited!

[Nick DiMola]

YESSSS!!! I finally got to play a Wii and damn was it AWESOME.

Thursday I left Rochester to visit my brother in Maryland. We were out at the mall and I spotted the Wii kiosk at EBGames from about a mile away. Quickly we got over to the store and got the controller from the clerk. The Wiimote feels absolutely PERFECT. It had the right weight, the right ergonomics and was the perfect size, and honestly I have huge hands. My fiancee on the opposite end has really small hands and she said the same thing as me. The Wii interface was very smooth and slick, and above all easy to navigate. Load times for Excite Truck were negligible which was great and the amount of time to get into an actual race was also very short. Onto the gameplay.

When I first started racing in Excite Truck I thought the controls were a little awkward. Within 1 or 2 minutes I was handling the game like a pro. I would say the only thing I had trouble with was strategy, and that is simply because I haven't had enough time with the game. I've heard many people say that the innovation of controlling through motions, wears off and doesn't really add anything to the game, I have to heartily disagree with this notion. I had much more fun playing in this manner than with an analog stick. It added magic to the game that might not have been there without the motion control. The other thing I noticed alot of people saying is general disapproval of the graphics. I kind of agree and kind of disagree. Being up close to those display tvs the game looked terrible. After I forfeited my turn and stepped back a few feet, I noticed that the game looked 100x better. I find this to be true with the 360 as well, just not to the same degree. I was excited about this game before I even played it, and now after I played it I can't stop thinking about it. I had a blast with this game and I will be without a doubt buying this at launch, especially with the whole custom soundtrack thing going on now.

In conclusion, I WANT A WII RIGHT NOW I CAN'T TAKE THE WAITING ANYMORE.