You're cruising through the woods, intently focused on the goal. With your fingers crossed tight, you speed past opponents and in between trees, hoping you can finish the day without another wreck. Having speeds in great excess of the limit, you launch off hills and mountains like Tony Hawk flies off ramps. You soar over the world and all its glory – the trees, the lake, and countless man-made structures. Bridges, which are typically crossed, act as a danger zone that, if enough air has been gained, will be crossed over with ease. You continue soaring over opponents until the last one has been passed. You're in the lead. You're on your way.

Though your eyes are much too busy to see everything the first time, you notice a cluster of hills up ahead. As harmless to your vehicle as the situation may be, there's something about it that raises a red flag. All things likely, you know that one of the hills will slow you down. Could there be a way to jump over them? No, they’re too small. You couldn't possibly gain enough air. There's little hope. Your opponents might catch up.

Then, just as you’re about to reach the first hill, the world opens up. The hills cave in, leaving behind a cloud of dust so thick you can barely see what's ahead. A path has been opened, and you're able to drive right through. The opponents you feared would catch up have ran into a little trouble. Having driven up the side of the hills, the cave-in caused their trucks to be tossed aside like bowling pins after a strike. And what a strike it is. With the road clear you're free to reach the finish line.

Until the next hazard presents itself.

Excite Truck, Nintendo Wii's first racer and one of the console's most anticipated launch titles, is a bare-bones, arcade-style experience that was built for the mainstream. It's big on quick thrills via hectic courses and short races. But there are a few long races you'll have to endure, most of which are expanded versions of the shorter courses. Multiplayer is limited to two-player split-screen. That news came as a surprise and a disappointment, but for the most part I will choose to focus on what the multiplayer accomplishes rather than dwell on what presumably couldn't be done in time for launch.

A New Way To Drive

The biggest difference between this game and every other racer on the planet is the way Excite Truck controls. Forget about the nunchuck attachment – all you need is Nintendo's small, comfortable, and immensely sensitive Wii remote.

You drive by holding the remote sideways so that the 1 and 2 buttons (the Wii's answer to "A" and "B") are on the right. Steering is done not with the D-pad, which ends up on the left, but is instead accomplished by turning the remote left or right. No matter how experienced a player you are, this control scheme will take time to get used to. It took me a good 60 minutes before I could steer consistently in the desired direction. But even then I had more to learn, and more to master.

To keep the game from being too difficult – and to make it a little more realistic – the developers limited the amount of sensitivity applied to the steering. Every slight movement the player makes will cause the vehicle to react. It will not, however, get you out of a skid, or enable to you to turn sharply to avoid crashing into a tree.

This is hard to deal with at first, but the difficulty will dissipate as soon you've gotten used to steering with the remote. It's hard to believe, but we've been using analog sticks in racing games for 10 years (Wave Race 64 was released in November of 1996). After Wave Race, how many new racers used the D-pad? I assume we'll see the same thing happen to the analog stick.

It's Morphin' Time

There's no question as to what is Excite Truck's most talked about feature. The motion-sensing controls stole the spotlight, but that doesn't mean the game is without other innovations.

The scenario described in the intro – where a bunch of hills caved in – is a key part of Excite Truck's strategy. Players will notice a lot of pick-ups during their races, and most of them cause an enormous shift in the environment. The world will stretch, bend, and demolish itself in a variety of ways. At times it'll appear as if the world is morphing into another shape.

The effect is not entirely beautiful. Excite Truck's visuals are below the quality of most of the Wii tech demos that were on display at E3. But within that lack of beauty is a cool effect that hasn't been done before in a racing game. More importantly, it alters the gameplay in an interesting way.

Power-Up

Excite Truck includes over 10 different vehicles, all of which are a part of the truck family. (Were you expecting mini-vans? A Ford Escort, perhaps?) Each truck offers a different speed, air, and grip rating. That's common stuff, but they also have built-in turbo that can be used at any time during the race. To execute, you'll press and hold up on the D-pad. "Up" is technically "right," but that needed to be changed because you hold the remote sideways.

It might sound a little unorthodox, but think back to the NES, SNES, and especially the Nintendo 64 debut. No matter how weird or quirky the new controllers seemed, their button changes and gameplay innovations pushed the boundaries of the way we game. Though it's not entirely prevalent throughout Excite Truck, the Wii remote is already doing the same.

Back to the turbo feature: The challenge in using it is that your engine can overheat. That'll cause your vehicle to slow down and should be avoided at all costs. Choose to save your turbo, however, and you'll get the chance to maximize its potential at the edge of every hill and mountain. If you press up somewhere between the tip of the hill and the point when you lift off, your truck will be given an air jump boost. This bonus allows you to cruise over the world like a hang glider soaring through the sky. It is at this point when the game is most attractive, shoveling dozens, if not hundreds, of trees onto the screen at the same time.

Crash For a Bonus

Most racing games punish you for crashing. In Excite Truck, you'll be given the chance to reward yourself for every nasty mistake. Collisions are followed by a crash meter that tells you to press the 2 button. Tap it with all your might to fill the meter as quickly as possible. Assuming the meter is filled quickly enough, the player will be transported back to the track – most likely behind a few opponents – and be given a turbo boost.

Both the crash and air boosts are short and dangerous. Players could recover from a crash only to end up in another. The POW items, on the other hand, make your vehicle all but impervious. In addition to being the longest turbo boost in the game, POW allows you to plow through trees and other obstacles.

Star Power

When I'm playing a racing game, the finish line is all I think about. If I cross first, the others guys lose. That's all that matters.

Excite Truck changes that way of thinking. Getting first place is not as important as the game's main objective: scoring the most stars. You acquire stars by performing a few minor stunts. Boosting off of a ramp, for example, could give you enough power to soar through five rings. Each ring rewards the player with one star. Stars are also rewarded for landing safely after an air boost. You'll also gain stars for bumping into opponents.

Winning first place doesn't guarantee you’ll win, but you will get 50 bonus stars for doing the accomplishment. If you meet or exceed the required star listing, that course will be completed.

To Launch or Not To Launch

Excite Truck has a lot going for it – unique steering mechanics, rewards for crashing, interesting course designs, and an impressive world morphing system. That said, the single-player experience is very short. There are four cups to race: bronze, silver, gold, and platinum. The first includes four races, the rest offer five.

Twenty-four is not a shabby number, but the cups are misleading. Instead of giving you a new course every time, the game adds a few miles to its paltry lineup of just six racing locales: Mexico, Fiji, Canada, Scotland, China, and Finland. The courses are well designed, and I like seeing them get bigger and bigger. Still, I can't help but ask, "That's it!?"

It might take you an hour or two to fully grasp the control mechanics, but it won't take you more than three to finish the game. There are probably some players who will finish it in less than two.

Is a short game worth $50? That all depends on the amount of replay value, which Excite Truck has a ton of. Its multiplayer mode is not as boundless as it would have been had the game offered a four-player mode (two people can race – that's it), but it still packs hours of ongoing fun.

Gameplay: 8.0
A unique, exciting, and replay value-packed learning experience. (“Learning” in the sense that the game teaches you how to drive with a Wii remote.) Players will jump in with the most convoluted expectations. You really have no idea what this game is going to be like until you pick up the remote and drive for the first time. Once you’ve taken the first step, two feelings will remain: (1) it’s tough not using an analog stick to steer, and (2) this is the beginning of a racing game revolution.

Excite Truck’s courses, though few in numbers, have a wonderful design. They also have a very interesting morph feature. Hills, trees, bridges, and other natural and man-made structures will expand or collapse to form new pathways. You might get an extra ramp (hill) out of the deal, extend an existing ramp, or remove one altogether.

Graphics: 5.0
If I had a nickel for every time someone told me, “People buy games based on graphics,” I’d have …10 nickels. Nonetheless I’m sick of hearing it. And though I’m immensely disappointed in Excite Truck’s lack of visual prowess (the backgrounds are grainy and muddy, almost going back to the days of the N64), it may finally prove that the graphic myth is just that.

Because let me tell you: these graphics don’t have what it takes to turn heads. They don’t have what it takes to hold anyone’s interest – in fact, if the myth were true, no one would buy this game. (It’s rare, but you will encounter a little bit of slowdown. That was particularly disturbing.)

Still, no matter how the graphics are perceived, I suspect Excite Truck will be a very big seller. And rightfully so. Slowdown can be damaging to the gameplay, but why forego a good gaming experience simply because there aren’t enough polygons on top? That’d be like foregoing a delicious cup of hot chocolate because it didn’t have enough whipped cream.

Sound: 7.0
The instrumental rock isn’t overly memorable, nor is it overly annoying. But there are a few sounds worth paying attention to, and they come from your Wii remote. The remote, in case you haven’t heard, has a tiny speaker that can emit various sounds and jingles. Listen carefully after overheating and after flying through rings. It’s nothing spectacular, and certainly isn’t something we’ll remember five years from now. But just think: this small addition to the Wii remote could lead to a lot of clever puzzles in Mario Galaxy and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.

Difficulty: Easy/Medium
Most gamers don’t like their eggs easy-side up, but that’s what you get with Excite Truck. The additional stars and bonus tracks add a little extra challenge, but you’ll spend more time learning the controls than you will spend trying to conquer the game itself.

Concept: 8.0
Motion-sensing steer mechanics, environment-altering courses, collisions that reward button-mashing with a turbo boost – Excite Truck may be short, but it’s also very fun and creative.

Multiplayer: 7.9
Excite Truck’s multiplayer is hard to score. On one hand you’ve got this great, exciting and addictive experience. But its enjoyment is limited to just two people. Nintendo fans have been used to four-player split-screen gaming since the Nintendo 64 launched. For Excite Truck to offer anything less is a step back. You’ll have a lot of fun with it, but if a four-player sequel is in the Wii’s future, there’s little chance that you’ll return to the this version once it has been released.

Overall: 8.0
Excite Truck is short and easy to beat. The bonus trucks don't mean much to me, not when they don't have a real-world license attached. Still, when I pick up my Wii on Sunday, this will be one of two games I am certain I'll take home with the console. (The other is Zelda.) If you want a new and unique racing game experience, I suggest you do the same.