A sequel of sorts. :) Excite Bots, it's called. Looks exactly like the Excite Truck engine with monster trucks replaced with robotic insect-shaped vehicles. As sequel concepts go for a truck racing game, that's certainly a bit left-field.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5RGBF4J3eI

Yes, they've kept in the fisheye distortion visual effect!

SOLD!

Excite Truck was one of the most misunderstood games ever. I thought it was absolutely brilliant.

EXCITED

Especially by the brief flash of Return Of Excite Soccer. The original (from Excitebike 64) is one of my favourite multiplayer things ever, and if they get this new version right, I'm sold, irrespective of how closely it resembles ExciteTruck. Which was brilliant, obviously.

I haven't played ETruck for a while, come to think of it. Might be time for a SUPER TREE RUN fix.

Mmm, Excite Truck is all kinds of excellent, despite the sub-GameCube graphics.

This new one certainly has me interested, but reading more (mini-games? eh?) has me a little worried they're trying to hammer an Excite Truck-shaped peg into a Casual Gamer's hole, and while I can see the temptation to do such things to people who can play bejewelled for hours on end without muting the audio, I'm not quite sure that'll be an improvement in my view.

SUPER PATRONISING

If you say so; I suspect you nearest and dearest doesn't manage to play Bejewelled 2 as much as mine does. If I snap, that'll be why.

As for the mini-game stuff... I'm just not convinced it'll be to my tastes.

LOOKS SCARY AND CONFUSING.

Sold.

Hurrah! I now intend to subtitle my life for the next days by prefixing every verb with 'Super' and awarding myself a random number of stars.

Excite Truck was jolly good fun; unlocking the Crazy Monster Truck then racing a friend (usually in the Firefly) in a demented version of kiss-chase was five star-fun.

Excite Truck was one I abandoned a few hours in, strange as I was loving it. Myself I'm still hoping for a proper (as in not dumbed-down) sequel to Excite Bike. I can't quite believe we've yet to see F-Zero, 1080 and PilotWings on Wii as well.

One day I'm going to buy Excite Truck. I borrowed it close to release, and got a fair way through it in a couple of days before giving it back. At that point I was utterly stuck, seeing no imaginable way of winning the races I'd reached, but I now have a steering wheel and quite fancy having a go with that and seeing if it helps. Unfortunately Wii games hold their prices irritatingly well (the Bath Gamestation still wants about £25 for a USED Wario Ware, and good luck with that), but as soon as I see one under a tenner I'll be having it.

Yeah I've noticed that, I play too much 360 to be able to justify picking up any full price Wii games, but they take arritating amount of time to drop to anything even resembling an impusle purchase.

Yes, Wii game prices are stubborn bastards.

I picked up a Wii a week ago from Sainsbury's for £156 (which with Nintendo's recent announcement about selling the Wii to retailers at a higher price due to the pound seems like incredibly lucky timing) to finally join the current generation of console gaming.

I was scouring for bargains on Super Mario Galaxy (pretty much the main reason I caved in in the first place, and man I'm pleased I did as it's the most fun I've had on a big console in years) and struggled to find anything much below the RRP. My local game shops had a few pre-owned, but all for £29.99. Madness.

Some titles do seem to get cheapo prices soon after release though as House of the Dead: Overkill has dropped to £19.99 at Game's online shop. Don't know if the game is any good, certainly looks fun.

I shall be keeping my eye out for Excitetruck cheapness. Any other recommendations on Wii?

I think I paid £27 for SMG in release week, so that means it's gone UP since then.

I can't believe the actual console is still £156, PLUS they're considering upping the price. Combined with the ridiculous cost of a second Wiimote and nunchuck, which is almost a necessity, they're taking the piss. With what is potentially the most successful non-portable console ever, they're really making up for the money lost in the last couple of generations.

well you could torrent wii games these days, after installing the backup laucher... not that i would know that ofcourse....

anyway, strange things they either hold their value here, or got sold off cheap by drugstors and bookshops, samba de amiga was 12 quid immediuately here, as was ghost squad..

Yah and that £156 was a one off short term deal, it seems to be still £176 most places and this new increased price thing might put another £18 on top of that. Which is terrible, I can't see the PS3 or Xbox 360 getting a price increase because of the pound. Nintendo managed to come across as the 'nice' company for a few years when it didn't do so well but they're the worst of the lot of them.

You're joking, Ninty have always been bastards and that never stopped with the 'Cube. Yeah, I know pre-ordering and queuing on launch night is asking for it, but still, to pay £350 for a GC, second pad and memory card with Luigi's Mansion, Monkey Ball, Burnout and Rogue Squadron, and to be able to pick up the same lot for around £180 within six months... ouch.

I think you misunderstood me. I didn't mean they stopped being bastards just that people forgot about it when they weren't doing so well, and even felt sorry for them struggling against the big evil rivals in Microsoft and Sony.

Yeah there was an element of 'poor old Nintendo' and other such rubbish ('only Nintendo actually cares about the games anymore' being my fave, deliciously ironic in the current climate), but in reality I think they had enough cash piled up from the NES, SNES and even the 'failed' N64 that sitting out one generation was never going to be a real concern.

Nintendo's always claimed they've never sold console hardware at a loss, so it's likely even the N64 was profitable.

I can't vouch for the accuracy of this, but I read somewhere that up til something like 2005, Nintendo had made more profit from GameCube and game sales than Sony had made on the PS2 generation at that point. Dunno if it's true, but it's certainly possible given the PS2 hardware being sold at a loss, etc.. It's why Nintendo could afford to lose the console wars a few gens going and still keep going, unlike Sega (whose hardware exit I lament as I loved the DreamCast).

I'd assume Sony's made up that gap on the PS2 since, what with it selling even today and the hardware being profitable for some time, but still, it's an interesting perspective.

It also puts in perspective just how much the PS3 is likely hurting Sony... Heh. I remember in the PS2 days there was always talk of how Sony or MS should just buy Nintendo/Sega... perhaps Nintendo should buy Sony instead. (No, I'm not really serious about that, I just find the concept mildly amusing to contemplate.)

Excite Truck was wonderful. I managed to unlock the secret course at the end and loved every minute of dong so. The game is so brilliantly balanced.

I'd love to play it with the shell but because you rock the controller like a seesaw the wii doesn't work so well with it. Hoping they fix that with this sequel.

I'll be having someof this Excite Bots, but fear we won't see it in Europe until Christmas.

SUPER FORUM POST

Did you try playing it with the wheel? I too had my doubts but it worked great when I tried it a while back.

EDIT: Oh yeah, this game looks videogamey and fun...definitely getting it, hope it reaches EU a bit faster than ET did.

I must say, that upping the price of everything-Wii-y during this whole downturn and whatnot will only encourage more people to go the way of naughtiness..... heck, I'd find it hard to resist getting round the paying issue myself if I had a Wii.

Yes I did, it just didn't work for me.