Since September, the Nintendo Fusion Tour has been making the rounds across North America. A few weeks ago, the tour stopped in New York City at the Nintendo World Store; The Wiire's audio editor Leo Pugliese covered the event and received his first hands-on time with Wii. October 20, however, brought the Fusion Tour down to the Lone Star State (that's Texas) and The Wiire's Senior Editor Shawn White was in attendance. The following is his report.
Everything is bigger in Texas. An unfortunate reality at times, but in the case of the Nintendo Fusion Tour, it's definitely a positive. Nokia Theatre--an enclosed, yet spacious center for a myriad of musical affairs--housed the event, and for one night only, the Wii.
The glass is for your protection, little Wii. It's a big state out there.
Of course, while larger space means more demo kiosks (there were 10 in all, which is the most Nintendo has yet to set up outside its World Store), it also translates to more people, and more people means longer lines, and longer lines equal less play time; the Twilight Princess demo, for which there were two kiosks, was at least an hour long, just to give an example. Thankfully, a few phone calls and some helpful representatives helped me sidestep that cumbersome situation.
That line in the back is for Zelda. The guy under the middle TV screen is 40 minutes away from playing, at least.
The first title I tested was Excite Truck, one of the games I didn't have the opportunity to demo at E3 2006. I won't spend a copious amount of time detailing that experience, seeing how Leo did so previously.
Those "big, damn trucks" may not seem so big,
but they do pack a speedy punch.
but they do pack a speedy punch.
However, I will say that after less than two minutes, I had the controls pegged down, they were that intuitive. While I didn't really come close to winning the race (I picked a bad car, really!), it was thoroughly engaging and left me wanting to try again--not to rid losing's bitter taste from my mouth, but because of sheer fun factor.
Interesting to note is that because of the Wii Remote's small size, and the contrasting size of the in-game trucks, the sense of weight might seem skewed had one never played the title. In reality, though, the sensitivity of the controls helps to diminish this factor, as does all the enthralling air time (for heavy objects without wings wouldn't exude a sense of flight well).
Visually, Excite Truck is clean, with sufficiently detailed truck models, pleasant lighting and water effects, and a great draw distance that shows its best side when the truck is ruffling the clouds. The blur effects initiated by turbo boosts also add to the sense of speed, which this game has no hesitations about showing off. My only quip would be with the foliage, which while not an eye sore, does leave something to be desired. However, the less one crashes, the less that becomes an issue.
While Excite Truck may not turn the racing genre on its head, it's certainly a solid truck racer that wraps speed, variety and intuitive use of the Wii Remote up in a polished package.
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