Excite Truck PAL dated

By Tom Bramwell Published 14 December, 2006

Early next year. Sort of.

Those of you wondering where Excite Truck was at the European launch of Nintendo Wii have your answer: it was being held back until 16th February 2007.

Nintendo's press release today doesn't explain why, but does point out that it will be the company's first racing title for the console, and that it supports custom soundtracks through the use of an SD card.

More interesting, of course, is the way it controls - using the Wii-mote as a sort of handlebar, holding it at both ends and rotating your hands around it as though you were turning a steering wheel.

Those of you who imported the Wii from America needn't wait, mind you, with the game already out over there and receiving reasonable reviews. Don't try and buy it to play on your European console though, as there's a region lock in place.

Look out for a review of Excite Truck on the site quite soon.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (28) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Santino #1 5 years ago

    i would have liked this for launch

  • Aria #2 5 years ago

    NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...! I can't handle so much excitement...

  • RE*AC*TOR #3 5 years ago

    Custom soundtracks (because apparently the in-game music is horrendous).

  • ronindennis #4 5 years ago

    Ridiculous. You know the release dates of Trauma Center and Elebits? March 30th. FFS...

  • DaveyJ666 #5 5 years ago

    Wouldn't mind getting a copy of this game, but I'd happily wait 6months and get it on ebay for about £10 - £15

  • nick_f Verified Senior Producer, Microsoft #6 5 years ago

    3 month+ PAL delays.

    And so it begins...

  • onyxbox #7 5 years ago

    C'mon Nintendo Europe! Don't f!ck it up again!

    Get these games on the shelves quicker even if it means 60Hz only.


  • The_Foo_Fighter #8 5 years ago

    It's really not very good at all - you're not missing out on much.

  • asha #9 5 years ago

    Woohoo! It's coming out on the same day as the new Simon Pegg comedy Hot Fuzz which just happens to be on my birthday! :D

  • MoGamer2006 #10 5 years ago

    @ The_Foo_Fighter:

    In your opinion... I'm enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would. It's no classic, granted, but it's good fun - a solid 6 or 7/10, I'd say.

  • ForbiddenForest #11 5 years ago

    Even though this smells of a six/seven out of ten-er, deffo looking forward to trying the ker-azy 'tilt' steering approach.

    But of much more importance - I wonder if the next MarioKart will use some interesting control combo, like two remotes per player!!!!

    Anyone else keeping their Wii boxed till Chrimbo? It's bloody killing me. I caved in last night and opened my Wii Play box to have a quick touch of the controller - it's tiny, and yet.... Oooooohhhhhhhnnnnnnffff.

  • Salvia #12 5 years ago

    "Excite Truck PAL dated"

    Very dated judging by the screenshots.

  • Darren #13 5 years ago

    So we still have to wait MONTHS for PAL conversions of Wii games?!? :(

    I'm interested in this game because I absolutely loved 4-Wheel Thunder on the Dreamcast and played it for hours so I'm hoping this game captures that game's excitement and sheer over-the-top-ness.

  • spongebob #14 5 years ago

    So the Nintendo style of making Europeans wait continues on the new platform. Stupid if you ask me. And region locks as well. I wish Datel works out a FreeLoader for Wii.

  • Muddtallica #15 5 years ago

    Salvia: That was a cheap shot...but no-one else noticed it, so knock yourself out. :p

    And this whole making Europe wait thing is starting to get on my nerves...wait no, it started to get on my nerves TWENTY YEARS AGO. Though it's hardly fair to say it's just Nintendo doing it (FFXII? MGS Subsistence? The PS3?)...but then, they are the only ones persisting with the stupid region lock rubbish. Good job Freeloader will inevitably be here within a few months.

  • JediMasterMalik #16 5 years ago

    The PS3?

    Is region free...

  • #17 5 years ago

    asha, it's my birthday too, we shall celebrate together!

  • MoGamer2006 #18 5 years ago

    @JediMasterMalik

    ...But 99% of the games won't be.

  • Muddtallica #19 5 years ago

    JediMasterMalik: Uh...yeah, I know it is. That's why I said it was in my first comment. My point was that it was delayed in Europe, as was the PSP, and I'm sure many, many Sony products in the future will also be delayed in Europe. And even if it is region-free, that's still no reason to delay things in Europe - I don't like it when Nintendo does it with the DS, either.

    All I'm saying is that European delays are not only a Nintendo problem. Heck, they're not even a only a videogame problem; why does it take so long for Pixar films to come out in this country? :(

  • smelly #20 5 years ago

    sigh.. yes you get this (not great game) 3 months later than america.. But america gets wii play 3 months after you.

    horses for courses.

    uk arent being treated badly..

  • secombe #21 5 years ago

    I thought the releases were intentionally being staggered so we have a regular release to look forward to at the end of most months?

    As far as I was aware it is actually ready, they are just choosing not to release it when very few people have actually managed to get a Wii yet, makes sense to me.

    Any excuse to play Wii Sports and Wii Play even more is fine by me anyway.

  • JediMasterMalik #22 5 years ago

    ...But 99% of the games won't be.

    And where would this wonderful statistic be coming from?

    Unless you have proof to the copntrary, all PS3 games are region free.

  • playgen #23 5 years ago

    Its upto Developers/Publishers to put region locks on PS3 games if they want to, some probably will

  • smelly #24 5 years ago

    "Its upto Developers/Publishers to put region locks on PS3 games if they want to, some probably will "


    So they almost definately will. Why would they want europeans to play the cheaper US games, when they can sell it to you more expensive?

  • playgen #25 5 years ago

    I think the games that wont have region protection, are ones where the developers arent sure if they will do a worldwide launch. So if a game is only going to end up being released in Japan for example, it would make sense to leave out protection, as theyll get more sales from people importing it.

  • tiddles #26 5 years ago

    Its upto Developers/Publishers to put region locks on PS3 games if they want to, some probably will

    Wrong. It's confirmed as being in the TRCs (the required features and standards that all PS3 games must conform to) that all games must play in all regions.

  • JediMasterMalik #27 5 years ago

    Thanks tiddles, I knew it was something like that but didn't know the jargon. :)

  • smelly #28 5 years ago

    @tiddles.. What's the trc number for that one?

  • mrbandersnatch #29 5 years ago

    Staggering/short conversion delays I can take.

    What I cant take is seeing GREAT games launched in the US/Asia and never making it over here. It will be interesting to see how long it takes for Bleach Wii to be launched in the UK (if it ever is) and should be a good indcator of things to come.