I remember playing Excitebike a lot when I was growing up, launching myself in the air off of turbo boosts, knocking down competing bikers with my back tire (a guilty pleasure, I admit), and overheating my engine to the point that it was ready to bolt out of the bike frame for the nearest body of water. It remains a favorite to me up to this day, as I play it on my DS Lite every once in a while. The only sequel that the series has seen as of late is a fun entry on the Nintendo 64, Excitebike 64. But that's going to change this fall with its latest entry, Excite Truck.

You can tell from the title that it isn't just Excitebike all over again. Instead of racing dinky little two-wheelers across a series of limited tracks, this time you take control of four-wheelin' trucks that manage to rip-roar over every inch of terrain they cross. Some might feel this is a betrayal to the series, as replacing bikes with trucks is kind of like replacing chocolate chip ice cream with pistachio. But it seems to suit the series well, as the Excite factor appears to be just as present as it ever was.

In the game, players take control of different trucks, hitting the open road across a series of lavish tracks. Some of them take place on mountains with dirt roads scattered throughout, while others have more tropical settings, like beaches with separate islands that double as roads. The game is still a bit early in design, and we haven't seen all the tracks it offers as of yet, but the frame rate is pretty constant at this point, and the details look very good. The best highlight came with launching yourself off a ramp with a little turbo boost, and launching about 50 feet in the air, where you're able to see your surroundings quite clearly before you come crashing back down to Earth.

But what's cool about most of these tracks is that they don't stay the same during your run on them. As you proceed, you can actually pick up specific items that can shift the path ahead of you, forming new ramps and short-cuts. This real-time change not only affects how your performance goes, but can also hinder your opponents if they don't see this shift coming. It's a nice little feature that adds some much-needed replayability, as well as unpredictability.

The multiplayer feature of Excite Truck should be one of its biggest factors. Over the course of each race, players will find AI racers (and human competition) itching for a first place spot. It's unsure if the final game will contain any kind of online play, but split-screen multiplayer should. It'd be great to see Nintendo go all-out and allow four players to compete. Just a thought.

Where Excite Truck manages to break away from previous entries in the series is with its control. The game calls for real-time steering with the Nintendo Wii-mote, which works just like a real steering wheel. Your left and right motions direct the truck along its path, and sometimes off it. During the play time we had with the game at E3, we found it very easy to get into, and the use of turbo boosts actually felt rather effective. However, like with Excitebike, you have to be careful with the boosts. Use them too much and you could find your ride in an overheated mess, waiting to cool down. There's also some risk with the landings on your truck. You need precision in order to keep going. Go even slightly awkward in tilt or degree and you could find yourself in a nasty crash, and easily shift first place to fifth in a matter of seconds.

Excite Truck has a lot going for it, what with its shifting tracks and its fun control scheme. All that's missing now is that "classic" element to assure that it'll be a hit with fans. What I'm hinting at is the inclusion of Excitebike games from the past, either the original NES game or the Nintendo 64 sequel. We probably won't see these, as the company will probably just save these for its Virtual Console service. Still, it's an idea with merit, especially if the Wii-mote control became a factor. Playing an NES game with its tilt functions would be unreal (and a bit funny).

Even if it doesn't include the classics, Excite Truck looks to bring arcade racing pandemonium to the Wii, something the launch will clearly benefit from. We'll be back with a full review once the game releases later this year. Don't be surprised if we try to pop some wheelies, just for old time's sake. It'd be funny to see a truck flip from that.