 Review By: Jared Black |
Developer: | SEGA |
| Publisher: | Acclaim | |
| Genre: | Racing | |
| ESRB: | Everyone | |
| # Of Players: | 1-2 | |
| Online Play: | No | |
| Accessories: | Memory Card | |
| Buy Now: |   |
Arcade ports have been around almost as long as consoles themselves. It used to be that the home versions were inferior to their arcade brethren due to limited hardware, but these days it's the other way around. In fact, without the cool gimmicks inherent in the arcade experience the arcade as we know it probably would not exist in any form. As a result 18-Wheeler American Pro Trucker is somewhat of a rarity these days, in that it's a good game perfectly suited to the arcade experience. At home however, it's not quite as good.
Not that the game itself is awful, because the core gameplay of the arcade version has arrived intact. 18-Wheeler puts the player in the role of one of four truckers (with an extra hidden), who set out to deliver their cargo before the time runs out and ahead of their rival. It's really that simple. Just finish in time and beat the rival to the finish. There are cars that can be smashed to give extended time limits and a speed boost that can be obtained by driving behind another big rig (which cuts the wind for ya), but that's pretty much it. Just get from Point A to Point B in time, and preferably ahead of the rival.
The primary game mode is the Arcade mode, which is a straight port of the arcade version. There are four stages to be cleared: New York to Key West, St. Petersburg to Dallas, Dallas to Las Vegas, and finally Las Vegas to San Francisco. Herein lies the problem, as this straight port results in a VERY short gaming experience. I literally made it through all four stages and "beat" the game in about 30 minutes. Each stage takes around 2 minutes of driving time to complete, and failing to complete any stage merely results in having to try it again. Once you've beat it, you're only playing for the mini-games between stages (when you beat the rival across the finish line), trying to get better times/scores, and the sheer joy of smashing things. Trust me, even the last one gets tedious very quickly.
The other gameplay modes include Parking, Score Attack, and Versus. Parking is surprisingly fun, as it involves parking a big rig in five green boxes (over four stages plus hidden ones) barely bigger than the trucks themselves within a certain time limit. A great deal of driving skill is required, as hitting any object littering the course will result in a time penalty. Again though, this mode can be completed extremely quickly. Score Attack is a three-lap race to try and earn a top score, which is a combination of reward money and leftover time. Versus is the two-player mode…basically the same as Score Attack only versus a buddy.
The graphics, quite simply, are terrible for a GameCube game. Originally released for home on the Dreamcast, this looks every bit like an average Dreamcast game. Truck and other car models look OK, but they're sparsely textured with a minimal amount of detail. Environments are fairly simplistic, with low-poly objects and muddy textures. All of this graphic mediocrity also comes with a good bit of pop-up and a decidedly Dreamcast-ish draw distance. Did they do anything to improve the graphics for this version? It sure doesn't seem like it. That's inexcusable given the tremendous gap in power between the two machines.
The sound's just "eh". Generic country beats play on the radio, and grow old quickly. The rival's taunts and chatter consists of about four total lines and often repeat three or four times in a single stage. The sound effects are merely average; the roar of your truck's engine doesn't overpower like it should, and running into things results in a fairly weak crashing sound. Nothing special here.
Bottom Line:
18-Wheeler is the type of game you beat once and then never touch again, and the Parking mode adds very little much-needed variety. The key problem here is not with the quality of the product; it's with how much of it is offered. If they had given us 20+ stages, this would've been a decent purchase. As it stands, it's recommended only for those obsessed with big rigs or if you find it really cheap on eBay.
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4.0 |
Posted: 2005-11-05 09:11:16 PST