Excite Truck

Being one of the launch titles for the Wii back in 2006, Excite Truck followed in the footsteps of Nintendo's Excitebike series with its turbo-charged racing across mountainous terrain (this time with trucks, not bikes). Even though it's now rather an old game, it still manages to put more recent racers to shame with its slick tracks and addictive, aggressive races.

It's simple really - drive your truck along a bumpy circuit, use your turbo booster as much as possible to surge over ridiculously high jumps and try not to crash. Usually the main aim of a racing game would be to finish first, and that's also true here, but since you're awarded stars for each 'trick' you do, and must get X amount of stars before you can unlock the next track, it's okay to come second or third, as long as you've racked up enough points. A time bonus also bumps up your final tally.

Before you can race at all, you must pass basic training. This teaches you that your booster overheats quickly, but if you're submerged in water it'll cool your engine and you can use it that much longer. The booster is mostly helpful when approaching a hill - time it just right and you'll get an extra boost on top of it that launches you further into the air. Tilting the truck back will make the jump last as long as possible. Also, if you right your vehicle before you land, you'll get yet another speed boost - do you see a pattern here?

As far as tricks are concerned, you're awarded stars for pretty much anything you do (even crashing earns you a star AND a speed boost), but the skill is in rotating your truck in the air, taking shortcuts through trees, drifting and finding power-ups in the road that morph the landscape into a steep hill. These uber-hills have rings in the air above them and the idea is to fly your truck through all of these before landing.

After completing training, you're ready for the Excite Race mode, which will now be at your disposal. This offers four leagues (ranging from bronze to platinum) and in each league there are five tracks (Mexico, Fiji, Scotland, etc). Your aim is to collect the required amount of stars in the races and try to get a good overall grade. An 'S' grade is the best, above even A or B. Get an S on all the tracks and the harder "Super Excite" difficulty is unlocked, then in turn an even tougher Mirror Mode.