I've been eagerly awaiting this game for a few months now, ever since seeing Dekotora trucks for the first time on an episode of Japanorama and being amazed at how much work had gone into modding what is basically a lorry, I just had to buy this when it was announced.
The game is best described as a cross between Tokyo Highway Battle, 18 Wheeler and Tokyo Bus Guide. It involves racing a rival truck from one end of the map to the other, what sets it apart from other racers though is the fact that you can choose different routes, so e.g while your rival decides to go straight on and follow a motorway route you can say make a left turn at a set point in the race and cut through the inner city traffic which is a much shorter route to finish, this might sound easier to always go for the shorter option but you can end up in heavy traffic, stuck at traffic lights or behind a sunday driver so it calls for some good maneuvering in and out of traffic to get in the lead.
Everytime you complete a race your awarded points, your also deducted 100 points for each time you crash into a vehicle as well so you need to be careful or you could end up with nothing at the end of it, you also awarded another truck to race, each with increasing difficulty.
The points that you win can be spent on decorating your truck that you chose at the start of the game. To start with your trucks nothing special, just your bog standard type of thing, but the amount of stuff that you can modify it with is overwhelming, every spare inch of the truck can be modified in some way, from things like bumpers, grills, mirrors, wheels, doors, panels, the interior, you can even place a chandelier inside. Theres just far to many to list here as well as more things that I haven't even unlocked yet. An interesting feature of modding the truck as well is the ability to see what it looks like at day and night by pressing the minus key, at night it can look stunning when your trucks all lit up.
Theres a few more modding options in their as well like being able to polish the chrome and having your truck judged on how good it looks. Also theres the chance to win art work or create your own which you can airbrush onto the trailer panels.
Another mode is the ability to take pictures of your truck and others that you've beaten, against different backgrounds, you can adjust the camera angle, change lighting, adjust focus etc then save them to the wii to email to friends.
The final mode is a rhythm action game where you have to move the remote in the right direction when prompted to correspond with some people waving flags. I've no idea what this is doing in here so I presume it might unlock stuff.
Graphically it looks quite nice, the city areas are fine and do the job and the trucks look fantastic but the big let down is the framerate, it will seriously drop to less than 20 fps at times, when I first played it and saw this it was like wtf, all I can say is the more you play it you just overlook this but for the first few plays it is quite shocking to see, especially seeing as the wii should easily be able to handle it.
The control method used is the remote, you basically just turn it like you would a wheel, 2 accelerates, 1 brakes, A is the horn, B to look behind and down on the d-pad to switch to full beam which is only any use when racing at night.
The d-pad can be used to steer as well but to be honest it does feel a bit twitchy and this is another of the games short comings, steering in general doesn't have the feeling of gradually turning, it just feels like your pinging from lane to lane at times, also other than to avoid crashing into other traffic or stopping for a red light you never need to use the brake, you can literally just take a sharp bend with no breaking.
Music is a bit of a mixed bag, some of it's perfectly fine, even catchy while some will just get on your nerves very quicky after you've failed a race and have to do it again with the same song playing. From looking in the back of the instruction manual they all look like their sung by well known singers in Japan at least, one of them is well known for singing the theme tunes to a few anime series. Theres another called Riki who is also in the advert for the game and looks like some sort of Elvis impersonater, very strange
.
Overall despite the poor framerate and some handling issues it seriously is a fun game, the races are for the most part enjoyable and the amount of stuff to modify is immense. I've been playing it for most of yesterday and today and can't put it down. The chances of this coming out in the west are pretty much nil, so if your looking for something a bit different to a typical racer and either have a JPN wii or can play imports it might be worth picking up.
Screenshots
Video
The game is best described as a cross between Tokyo Highway Battle, 18 Wheeler and Tokyo Bus Guide. It involves racing a rival truck from one end of the map to the other, what sets it apart from other racers though is the fact that you can choose different routes, so e.g while your rival decides to go straight on and follow a motorway route you can say make a left turn at a set point in the race and cut through the inner city traffic which is a much shorter route to finish, this might sound easier to always go for the shorter option but you can end up in heavy traffic, stuck at traffic lights or behind a sunday driver so it calls for some good maneuvering in and out of traffic to get in the lead.
Everytime you complete a race your awarded points, your also deducted 100 points for each time you crash into a vehicle as well so you need to be careful or you could end up with nothing at the end of it, you also awarded another truck to race, each with increasing difficulty.
The points that you win can be spent on decorating your truck that you chose at the start of the game. To start with your trucks nothing special, just your bog standard type of thing, but the amount of stuff that you can modify it with is overwhelming, every spare inch of the truck can be modified in some way, from things like bumpers, grills, mirrors, wheels, doors, panels, the interior, you can even place a chandelier inside. Theres just far to many to list here as well as more things that I haven't even unlocked yet. An interesting feature of modding the truck as well is the ability to see what it looks like at day and night by pressing the minus key, at night it can look stunning when your trucks all lit up.
Theres a few more modding options in their as well like being able to polish the chrome and having your truck judged on how good it looks. Also theres the chance to win art work or create your own which you can airbrush onto the trailer panels.
Another mode is the ability to take pictures of your truck and others that you've beaten, against different backgrounds, you can adjust the camera angle, change lighting, adjust focus etc then save them to the wii to email to friends.
The final mode is a rhythm action game where you have to move the remote in the right direction when prompted to correspond with some people waving flags. I've no idea what this is doing in here so I presume it might unlock stuff.
Graphically it looks quite nice, the city areas are fine and do the job and the trucks look fantastic but the big let down is the framerate, it will seriously drop to less than 20 fps at times, when I first played it and saw this it was like wtf, all I can say is the more you play it you just overlook this but for the first few plays it is quite shocking to see, especially seeing as the wii should easily be able to handle it.
The control method used is the remote, you basically just turn it like you would a wheel, 2 accelerates, 1 brakes, A is the horn, B to look behind and down on the d-pad to switch to full beam which is only any use when racing at night.
The d-pad can be used to steer as well but to be honest it does feel a bit twitchy and this is another of the games short comings, steering in general doesn't have the feeling of gradually turning, it just feels like your pinging from lane to lane at times, also other than to avoid crashing into other traffic or stopping for a red light you never need to use the brake, you can literally just take a sharp bend with no breaking.
Music is a bit of a mixed bag, some of it's perfectly fine, even catchy while some will just get on your nerves very quicky after you've failed a race and have to do it again with the same song playing. From looking in the back of the instruction manual they all look like their sung by well known singers in Japan at least, one of them is well known for singing the theme tunes to a few anime series. Theres another called Riki who is also in the advert for the game and looks like some sort of Elvis impersonater, very strange
.Overall despite the poor framerate and some handling issues it seriously is a fun game, the races are for the most part enjoyable and the amount of stuff to modify is immense. I've been playing it for most of yesterday and today and can't put it down. The chances of this coming out in the west are pretty much nil, so if your looking for something a bit different to a typical racer and either have a JPN wii or can play imports it might be worth picking up.
Screenshots
Video
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