18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker
Keep on truckin' right past this flop of a port for something with more substance.
Published: December 3, 2001
I'm not exactly sure what went into the decision making process at Acclaim when they decided to buy a couple of Sega's bigger arcade titles, then being ported or already ported to the Dreamcast, but I'm pretty sure alcohol was involved. Possibly marijuana. The point is, nobody in a non-altered state would plop down good cash for the license to a game like 18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker unless they were going to overhaul the crap out it. Which they didn't. Granted, the game is fantastic in the arcades. But it was designed as a brief sit-down experience with a friggin' HUGE steering wheel. When you bring that experience home, especially a couple of years after the game was released here in the US both in arcades and on the Dreamcast, the move just doesn't make any sense.
Let me put it another way: this game has four racing levels. Four. With a couple of tries, you can beat the game in under an hour. I'm not kidding. An hour. 18 Wheeler is as linear as they come, gameplay wise. The whole idea is to drive from point a to point b, making it to each check point along the way. Throughout the levels are forks, the subsequent choices usually leading you down either an easy path filled with graceful curves and forgiving straightaways, or a harder path, which if raced right, can give you a little boost for into the lead. That's a big if, however, since they're usually much harder to navigate than the other path, and you're not manning the wheel of a graceful gazelle.
For those that haven't had the opportunity to check out the arcade version (and it really is the only one you should play), here's the skinny: You're one of five rookie truckers determined to go pro. To do it, you'll have to cart cargo from one end of the country to the next, starting in New York, then moving to Key West, St. Petersburg, Dallas, Las Vegas, and finally ending your run in San Francisco. Each of the truckers has a rig with oodles of 'tude, matching their personas (e.g. Long Horn's all-power-no-speed truck or Texas Hawk's all-around Asphalt Cowboy), and while they may be lopsided in stats (skills are divided between speed, torque and toughness), beating your rival Lizardtail, to the finish line lands you a chance to play the parking mini-game. If you can park your truck in the assigned space before time runs out, you get a new part. Sucessfully complete all four parking challenges and you'll unlock a fifth parking level, and a sixth if you beat that.
To say 18 Wheeler is short would be laughably understated. It's understandable that an arcade port wouldn't be as complex as something designed for the home market, but games like Crazy Taxi made up for somewhat shallow gameplay (though it's about 10 times the game 18 Wheeler is just on core arcade mode alone) with some absolutely awesome extras. 18 Wheeler gives you... parking tests and score attack. Score attack gives you a couple new courses to race laps around, all the while crashing into the same purple vans that give you 3 second time bonuses in the arcade mode. Hit them up to four times for an increasing cash bonus as you try to avoid other cars and make it to the finish line and you have the entire experience of score attack. Parking mode lets you try out your parking skills in multiple spots throughout a parking level. Crazy Box this isn't.
18 Wheeler won't make your eyes bleed, but the graphics aren't all that stunning either. This is, after all, a game that was designed early on for original Naomi hardware. The textures are low-res, and the lighting and reflections are simplistic and no-nonsense. The game isn't BAD looking, but certain effects like the dust kicked up from a low altitude chopper's rotors lack that next-gen oomph. Luckily, everything moves along at a smooth pace, though the entire works glides along at a solid 30 frames a second as opposed to the usual 60 you'd see in a typical racing game. The draw distance is also quite tolerable lying far out enough that you probably won't notice it unless you're actually looking for where the track begins to creep in, and everything is faded in rather than just popped.
The music that's woven into the menu screens and during the game is simply generic quasi-country. It doesn't have any punch, just lays there kicking out a jangley guitar melody with some light drums in the background. In what I'm sure is a sage move, there aren't any vocals thrown into the tunes, just simple instrumental fluff. It's a good thing there aren't any voices singing along with the ho-hum jingles if the voices that do populate the game are any indication. Your "coach" throughout the short-lived checkpoint scramble sounds nearly identical to your rival Lizardtail - so much so that I often got the two confused. Eventually I learned Lizardtail's voice was a bit more distorted by his no doubt high-quality CB mic.
In the arcades, the horn is quite possibly the best part of the game. Placed exactly as it should be, smack dab in the middle of the massive steering wheel, it issues forth a blaring belch of sound that would certainly cause a few pants wettings if they were on the road (and for some first-time players... or so I've heard). On the home version, however, the audio just can't keep up. Crates smash like they should and the crunch of your truck on anything in your way is decent, but you won't hear anything interesting. It's not bad, but just like the rest of the game, it simply tries hard enough to be convincing, but doesn't achieve any measure of extra pizzazz.
18 Wheeler Pro Trucker is an awesome arcade experience, where you can drop in a buck in quarters, bitch about how much cheaper games were a few years ago, and then proceed to the have the time of your simulated open road-racing, truck stop stoppin', CB communicatin', big horn blowin' digital life thanks to a short but sweet experience with a big wheel and a bigger speaker to serve up the sound with. At home, however, it's just a tired, weak excuse for a racing game. This is not a bad game... in the arcades, and it's not like Acclaim did a bad job porting it; far from it, as the game feels exactly like the Dreamcast version. The game just simply doesn't belong anywhere outside the arcades and should, be avoided at all costs unless you can buy it for $5 or rent it for a day or two at the same price. It's mildly fun while it lasts, but you'll have a lot more fun if you can find the arcade cabinet and plop down the same amount of cash.
Let me put it another way: this game has four racing levels. Four. With a couple of tries, you can beat the game in under an hour. I'm not kidding. An hour. 18 Wheeler is as linear as they come, gameplay wise. The whole idea is to drive from point a to point b, making it to each check point along the way. Throughout the levels are forks, the subsequent choices usually leading you down either an easy path filled with graceful curves and forgiving straightaways, or a harder path, which if raced right, can give you a little boost for into the lead. That's a big if, however, since they're usually much harder to navigate than the other path, and you're not manning the wheel of a graceful gazelle.
For those that haven't had the opportunity to check out the arcade version (and it really is the only one you should play), here's the skinny: You're one of five rookie truckers determined to go pro. To do it, you'll have to cart cargo from one end of the country to the next, starting in New York, then moving to Key West, St. Petersburg, Dallas, Las Vegas, and finally ending your run in San Francisco. Each of the truckers has a rig with oodles of 'tude, matching their personas (e.g. Long Horn's all-power-no-speed truck or Texas Hawk's all-around Asphalt Cowboy), and while they may be lopsided in stats (skills are divided between speed, torque and toughness), beating your rival Lizardtail, to the finish line lands you a chance to play the parking mini-game. If you can park your truck in the assigned space before time runs out, you get a new part. Sucessfully complete all four parking challenges and you'll unlock a fifth parking level, and a sixth if you beat that.
To say 18 Wheeler is short would be laughably understated. It's understandable that an arcade port wouldn't be as complex as something designed for the home market, but games like Crazy Taxi made up for somewhat shallow gameplay (though it's about 10 times the game 18 Wheeler is just on core arcade mode alone) with some absolutely awesome extras. 18 Wheeler gives you... parking tests and score attack. Score attack gives you a couple new courses to race laps around, all the while crashing into the same purple vans that give you 3 second time bonuses in the arcade mode. Hit them up to four times for an increasing cash bonus as you try to avoid other cars and make it to the finish line and you have the entire experience of score attack. Parking mode lets you try out your parking skills in multiple spots throughout a parking level. Crazy Box this isn't.
18 Wheeler won't make your eyes bleed, but the graphics aren't all that stunning either. This is, after all, a game that was designed early on for original Naomi hardware. The textures are low-res, and the lighting and reflections are simplistic and no-nonsense. The game isn't BAD looking, but certain effects like the dust kicked up from a low altitude chopper's rotors lack that next-gen oomph. Luckily, everything moves along at a smooth pace, though the entire works glides along at a solid 30 frames a second as opposed to the usual 60 you'd see in a typical racing game. The draw distance is also quite tolerable lying far out enough that you probably won't notice it unless you're actually looking for where the track begins to creep in, and everything is faded in rather than just popped.
The music that's woven into the menu screens and during the game is simply generic quasi-country. It doesn't have any punch, just lays there kicking out a jangley guitar melody with some light drums in the background. In what I'm sure is a sage move, there aren't any vocals thrown into the tunes, just simple instrumental fluff. It's a good thing there aren't any voices singing along with the ho-hum jingles if the voices that do populate the game are any indication. Your "coach" throughout the short-lived checkpoint scramble sounds nearly identical to your rival Lizardtail - so much so that I often got the two confused. Eventually I learned Lizardtail's voice was a bit more distorted by his no doubt high-quality CB mic.
In the arcades, the horn is quite possibly the best part of the game. Placed exactly as it should be, smack dab in the middle of the massive steering wheel, it issues forth a blaring belch of sound that would certainly cause a few pants wettings if they were on the road (and for some first-time players... or so I've heard). On the home version, however, the audio just can't keep up. Crates smash like they should and the crunch of your truck on anything in your way is decent, but you won't hear anything interesting. It's not bad, but just like the rest of the game, it simply tries hard enough to be convincing, but doesn't achieve any measure of extra pizzazz.
18 Wheeler Pro Trucker is an awesome arcade experience, where you can drop in a buck in quarters, bitch about how much cheaper games were a few years ago, and then proceed to the have the time of your simulated open road-racing, truck stop stoppin', CB communicatin', big horn blowin' digital life thanks to a short but sweet experience with a big wheel and a bigger speaker to serve up the sound with. At home, however, it's just a tired, weak excuse for a racing game. This is not a bad game... in the arcades, and it's not like Acclaim did a bad job porting it; far from it, as the game feels exactly like the Dreamcast version. The game just simply doesn't belong anywhere outside the arcades and should, be avoided at all costs unless you can buy it for $5 or rent it for a day or two at the same price. It's mildly fun while it lasts, but you'll have a lot more fun if you can find the arcade cabinet and plop down the same amount of cash.
