Better pull over that yonder rest stop, trucker - for Nintendo's just smashed all hope for an Excite Truck sequel for the Nintendo Wii, as Mike Jackson of CVG reports.

A seemingly-legitimate press release of Excite Truck 2, complete with screenshots, a promised online racing option AND the ability to race on the MOON itself was confirmed to be fake by Nintendo.

"It seemed to have stemmed from an unofficial source," says Nintendo. "We have not announced any sequel in the Excite Truck series."

It's good to know that gamers without any major financial backing or professional training (we're assuming here) can do something that can shake up the industry, but we writers at QJ hope that those of you with the talent, patience, and free time on your hands put your efforts into something less of a downer. You know, use your powers for good instead of evil, and all that? Please?

While we've been revving up and shifting through Excite Truck for quite some time, the poor folks in Europe are still gnawing at their fingernails for the game. Those poor European people will have to wait, but at least we get our goods now.

To make our European buddies feel better, we've decided to show them something that should perk them back up.

Here's a French advertisement for Monster Games' Excite Truck, featuring two dudes doing some crazy moves with the game plus the inevitable backseat driving. This will hit the shelves across Europe two days after the day of hearts on February 16.

Enough said, we'll leave to to enjoy the video.

WarioWare: Smooth Moves will be retailing for AU$ 79.95 (around US$ 63) when it hits Australian retail stores on January 25. Hmmm... that's pretty cheap. But this move ain't really surprising, given that Ninty Aussie has been attacked for the price-point of the Wii software.

So, how far exactly will they go to appease the market with their prices?

Vispi Bhopti, Nintendo Australia's PR lead say, "With the Wii and the DS, we're examining demographics to figure out the best price-point with which to expand the market." Meaning to say, this is but the start of the road for these plans of lowering the price.

The other titles which will be experiencing the "roll back", so to speak, are Kororinpa, as well as Wing Island. Both will be retailing with the same price as WarioWare. Excite Truck, however, will come out on February 22 with an almost-hundred dollar price tag.

Time to rev-up and set your Wiimote stick shifts on gear. Excite Truck might have already been released during the Wii console launch in North America. However, for the folks across the Atlantic, it won't be until February 16 that this Monster Games title will be released across Europe. What are you guys missing? Here's the low-down on the games features and gameplay modes:

Wiimote: Players will have to drive their trucks by tilting the Wiimote like a steering wheel. However, more than this, jumps will also play a crucial role. By tilting the controller forward or backward to align the vehicle's wheels with the ground, you'll be awarded by a perfect landing and an essential speed boost.

Drifting, jumping, and smashing into other cars: Coming in at first place won't be your only concern in this game. Drifting, jumping, and smashing into other cars can give you more points to top the scores of the other players. By progressing in the game, you'd also be able to unlock numerous features like over 20 truck types and various paint jobs to customize your own 4x4.

Challenge Mode: This gameplay mode will allow you to perfect your driving skills and techniques. Under this mode, you can choose various challenges and obstacle courses with different goals in each like passing through a sequence of rings and gates or even slamming onto other trucks.

Environment: All the courses in Excite Truck are built on real-time. That means they change and morph as paths through a rocky mountain would crumble away onto the sea or trees get scarred from all the barreling of trucks all around them.

Sound: This is going to be the first Wii game to incorporate the usage of the SD card by allowing players to select music from their cards and uploading them into the game. You can customize the background music of the racing courses that you participate in and play your own favorite songs.

The game is to cost 49 euros (around US$ 65). Hope we were able to sum it all up good for ya. For those in North America who still haven't been able to get the game yet, it's never too late!

Can't Nintendo get anymore teasing? Both their American and Japanese Wii.com sites were just updated with more vids of people playing the Wii to make you jealous. The console's launch is just around the corner [starts biting fingernails in jittery anticipation], and we've got more Wii Experience videos to watch. Can't it be our turn to play already?

Anyhoo, the fresh batch of videos include a fishing demo for The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, steering the Wiimote to barrel through Excite Truck, some girls bowling in Wii Sports, an elderly couple bashing each other at Wii Play, and a girl getting her groove with WarioWare: Smooth Moves.

As these Wii Experience vids go, all of the people playing seem to have fun. Their smiles and amusement are infectious. With the rate that Nintendo is coming out with these kinds of vids, their whole mantra gamer-to-video-game interaction is put under the limelight. The concept still holds: watching people play the game is just as fun as watching the screen itself!

You can catch the Japanese Wii Experience here, while the North American site has their vids here.

So Engadget has just gotten their Wii from the mail. Excuse me for a second while I scream into a pillow. [Jex H. momentarily leaves the table...] OKAY! Aaaand we're back.

Like I said, Engadget has just gotten their Wii from Nintendo and they made a video to share with us the whole experience. From cutting the tape on the box, taking out and laying out the box's contents (which includes Excite Truck and Zelda!!!), and how they basically assembled the console. The box also includes the Nintendo press kit with a letter from Reggie that starts with "Dear fellow gamer, I can't be sure but I think I'm about to make your day..." Funny.

I would love to tell you guys more about the vid but I just realized it's hard to type with tears blurring your vision so...(do I hear someone going "awwww..."???) Hahaha, so anyway, just watch the vid, it's all there with the Engadget guy talking you through the whole thing. The Part 2 of the whole "Unboxing the Wii" episode is available via the download link below, and it shows a more detailed montage of the Wii interface and setup, including the cables and whatnot, and making a Mii avatar.

Just a tip, you might wanna grab some Kleenex while you watch the vid.

Download: [Wii Setup and Interface Walkthrough video]

We know how life gets frustratingly imposing on us. That's why we want some stuff done in our own way. So, if you're the rebel-rocker type and you'd rather have yourself locked in the room the whole day just listening to your own music, then turn down the volume and listen up.

Excite Truck doesn't just only give you the chance to barrel your own way through the course in wild abandon. It's now also confirmed that the game allows you to customize its music tracks. Yeah! Just insert your SD card into the slot and follow the menu in your system. There's been no other confirmation, though, if other Wii games will allow this same feature, but still, this title from Monster Games Inc. is a welcome start!

The game's instruction manual has the entire How-To process written down:

1. Insert your SD Card into the Wii console.
2. Begin or continue a game and enter any race. Before the race begins, press + on the Wiimote to access the Sound Options screen.
3. Select the "SD Card" option.
4. Any MP3 files available on your SD Card will be displayed (100 songs maximum). To choose a specific song for the race you are about to enter, highlight that song. You can also choose to randomize all songs shown for that course. Highlighting "Default" will play the standard in-game music.
5. Press 1 to return to the Sound Options menu, then 1 again to return to the pre-race screen. You can also use the "Sound" command at any point during the race to change the current song.

See? Now you can drive around and headbang to your own rebel music. Personally, I'd rather play the game to the tunes of Jessica Simpson, Coldplay, Barbara Streisand, and Jack Johnson. But that's just me. I know my song selection's a bit off-track to play with a high-octane, adrenaline-pumping, testosterone-oozing game like Excite Truck, but to each his own, right?

Straight from the recently held (and oh-so-noisy!) MGS '06 in Paris is this new gameplay vid of Excite Truck. And good god, we won't even try to decipher what the hell is being said 'coz well, first of all, we don't speak French (doh) and second of all, there's so much noise in the background you might even start wondering whether they were speaking in French or some unknown Tahitian dialect.

Anyway, the video itself still proves to be a lot useful for would be Wii owners and Excite Truck enthusiasts 'coz despite the video's crappy audio, it does show more than five minutes of gameplay, giving you a glimpse of the crashes, flips, and explosions and how they'll play out on your Wii's.

We must say though, the person holding the Wiimote in this vid is really sucky at playing (as you guys will see and will most probably agree). Surely you guys can do better? Anyhoo, enough with the chitchat and enjoy the vid. Feel free to scorn and castigate the sucky player though, hahaha.

The fun and games just keep coming in, don't they. There's a rumor about the same Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) issue with the cover that dares to ask "Metal Gear Solid 4 on Xbox 360?" (a proposition that has PlayStation owners and soon-to-be PS3 owners doing the Exorcist-head-spinning thing): Wii games have been reviewed.

• Twilight Princess (Wii version)
  9.5/9.5/10
• Red Steel
  8/8/5
• ExciteTruck
  7/7/7.5

Notice that Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess got a 9.5, a 9.5, and a 10. That makes us want to believe this rumor (as our resident Wii fanboy says: "because it's impossible for that game to have scores that are any lower"). Just look at that image above. That's a gameplay shot and not a cinematic, if I'm not mistaken.

The other scores also have us thinking, and we want to bring you into the debate.

Who would give Red Steel such a low score? Well, obviously somebody who wasn't impressed with it - some games aren't for everybody. My personal suspicion: it's somebody who wanted more swordplay and less gunplay (or vice versa).

Excite Truck has us excited. For many of us, we're getting this because we want to try using the Wii remote as a steering wheel. And the game's stunts (as you can see from the video) are huge, and the game is amazingly fast-paced. It's a long way from Excite Bike and Mario Kart!

Do you believe these scores? Agree? Disagree? Comment!

More exciting than a barrel of monkeys or so say. Hence that's why they titled it Excite Truck, and appropriately so, we think. For those familiar with Excite Bike, the crazy stunts and tricks of motorbike racing are given a make-over and crashed onto 4x4s.

This vid from thehylia shows the Excite Truck demo in the Nintendo Fusion Tour in Anaheim, CA. This game gives a good name to "barreling through the course". Getting to use the Wii clip-on makes the whole gaming experience that much more fun/hectic.

You know how you'd feel so dejected every time you'd fall out of Rainbow Road in Mario Kart? In this game, all those mishaps actually become a treat to watch (and ultimately experience). Splash through puddles five times bigger than your truck, boost up steep slopes, crash on to boulders, fall 50 feet down into a ravine... All these are in the vid below.

Pre-Order: [Excite Truck]