Once
upon a time, video game arcades covered the land from sea to shining sea
in every available space. Whether it was in a shopping mall, pizza
parlor or even your favorite corner convenience store, arcade game
cabinets could be found everywhere. What drew the never-ending flow of
quarters was simply the fact that home gaming platforms just couldn’t
compete with the video output and action of their arcade brethren.
However, once the 32-bit gaming machines started appearing in living
rooms across the planet gamers began to stay home for their enjoyment
and fewer and fewer arcade games were created.
Even in this day and age of the home gaming system. game makers have continued to eek out a meager stream of arcade titles,
continuing even today. However, the flow of the river has somewhat
reversed upon itself. Now, most of the big games are first being
released on a home platform and then translated to the arcade, or
developers are using this medium to test out new game engines for future
renditions, which of course will be tweaked and tuned for home
consummation.
During
this most recent time, Sega has been one of the biggest players in the
arcade. Probably one of their biggest hits would have to be Crazy Taxi, however they’ve had numerous other titles enter into top-seller status. One of these would be Eighteen Wheeler,
where gamers got the opportunity to get behind the big wheel and
compete in delivering various loads across North America, all the while
racing the clock. Now, perhaps if this title had come to fruition in the
era of the NES instead of the PlayStation, its place in history might
be more well defined instead of just being a footnote. Nevertheless,
this title has made it’s way to a home version and we all have the
opportunity to give it a run. Does Eighteen Wheeler
deliver the goods on time, or does it fall a few miles short of its
destination? That’s what we are about to find out. It’s time to shift
into the high gears and take this baby for a ride.
Unfortunately, every video game has both it’s good and bad sides.
Sometimes the bad outweighs the good, but usually there is enough silver
lining the dark clouds to make the game at least palatable. Eighteen Wheeler: American Pro Trucker (EW:APT)
is no exception. Personally, I like to get the bad news out in the open
first, so lets take a look a the one glaring problem facing this title.
Since this is a direct port from an arcade game, lack of depth and
overall length is the big negative issue.
Since
most quarter-munchers are designed with a high difficulty to keep the
inflow of cash coming and short bursts of gaming between checkpoints to
give the player a sense of accomplishment, EW: APT
really lacks in the shelf-life department. With five different levels
of difficulty selectable, gamers can tone down the frustration factor of
racing a too short clock, but only having four stages of competition
can allow gamers to complete the entire arcade section is about an hour.
Another
issue is the rather meager selection of trucks and trailers available.
Players can choose between just four different tractors and eventually
seven different trailers for the complete game. There is no
customization available and the only upgrades are those won in the three
bonus areas between the driving stages. Moreover, you only have one
competitor throughout the entire race to match wits against and the
computer AI is rather suspect. If he gets a good lead on your truck, for
some strange reason you’ll find him chugging along letting you have a
final chance of beating him to the finish line. However, if the contest
is a close one, or you are in the lead, quickly will the afterburners
come on and you’ll soon be munching on a mouthful of dust.
Controlling
your simulated big rig is incredibly simpler than that of real life,
and this is coming from a guy who drives them for a living. Sega has
allowed the player to completely customize their preferred layout so you
get to pick which button does what on the DualShock 2. Personally, this
has always my preferred method of gaming and I literally do flip-flops
of joy whenever the option is available. My only complaint is that the
right analog stick cannot be used for acceleration or braking, something
that I’ve conformed to ever since picking up my first copy of Gran Turismo
back in 1998. Nevertheless, when you hit a button to do something, it
happens instantaneously with no delay at all, which makes for a very
enjoyable gaming experience. Even though I’ve had limited experience
with the Sega arcade titles, I do believe that Eighteen Wheeler is running on the same game engine of that of Crazy Taxi,
which received numerous amounts of praise from both gamers and the
media alike. If this is the case, I can easily understand why the game
is such a joy to control.
Visually, EW:APT
is an exact duplicate of the arcade version. In all honesty, this is a
good thing, as the graphics definitely are not weak by any definition of
the word. Environments are bustling with background action and there is
a plethora of interaction between the sidewalks. Traffic is always
coming and going on both sides of the roadways and it varies from other
big trucks to tiny subcompacts. The environments are also just as
fitting for whatever part of the country you are supposed to be driving
through. There is no clipping, slowdown or even the tiniest bit of
draw-in evident and the framerate maintains a constant flow no matter
how many other vehicles are on the screen at the same time.
Along with the direct port of the arcade version, Eighteen Wheeler
has two additional modes; Parking and Score Attack. Both modes have
four individual levels to complete in where the regular assortment of
tractors and trailers are available to be chosen. In the Parking mode,
players are forced to manipulate their rigs along predetermined paths
that range in various levels of difficulty. Each level has five
different parking situations that the player must master before the
expiring timer, well…err…um, expires. Penalties are accessed, in the
form of time reductions, for hitting stationary objects, so it pays to
keep control of your rig at all times.
The
Score Attack mode has drivers looking to rack up as many points as
possible while completing three circuits on one of the four available
tracks. Players receive bonus points for wrecking specific vans and get
penalty points for hitting other vehicles or smacking your trailer into
barriers or walls, all the while racing the same driver you have
competed against through the entire game. These two modes help to expand
the rather limited shelf-life of the game, but neither do much more
than adding a few hours of play at the most.
The sound options for Eighteen Wheeler
are rather average. There is no surround sound support and gamers are
limited to the regular mono or stereo options. Nevertheless, your world
is filled with background noises aplenty, including some rather
interesting CB conversation from your racing competition. Personally, I
would have preferred more depth in this area, but the existing options
are more than adequate for this title.
Unfortunately, the extras for Eighteen Wheeler: APT
are exceptionally scarce. One might think that a title of this nature
would require an online option, however, it was released before Sony had
their online act together. Hence, gamers are forced to stay home and
invite their friends over to take on the two-player versus mode instead.
In this option, two players go head-to-head in the Score Attack mode.
Players have, once again, a rather restrictive selection of trucks and
trailers, four and seven respectively, to use in the competition.
Furthermore, you have the exact same four tracks that were used in the
one-player Score Attack to compete on. Although this mode is a a nice
treat, it really is like handing a candy bar to a starving man; it takes
the edge off the hunger but it doesn’t do much for nourishment.
There
are some unlockable trucks and trailers available for completing the
extra modes, but the one truck and two trailers really does little to
expand your horizons.
Besides
this, the only additional feature for the game is the ability to
utilize the Logitech Driving Force steering wheel in place of your
DualShock 2 controller. While this might not usually be a big deal, the
Driving Force wheel is only surpassed in excellence by the official GT4
wheel, also developed by Logitech. Unlike the steering wheels made by
other companies, the DF actually does what you want and helps to expand
the gaming experience. Kudos to Sega for including this option.
Eighteen Wheeler: APT
gives players as many ups and downs as an amusement park roller coaster.
The gameplay and the control both are topnotch gaming while the depth
and overall length of the title are extremely lacking. Although this is
perfectly okay for an arcade machine, having something of this nature on
a home system is just unacceptable. Here, quantity must at least equal
quality and unfortunately the fuel tank is less than half full. EW: APT
is completely fine as a rental, or as a back-up, back-up choice from
the bargain bin when you just can’t find something else that tickles
your fancy. It just doesn’t have the power to pull itself through the
gaming gorge. This one ends up in the breakdown lane, waiting on the
wrecker to arrive.
Difficulty: 5
Control: 8
Audio: 5
Visuals: 7
Replayability: 3
Overall: 5.2
