March 05, 2002 - When Sega and developer AM2 brought 18-Wheeler American Pro Trucker to the arcades a couple years ago, it was an enjoyable novelty -- something that you and your friends could have some good old fun with. The cabinet set up, which actually featured a full diesel steering wheel and horn, not to mention a wide seat for several people to sit in, was comical and entertaining. The play was totally arcade-like -- fast, basically mindless, racing and thrashing through different locales in giant 18-Wheelers, and it also shared another element in common with so many arcade offerings: it was all over in less than an hour.

Now 18-Wheeler comes to GameCube, by way of PS2, which was, incidentally, also by way of a Dreamcast port. It's still fun. It's still features fairly impressive graphics, if a little dated. But the arcade cabinet is gone -- there's no steering wheel, no horn, and no big seat. And it's still all over in under an hour -- a shortcoming more forgivable when it only cost a few quarters to find out.

The Facts

• Race a huge 18-wheeler across the country
• Exciting arcade mode with tons of twisted mini-games
• Split-screen two-player mode with four different raceways
• Five over the top drivers
• "Down Home" audio, from how-down country music to CB prompts and taunts
• Multiple camera angles for maximum action
• Drive and park the trucks
• Smash opponents off the road
• Developed by Sega AM2, ported by Acclaim

Gameplay
The premise is simple. You're an American Pro Trucker, you drive all around the United States and -- quite probably, you fall under one redneck category or another. That's okay -- you don't mind the pair of fuzzy dice that dangle from your mirror and you're ready for some fast-paced, long-load truckin'. The action is equally simplistic: you race your big old truck through several different locales across the US, from a tornado-blasted mid-west to Las Vegas and San Francisco. It's a race against the clock -- your typical arcade nemesis -- but there is also a competing trucker who wants nothing more than to run you off the road and smash you against everything in sight. There are, in addition, troublesome vehicles and objects to watch out for, and the occasional odd twist in a road or timesaving shortcut -- all of which play into the strategy of the game.

Control couldn't be fitter for the arcades. The GameCube's R button accelerates, L breaks, X changes view, Y beeps the horn, B reverses (used primarily for the parking stages, which we'll get to) and the analog stick or D-Pad steer. The A button, meanwhile, is used to shift gears -- tap once to go into low, another for high, and then again to switch back. It couldn't be any easier or more intuitive -- and because of that many will quickly be able to pick up and play, which is of course a Sega trademark.

So the action unfolds and it's fun, and it's entertaining, it's enjoyable. You start out easy -- a quick race against the clock through a fairly deserted, no-nonsense section of this great country. Sure, there are some boxes, some scattered cars, but for the most part it's cake. The second level features a tornado that hurls buses at you while you race -- it's a little more difficult. The third takes you through the desert, over some canyons and, if you take the short cut, through a twisting mini-tunnel of rock -- this is the key to beating the timer, as far as we're concerned. The fourth level goes through Vegas, and the fifth through San Francisco. And then it's just about time to call it quits.

Don't get us wrong, either. It's all fun while it lasts. And Sega has attempted to extend replay value by including a Parking Mode in which you must carefully maneuver your big rig around a tight sequence of city and park it before time runs out. This addition, too, is fairly enjoyable before it's all over. But all of the modes lack depth and this quickly becomes visible. This is, in fact, our biggest problem with the game -- there's just not enough of it.

Graphics and Technology
18-Wheeler looks like an arcade game. It moves quickly, there is a lot going on, and its colorful, if not exaggerated style of visuals is sure to grab the attention of the passerby. Sega has done an admirable job of re-creating the insides of a big old truck, from the dashboard view lets you see the bull horns on the tip of the vehicle to the way you can look to the left and right to see dangling paraphernalia and other goodies. There is even some fluid internal animation involved here which impresses. Backgrounds sport acceptable textures -- always a different look for each location, there are some faked lighting effects, lots of cars on-screen at once, and the particles and animations for collisions are very satisfying graphically.

	18-Wheeler on Nintendo GameCube

In this particular case, though, it also happens to be a two-year-old arcade game that came to Sega's Dreamcast console almost a full year ago. It's got a little dust on it, in other words, and this too shows. The environments aren't constructed using a terribly high amount of polygons, nor are the vehicles, and because of this everything has a decidedly blocky look to it, one that lacks detail. And the textures, while decent, look like they came off an early Dreamcast work, not something on a next-generation system. Beyond everything else, though, there is some serious dithering and fade-in / pop-up in effect, which is downright annoying given that there's really no reason for any of that.

Sound
You really have to admire Sega for including a selection of music for 18-Wheeler that would make the mullet-boasting world salivate. The music is comically enjoyable and well fit to the rest of the game. On the other hand, it's very sampled, and of poor quality. It's usually drowned out by the sound effects, too, which range from truck engines, terrible voice-overs from competing truckers, horns and the like. In the end, it's a decidedly packed, but bland audio experience.