Zucas said:
I think what he was saying is that Excite Trucks was a failure to capitalize rather than just a failure. I mean it wasn't a niche game as he described it but it came off that way. Although I disagree launch games of a successful console are not guaranteed to be a success (there were close to 30 that launched with Wii so give it a break).

Excite Trucks was also aNintendo published title that had a lot of potential. We only call it a success becuase it broke a million sales. Like Malstrom says: It was a Nintendo branded game that was a launch game on the fastest selling game console every made. By default, it should have been successful.

But I would agree that it was a failure to capitalize on a potential mainstream success. I mean aside from Mario Kart, racing games have not been that popular on Wii... for good reason. Excite Truck was not that great of a game. It was more of a game Ninty put out to have something else on the market. Personally I think it would have been a better idea to delay till early next year, give it some marketing, and you could have potentially revived the series from Excitebike and had you a popular brand. Ninty screwed up with that. So when a really excellent game like Excitebots releases, it has nothing to back it up and only the few go and grab it.

Well, first, what is this good reason. Mario Kart Wii has shown racing games may be better on the Wii. Additionally, the games was complete as it was (the fact a lot of people like it is one). The formular was just not in the right place. I think Malstrom explains it well. Yes, advertising might be a problem, but I don't think that was the sole reason.

So why did it fail?

1) Looked like a redneck fantasy come true. The name was cheesy as was the concept. I love ‘big damn trucks’ but many people don’t. They would rather have ‘race cars’ or something.

2) The music SUCKED. Games, no matter how good they are, often end up sucking due to bad music. And often, games that suck are considered good if their music is good.

3) It wasn’t a racing game. It was more of a do tricks and get stars type of game. Have you noticed the lack of race car games for the Wii? Excite Truck is set up like a racing game, but it isn’t really about racing.

4) Local multiplayer sucked. Local multiplayer is a BIG DEAL on the Wii. All you got was 1 on 1 racing and not even any AI trucks to play with.

5) Excite Truck had a tutorial straight from hell. Tutorials that are straight from hell are those that prevent you from playing unless you play the stupid and boring tutorial. I had a friend who bought the game at launch and, after playing Wii Sports, popped in Excite Truck to play with his friend. Yet, he had to play through the stupid tutorial in single player just to play with his friend. When I borrowed the game from him, I never unlocked multiplayer because I could not perform that last stupid triple spin thing in the tutorial.