18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker

• Release Date: 2000
• Genre: Racing
• Style: Mission-Based Racing
• Similar Games: Crazy Taxi (Arcade), Crazy Taxi (Dreamcast)

Game Description

18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker puts you behind the wheel of a semi-truck with a couple tons of payload behind you. Your job is to get that shipment across country, driving thousands of miles through America's heartland. The only problem? You only have about two minutes to do so. To that end, each of the stages aren't realistic in their scale, as you'll find yourself crossing entire states and region in a number of seconds. You'll see a street sign for Washington DC, and then thirty seconds later you're in Florida. The weather outside also changes drastically. The game's four stages include a trip from New York to Key West, a jaunt from St. Petersburg to Dallas, a run from Dallas to Las Vegas, and the final trip from Las Vegas to L.A. In addition, there are several bonus stages where you can upgrade your horn, muffler and engine depending on how well you can park your truck.

You have a choice of four different truckers, each with different speed, vehicle and engine rankings. They all have their own distinct personalities, and the design and decoration of their trucks mimics their eccentricity. There is a fifth trucker named Lizardtail, but rather than being your pal, this guy's one mean hombre. He'll race you in each stage, hurling insults and doing whatever he can to run you off the road. Beat him and you get bonus money.

Roots & Influences

This game is part of what's known as Sega's "occupation" series, so named because the games put you in the role of a cab driver (in Crazy Taxi) or a truck driver (as in this game).

Review: Overall

Sega has made some offbeat arcade games in the past, but perhaps their most surreal titles have been in their professional drivers line, where gamers have been given the opportunity to tear around the city in a cab, save lives at high speed in an ambulance, and roam the open plains roping exotic animals in an all-terrain jeep. This title, however, seems almost too mundane for the company.

Truck driving, when you think about it, doesn't seem like it would be an exciting thing to translate to a videogame -- until you realize the trucks are giant, high-horsepower vehicles that have the ability to level small buildings. So in that spirit, Sega has given us 18 Wheeler: American Pro-Trucker, complete with giant steering wheel and rumbling bench in tow.

Most titles in the professional drivers series have been entertaining, but some really shine due to their open-ended design and pulse pounding play. So let's get it out right off the bat: 18 Wheeler is no Crazy Taxi. Few games could approach the madcap bliss of Sega's taxi racer, and 18 Wheeler doesn't even try -- to both its credit and misfortune.

18 Wheeler is a non-traditional take on the traditional racer, that being a race on a closed track, where players rush to cross checkpoints in time before eventually reaching the finish line. The idea of a truck barreling down the raceway is fairly exciting, but with Sega, you know that's not all you're going to get.

Trucks belong on the highway, and that's where 18 Wheeler puts them, smack dab into heavy traffic, forcing players to weave in and out of cars and nimbly steer their behemoths in a number of harrowing situations. The truck doesn't run like a sports car, after all, it runs like a giant, heavy machine.

To that end, Sega has succeeded in faithfully reproducing an arcade-like representation of truck driving, with these freaks of transportation barreling down the swarming hordes of cars through a wild variety of environments. From the east coast to all throughout the west, Sega has done a nice job recreating our cute little country in the span of about five or six miles.

As you're storming down the highway, bashing cars out of your way while insults are being hollered at you over the CB, it's a little piece of arcade heaven. And the first time you watch your rival bash through a line of houses to get ahead of you, or you come face to face with a giant tornado on the open plains of Texas, you think "how cool is this?"

It certainly is an interesting experience, and the first few times you play through 18 Wheeler, it seems like something absolutely fantastic. But the problem with games such as this is their lack of depth, which is 18 Wheeler's ultimate flaw. .While arcade games don't require the same depth as console games do, the truly special ones have a little more to keep you going.

18 Wheeler: American Pro-Trucker does have a fairly thorough scoring system that some will take to, but it lacks the gameplay that great arcade titles such as Crazy Taxi possess. That isn't to say it's a bad game: it's beautiful to behold and will give you short term thrills, but it isn't one that you'll find yourself coming back to again and again after you've thrown down a couple of dollars playing it. In the end, it's a fun but short ride.

Review: Enjoyment

While the experience is short, it's also sweet for the first couple of goes, like any good arcade game should be. Unfortunately, it lacks the depth to be considered a true classic.

Review: Graphics

This is one of the best parts of the game, not only how crisp and clear the graphics look, but how detailed the world flashing by is: the street signs, buildings, and weather all coincide to give you a truly amazing arcade experience. Sega did a bang-up job with the visual consistency and overall look of this game.

Review: Sound

The different music for choosing a character was a great idea, and the crunches and thumps as you drive over things are equally memorable, but nothing tops the annoying insults that Lizardtail shouts at you over the course of the game.

Review: Replay Value

You'll want to take {*18 Wheeler} for a couple of spins, but for most of you this won't be a game you'll want to play every time you walk into an {!arcade}.

Review: Documentation

The controls are briefly explained during the attract screens.

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