Formerly known as Let's Hitchhike!!!!!!!!!—yes, with nine exclamation points—the re-christened Full Blast Hitchhike is probably the weirdest WiiWare game I've ever played.
It also doesn't seem to have all that much to do with hitchhiking. Sure there's a thumb cursor and some vehicles you're trying to "flag down" via all manner of Wii-mote flailing you can imagine. But where's the grungy charm, the moral ambiguity? And where is the vague threat of being stabbed?
What Is It?
Full Blast Hitchhike is a board game where players advance their pieces on the game board by playing a little mini game every space where you use the Wiimote to flag down vehicles. Each vehicle has a star rating and requires a unique motion control sequence to successfully flag it. How well you do is ranked on a percentage scale. The higher the percentage, the more stars out of the total rating a player will be awarded. Each star counts as one space forward on the game board and there are chance cards that come up at the end of every turn which could send you forward or back.
What We Saw
I spent 15 minutes with it trying to flag down a four star police car, but I kept getting the two star rickshaws.
How Far Along Is It?
The game isn't out in Japan quite yet and there's no official US release information available – which is why the build I played didn't have a scrap of English in it.
What Should Change?
???: The game is so weird and so short, I'm actually hesitant to suggest any changes. It's held together by the fact that it's weird and wacky. The gameplay might be too simplistic for some and the blockhead character art style may not jibe with everyone, but any one tweak to any one element of the game might make the whole thing into a game it's not trying to be.
Kind of Limited: Maybe the chance cards shake gameplay up a bit more if you play for a longer period of time, but from what I saw, the game is just flagging cars by Wii-mote flailing. And pretty much nothing else.
What Should Stay The Same?
It's Fun: I enjoyed all 15 minutes I spent playing.
It's Cute: As WiiWare games ought to be.
It'll Probably Be Really Fun To Play When Drunk: And a whole lot safer than hitchhiking in real life, even when sober.
Final Thoughts
Really, the only thing that could wreck Full Blast Hitchhike for me is if the price is too steep. Limited gameplay is only a flaw if you feel like you paid for more, right?