It may not be a direct sequel to the Wii launch title, at least according to an older rumor about Monster Games' development plans, via good ol' Surfer Girl. Locally Grown writes that the development on the game is "so private the designers must darken their monitors when the bottled-water deliveryman enters the office." Certainly not for Excite Truck 2!

According to the article, Monster Games has been hard at work on the unnamed title for two years, as of last month when the article was published. Perhaps Nintendo will have some surprises for us early next year.

Northfield video game designer immune to economic woes [Locally Grown via NeoGAF]

Virginia high school student Andrew sends us what could be best described as a Nintendo marketer's wet dream. He writes:

Last Friday, for my gym class's Physical Fitness Final Exam, my teacher brought in 3 Wiis and an Xbox, all hooked up to LCD projectors projected on the walls of the gym. For 2 hours we had tournaments on 2 of the Wiis in Wii Sports, Wii Play, Excite Truck, and Wario Ware while others played Twilight Princess on another and DDR on the xbox. We were also given the option of playing basketball but all 20 people in my class were more interested in Wii.

Best part? Sticker says it's "New." Brian Ashcraft

Exciting, No? [VGB]

The Godfather, Guitar Hero II, Motorstorm, Excite Truck, SSX Blur, Def Jam Icon, we played it all. In fact, last night, one of the Geek Night attendees even busted out a WonderSwan after a round of intense voting on the Everybody Votes Channel. Yeah, we partied that hard.

So, tonight, after work is done, the dishes are washed, Grindhouse has been viewed, and we've imbibed into a near coma as is our wont, we'll probably just snuggle up with some Dragon Quest Heroes Rocket Slime and dream of tank battles. What about you? What are you playing this weekend? Michael McWhertor

Details on the parts used to build the "green" Wii case, as well as the hows and whys are at TG, but Tom's Hardware Guide has delicious video.

They say they're carting their creation around the greater Los Angeles area. We'll just see if I can get some hands on time down at the park with this lovely device.

Thanks for the heads up, Rob. Michael McWhertor

Inside the Solar Powered Wii [TwitchGuru]

I swear I'm going to buy a tripod one of these days, until then suffer through my latest gameplay video. Sorry. Brian Crecente

The controls are interesting. You hold the controller sideways, with the D-pad to the left, and turn the remote side to side as if steering a car. While in the air you can also use the controller to change the pitch of your airborne vehicle to make for longer or shorter jumps and softer landings. The one and two buttons are the gas and brake and the pushing anywhere on the D-Pad gives you turbo.

The game is fairly straight forward. You tear around sloppy courses turboing to just shy of exploding your engine. The game awards points for doing tricks, long jumps, smashing other cars, driving between trees and other things. At the end of the race you also get points for your placing. The total is used to determine your rank. To unlock the next cup you need to get a B or better in every race in a cup.

There are also little power-ups and such littered through-out the course, but instead of them boosting your truck, they typically warp the terrain, which is pretty neat.

The game's play is fun, albeit a bit sloppy. There were times I felt I really wasn't able to get a sharp enough turn or flatten out enough for a landing and it was slightly frustrating, but overall the game isn't about precision as much as it is about wide, sloppy drifts, powering up hill and trying not to hit trees.

The only multiplayer supported in the game is a split-screen two-player mode that has nearly all of the bells and whistles of the single player.

Oddly, the game has its own achievements which can be unlocked through play, but it's hard to tell at this point if that is something that shows up anywhere besides in your copy of the game. The game also lets you play music off an SD card.

I'd say Excite Truck is likely worth a try, though it seems a bit light in substance, especially in the multiplayer arena. Brian Crecente

The kiosk hounds of NeoGAF snapped a handful of photos of the up and running Gamestop Wii display units, only to uncover a heretofore unknown (possible) option for Monster Games racer Excite Truck.

Appearing on the sound options menu, the SD Card option, seemingly inactive here, leads us to believe that the potential for reading MP3's from the memory card will at least be an option in one game.

Nintendo has made mention of MP3 playback previously, indicating that custom soundtracks would be available during Wii Photo Channel slideshows. This makes the muddin' hayseed within want to fire up some Mountain or Skynyrd... hell, any southern rock will do... and pick up Excite Truck at launch. Curse you and your attractive feature set, Excite Truck! Michael McWhertor

Wii Kiosks [NeoGAF]

Sorry there, Evel. According to the official Excite Truck site, leaping your flame-spouting monster truck over a tropical chasm will be limited to two simultaneous daredevils in multiplayer.

As far as I'm concerned, that's all the better. Split-screen multiplayer is trying enough when you're dealing with only one horizontal hemisphere of your television set. Playing in postage stamps has never appealed to me. Florian Eckhardt

Excite Truck [Official Site]

Reggie sure loves his Zelda doesn't he. Too bad the demo was still just about five minutes long. The Excite Truck demo was longer, and I quite enjoyed playing it, I can see myself spending a lot of time with the game. Make sure to watch the whole video for a nice video shot of the new box art for the Wii Games. Brian Crecente

Wondering exactly how to drive your monster truck off a tropical cliff and do a flame-belching 1080 through a counter-gravitationally hovering ring? At the recent Europe Nintendo Event, they flashed this image on screen, detailing how to drive an Excite Truck.

Looks about exactly how we imagined it. We're not quite sure if "Turbo (Any Direction)" means that you can, in fact, invoke turbo to strafe Also, before you start writing posts entitled "EXCITE TRUCK RACIST" on your blogs, please be aware that the 'Blakguy' at the bottom right corner is another site's watermark and not, in fact, a horrific racial slur. Florian Eckhardt

Excite Truck Controls [GoNintendo]

One of the games announced for the Nintendo Wii today was the off-road racer Excite Truck by Monster Games—we're guessing the name is an homage to NES classic Excite Bike and hope it lives up to that game's total awesomeness. Here's how Excite Truck integrates the Wii Remote into game play:

Players hold the Wii Remote like an NES controller to control the truck. The 2 button is the accelerator, the 1 button is the brake, the + Control Pad is the turbo... but that's just the beginning. Tilt the Wii Remote right and left like a steering wheel to steer. Once the truck goes airborne, tilt the Wii Remote every which way to line up perfect landings for turbo boosts.

More Excite Truck graphics after the jump.