18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker

"I expected a lot more..."

When I first saw this game in some magazine, I thought to myself, ''Hey, that looks like a fun game, I should rent it some time!''...So I did, and what I got, I wasn't particularly impressed with, the game is very VERY short, almost embarrassingly short, just to let you know, I beat this game in an hour.

Graphics: 8/10
The graphics were quite solid for this game, they harnessed the power of the Gamecube quite well. The cars, trucks, and the helicopters that you occasionally see look quite real. The lighting effects are great, especially when you are driving in the direction of the sun, and there is a glare greeting your eyes, that looks so realistic! I didn't have a problem at all with the graphics of this game.

Sound: 6/10
I wasn't particularly impressed with the music/soundtrack in this game, it kind of annoyed me to some extent, the truck's sounds are realistic though, so are the cars and pretty much anything else, the thing that brought this category down was the soundtrack, I expected a lot better, considering the only thing truck drivers do for entertainment is listen to the radio!

Gameplay: 5/10
Ok, this is kinda low, there are some good points, and some bad points, but personally, the good points are outnumbered by the bad.

The main game is pretty much ''You are a truck driver, and there is your rival, get to the ending point before your rival to advance to the next level.'' Simple, no? Not to mention easy, the AI in this game was OK, but they could've made it a tad bit harder.

And the length of this game is embarrassingly short, there are only what, FOUR races?!?!?! Jeez. Like I said earlier, I beat this game in around an hour.

But the mini-games save this category from extinction, they are fun, like parking in a desired area before a time limit runs out, but they just aren't enough to actually totally save the category.

Controls: 7/10
The controls for this truck driving game were par level, some bad points, some good points, overall, they were evened out nicely.

Story: 0/10
There isn't a story at all, unless I missed something, which I doubt, this 0 isn't necessarily bad, it's just simple, there is no story.

Rent or Buy
Rent, if you really want to try this out, and if you find it for $5 at the flea market, it might not be a bad idea to try it out, but don't plan on buying it for $50, as it's probably only worth $15.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 07/07/02, Updated 02/08/03