Carefully measured tilting is also required for executing decent jumps - the gradient of the remote affects how much air you get as your truck takes off, while successfully moving the controller to ensure all four wheels hit the ground at once rewards you with a landing boost.
The truck reacts instantaneously to how the remote is being moved around, so making adjustments to ensure a satisfactory landing is pretty straightforward - simply check the vehicle's position and tilt the controller accordingly.
Besides tilt-tacular movements, the Wii controller's 1 and 2 buttons handle brake and accelerate respectively, while a velocity increasing boost can be engaged by using the D-pad (use it too much, though, and your truck will overheat).
Above: The weight of Excite Truck's vehicles isn't conveyed particularly well - they feel decidedly light and floaty
In addition to beating opponents (either AI drivers or against just one friend - disappointingly, there's no WiFi option) in the fastest time possible, players can earn stars, which can be bagged by smashing into other vehicles, drifting, getting air and so on, for extra kudos.
While we enjoyed our latest encounter with Excite Truck, we can't ignore the fact that beyond the tilty controls what we've seen of it so far leaves us with the impression that - in terms of gameplay - it will be a fairly so-so arcade racer.
Yes, it's immediately fast, pretty looking and fun, but whether it will have enough in the tank to really clock up some serious mileage on the excite-o-meter, well, let's just say we're not expecting it to kick up much of a storm...
