The King of Route 66

Road trips.  They're fun to watch in movies, and they're fun to think about...but are they ever really that great?  The rides are long, bathrooms are scarce, and the most common food comes from the Golden Arches.  If that's a vacation, I think I'd rather stay home.

...And go on a journey with The King of Route 66, the sequel to 18 Wheeler Pro Trucker.  I've never wanted to be truck driver, but Sega has made it so much fun that it really doesn't feel like a truck-driving game.  The main goal is as simple as the main goal in Crazy Taxi: pick up a load (anything from dinosaur bones to a giant gas tank) and safely deliver it to its destination.  That's cool, but the game's real fun comes from all of the obstacles that try to prevent you from making your delivery on time.

As Sega promised during a recent conference call, The King of Route 66 is a much bigger and much longer game than its predecessor.  Aside from having a few new game modes, The King of Route 66 has a much greater amount of diverse locations.  There are several branching points, where the player has the option to choose either an easy or hard difficulty level, carrier a lighter or heavier load, and travel to a different location!  This essentially creates two different arcade modes, both with different stages and different shipments to deliver.

While still linear, the new stages are excellent.  They were designed with more freedom and more realism than before, allowing the player to choose which shortcuts to take and which paths to avoid.  Arrows help to guide you in the right direction, but all existing areas in the game can be explored.  Normally, when an arrow barrier appears in a game, it's just that.  But in The King of Route 66, you can drive right through it and continue down that path.  Sometimes it leads to a shortcut, other times you'll end up in the middle of nowhere.  It's great having the ability to make a choice and figure things out on your own, as opposed to some of the more restrictive driving games out there.

18 Wheeler Pro Trucker had the unique element of rival truck drivers.  Not only did this increase the game's difficulty, but it also made it more fun.  The King of Route 66 takes that concept a little bit further by adding more rivals this time around, all of which have a reason for wanting to defeat you so badly: they're evil.  Mr. Crown is the head of the rival gang called Tornado.  Crown wants to make every inch of Route 66 his, and he'll stop at nothing to do achieve his goal.  In racing him, making safe deliveries and doing as the town folks ask, you'll defeat the Tornado Corporation and put them out of business for good.

No Sega arcade game would be complete with new game modes.  An arcade mode is expected, though I did not expect it to be nearly as involving it as it is.  In addition, there's a new career mode called The Queen of Route 66.  The title comes from the goal: you must earn the love of eight different hotties while traveling from state to state.  As any man will tell you, it's not easy earning the love of a woman.  These queens go a bit easier on you though; complete the objectives (such as collecting lost jewels before the time runs out) that they have laid out for you and their love is yours.

The Queen of Route 66 mode is fun, and so is Rival Chase (which is a more race-oriented version of the game).  But they really could have removed the challenge mode and replaced it with something else (maybe an additional stage).  All the challenge mode is, is a collection of eight boring, repetitive mini-games that pale in comparison to the exciting mini-games from Crazy Taxi.  The mini-games include: hitting cars like golf bolls; car destruction; and even more car destruction.  There are other types as well, but they're all very similar, and fail to add anything to the overall experience of the game.

That one complaint aside, The King of Route 66 delivered the kind of gaming experience I was looking for.

Gameplay: 8
Superior controls, superior courses, superior gameplay, superior graphics, etc, etc.!  Every aspect of 18 Wheeler Pro Trucker has been improved in this game.  If you take one virtual road trip this year, take it now with The King of Route 66.

Graphics: 8 
From the third-person view, The King of Route 66 looks great, but no more impressive than other top PS2 games.  From the inside-the-car view, however, the game becomes even more impressive.  The raindrop effects are exceptional, and camera is positioned in such a way that it really makes you feel like you're driving a vehicle.

Sound: 7.8
The King of Route 66's sound surprised me.  Both the music and the voice-acting is good, meaning that you won't have to use the mute button while playing for many hours at a time

Difficulty: Medium
The King of Route 66 is a challenging game, but it won't take long for most gamers to get the hang of it.

Concept: 7 
Sega has taken what they learned during the development of 18 Wheeler and expanded on it with a sequel that no Crazy Taxi fan should miss.

Multiplayer: 7
Racing The King of Route 66's linear courses with a friend just isn't as fun as the single-player experience.  It's good, but would be better with four-player split-screen action and several non-linear stages.

Overall: 7.5
18 Wheeler was good, but The King of Route 66 is great.  It's vastly improved over the original, with a huge increase in gameplay quality.  It's hard to pinpoint this game's length (Noah Musler estimates 20 hours long), but there is so much to do that you'll definitely be kept busy for a while, even if you've mastered 18 Wheeler.