Pro Trucker has an arcade mode, "parking" and "score attack" sideline games, and a versus mode. There are four truck options with differing speed, torque, and toughness, yet the only real specialization occurs when you can choose your trailer (everything from logs to gasoline). In the arcade mode, you are given four cross-country trips with bonus games being earned by beating your rival trucker. Each trip has checkpoints that you have to make in the allotted time, or you are forced to concede defeat and start over. The difficulty setting in the arcade mode can be set on very easy, easy, normal, hard, and very hard. The Parking mode tests your ability to park your truck in five places in a given time and Score Attack is a three-lap run to get both points (from hitting special bonus cars) and money (by finishing in a short amount of time).

The graphics on this game look like PS1 graphics. No, really. Granted, I may be getting spoiled, but after looking at tasty games like GT3, I have much higher standards for what I expect even in a simple racing game. The landscapes lack detail and tend to blend into one another. I know what the technology can do for vast cityscapes and this game doesn’t even attempt to put that kind of time into the environment. With all of America to choose from, there should have at least been something to sink our teeth into. Perhaps the designers felt like we wouldn’t really notice, as we blazed down the freeways, but trust me, we do.

The control of each of the trucks is varied slightly, with lighter trucks being faster and having more load shift and heavier trucks taking longer to come up to speed but being very solid on the road. The type of load also tends to make a difference in your acceleration and up-hill pulling, although I didn’t really notice any other effect in arcade and versus mode. When parking, load type and size is an issue, and the rearview mirror is helpful in negotiating the challenges. The difficulty settings in the arcade mode do make a difference, but with as unenthusiastic as I am for the game, the added challenge isn’t enough to really give this game any longevity.

The quips from rival truckers and the announcer are the most annoying thing in the game. There is almost no variation in responses, and I found that instead of wanting to beat the rival trucker, I wanted to try and run them off the road. However, the game didn’t really give me that option. You can definitely steer someone off the road, but it isn’t a permanent solution. On the other hand, the game doesn’t really let you get too far off-track yourself, so I guess this is only fair. The music is actually the most interesting part of the sound overall, inspiring you to start using trucker slang, lay on your horn, and start dreaming about rubber-ducky in "Convoy," but you get woken up much too soon by the inane chatter of the announcer or your rival.

Some of the updates of arcade favorites have included the old-style gaming along with some new surprises, and these are the best mixes of arcade and console…of classic and the brand-spanking new. When the stakes are the price of a new game, we expect a little more than a trip down memory lane for our dollar. If we want just a simple racing game, we still expect high level graphics and at least the option of more complex gaming through specialization, environments, or plot (gasp, she wants a real plot!). Eighteen Wheeler gives us the nostalgia, but just doesn’t deliver the type of console gameplay that the savvy arcader has come to expect. If you want the thrill of American Pro Trucker, save your quarters and take yourself to the arcade.