18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker

18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker is an arcade game developed by Sega AM2 and distributed by Sega. The game was released in arcades in 2000 and ported to the Dreamcast in 2001. It was released for the PlayStation 2 in 2001 and GameCube in 2002 by Acclaim Entertainment. Sega followed up on the success of 18 Wheeler with a sequel, The King of Route 66, which was released in the arcades in 2002 and ported to the PlayStation 2. This was one of the final arcade video games ports to be on the Dreamcast after its discontinuation before Sega became a third party developer.

18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker
Arcade flyer
Developer(s)Sega AM2[lower-alpha 1]
Publisher(s)Sega[lower-alpha 2]
Composer(s)Keisuke Tsukahara
Tomoya Koga
Platform(s)Arcade, Dreamcast, PlayStation 2, GameCube
ReleaseArcade
  • JP: July 26, 2000
  • NA: November 22, 2000
Dreamcast
  • JP: October 12, 2000
  • NA: May 22, 2001
  • EU: June 1, 2001
PlayStation 2
  • NA: November 13, 2001[1]
  • EU: November 23, 2001
  • JP: December 5, 2002
GameCube
  • NA: February 20, 2002[2]
  • EU: May 31, 2002
  • JP: September 12, 2002
Genre(s)Vehicle simulation, action
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer
Arcade systemSega NAOMI

Gameplay
Players start the game going from New York City, New York to Key West, Florida (shown here) driving a tank truck.

The main purpose of the game is to make it to the finish line with the truck's cargo. Players are given a set amount of time, but can ram into special vans that will add three seconds to the timer. There are several characters to choose from, each with a unique truck and attributes.

The game starts out in New York City, New York and players travel across the United States of America, ending in San Francisco, California. After Stage 1, the game gives the player a choice of trailer. One trailer is harder to haul, but provides a bigger payoff while the other choice is easier to haul but provides a smaller payoff. Money is deducted from the total when the trailer is hit. Players can sound the truck's horn to make other cars on the road yield and slipstream behind large vehicles to gain a momentary speed boost.

In addition to the time limit, players also compete with the "Lizard Tail", a rival trucker. Crossing the finish line before the Lizard Tail yields additional money. In between levels, players can park the truck in a minigame to earn more cash and upgrades for their truck, such as an improved horn.

Ports

The first port of the game was released on the Dreamcast. Released by Sega, it is faithful to its arcade counterpart, but the voice actors for the characters were changed and it lacks the arcade's cross-country map loading screens. One of the selectable truckers in the arcade version, Nippon Maru was now made available as an unlockable character. A split screen multiplayer mode was added, allowing two players to race against each other. The game was released by Acclaim Entertainment (who also released Sega's Ferrari F355 Challenge on the Dreamcast) on the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo GameCube after Sega stopped making consoles and became a software based company.

Reception

In Japan, Game Machine listed 18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker on their March 15, 2000 issue as being the second most-successful dedicated arcade game of the year.[32]

Rob Smolka reviewed the Dreamcast version of the game for Next Generation, rating it three stars out of five, and stated that "18 Wheeler is definitely worth a weekend rental, but its lack of online play and limited number of stages in the arcade game flatten its tires."[27]

The home versions of the game received "mixed or average reviews" according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.[3][4][5]

AllGame gave the arcade version a score of three stars out of five and stated that it "does have a fairly thorough scoring system that some will take to, but it lacks the gameplay that great arcade titles such as Crazy Taxi possess. That isn't to say it's a bad game: it's beautiful to behold and will give you short term thrills, but it isn't one that you'll find yourself coming back to again and again after you've thrown down a couple of dollars playing it. In the end, it's a fun but short ride."[33]

See also

References
  1. Cove, Glen (November 13, 2001). "18 Wheeler Ships". Archived from the original on 25 August 2004.
  2. Cove, Glen (February 20, 2002). "18 Wheeler GameCube Ships". Archived from the original on 17 August 2004.
  3. "18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker for Dreamcast Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 6 December 2014.
  4. "18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker for GameCube Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 6 December 2014.
  5. "18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker for PlayStation 2 Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 6 December 2014.
  6. Thompson, Jon. "18-Wheeler: American Pro Trucker (DC) - Review". AllGame. All Media Network. Archived from the original on 6 December 2014. Retrieved 6 December 2014.
  7. Marriott, Scott Alan. "18-Wheeler: American Pro Trucker (GC) - Review". AllGame. All Media Network. Archived from the original on 6 December 2014. Retrieved 6 December 2014.
  8. Edge staff (December 25, 2000). "18 Wheeler American Pro Trucker (DC)". Edge. No. 92. Future plc.
  9. "18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker (DC)". Electronic Gaming Monthly. Ziff Davis. 2001.
  10. EGM staff (May 2002). "18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker (GC)". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 154. Ziff Davis. p. 112.
  11. "18 Wheeler [American Pro Trucker] (DC)". Game Informer. No. 98. GameStop. June 2001.
  12. Leeper, Justin (April 2002). "18 Wheeler [American Pro Trucker] (GC)". Game Informer. No. 108. GameStop. p. 79. Archived from the original on 25 February 2005. Retrieved 6 December 2014.
  13. "18 Wheeler [American Pro Trucker] (PS2)". Game Informer. No. 104. GameStop. December 2001. p. 95.
  14. Jake The Snake (24 May 2001). "18 Wheeler: American Pro Truckers Review for Dreamcast on GamePro.com". GamePro. IDG Entertainment. Archived from the original on 7 February 2005. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
  15. Pong Sifu (11 March 2002). "18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker Review for GameCube on GamePro.com". GamePro. IDG Entertainment. Archived from the original on 14 February 2005. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
  16. Chris G. (June 2001). "18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker Review (DC)". Game Revolution. CraveOnline. Archived from the original on 12 October 2015. Retrieved 8 February 2018.
  17. Shoemaker, Brad (25 June 2001). "18 Wheeler American Pro Trucker Review (DC)". GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 6 December 2014.
  18. Davis, Ryan (21 February 2002). "18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker Review (GC)". GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 6 December 2014.
  19. Ahmed, Shahed (15 November 2001). "18 Wheeler American Pro Trucker Review (GC)". GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 6 December 2014.
  20. Vash T. Stampede (13 June 2001). "18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker". PlanetDreamcast. IGN Entertainment. Archived from the original on 24 January 2009. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
  21. Suciu, Peter (8 March 2002). "18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker (GCN)". GameSpy. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on 16 February 2005. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
  22. Surette, Tim (4 April 2002). "18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker Review - GameCube [score mislabeled as "4/10"]". GameZone. Archived from the original on 12 March 2009. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
  23. Krause, Kevin (17 December 2001). "18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker Review - PlayStation 2". GameZone. Archived from the original on 29 February 2008. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
  24. Chau, Anthony (31 May 2001). "18-Wheeler American Pro Trucker (DC)". IGN. Ziff Davis. Retrieved 6 December 2014.
  25. Casamassina, Matt (5 March 2002). "18-Wheeler American Pro Trucker Review (GCN)". IGN. Ziff Davis. Retrieved 6 December 2014.
  26. Perry, Douglass C. (14 November 2001). "18-Wheeler: American Pro Trucker (PS2)". IGN. Ziff Davis. Retrieved 6 December 2014.
  27. Smolka, Rob (July 2001). "Finals". Next Generation. Vol. 4 no. 7. Imagine Media. p. 84.
  28. "18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker". Nintendo Power. Vol. 154. March 2002. p. 133.
  29. "18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker". Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine. Ziff Davis. January 2002. p. 125.
  30. Gibbon, David (21 August 2001). "Let's play: 18 Wheeler (PS2)". BBC Sport. Archived from the original on 16 February 2003. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
  31. Porter, Alex (13 March 2001). "18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker (DC)". Maxim. Biglari Holdings. Archived from the original on 26 June 2001. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
  32. "Game Machine's Best Hit Games 25 - 完成品夕イプのTVゲーム機 (Dedicated Videos)". Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 606. Amusement Press, Inc. 15 March 2000. p. 17.
  33. Thompson, Jon. "18-Wheeler: American Pro Trucker (ARC) - Review". AllGame. All Media Network. Archived from the original on 6 December 2014. Retrieved 6 December 2014.
  1. Ported to PlayStation 2 and GameCube by Acclaim Studios Cheltenham.
  2. The PlayStation 2 and GameCube versions were published by Acclaim Entertainment.
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