I really need to stop asking myself that question.
Collision Course is not only inferior to Excite Truck in every way; this game is easily trumped by the average N64 effort. Unresponsive controls, boring tracks, horrendous graphics and a presentation to match - it's got all the bases covered.
The game uses the usual control scheme adopted by most Wii racers. Holding the Wii remote on its side, you tilt it like a steering wheel while using 1 and 2 to control acceleration and break. It works, but the vehicles turn like freight trains -- sharp turns are impossible. Luckily you can't go off the track, so you can just grind along the invisible walls and usually make the turns just fine. I guess the term, "collision course" is ironically appropriate. You can also boost by pressing up on the D-pad. Since the physics are so wonky, boosting usually causes the back of your truck to bounce up and the front to hit the ground. A lot of times you'll end up flying out of control. You can't really even crash, but you can get caught up on a wall, bounce all over and end up facing the wrong direction.
For a game with "collision" in the title, the actual collision detection is terrible. If you touch other vehicles they will jitter and jump around; you might even go through them a little bit. You can't try to push them over to the side or run them off the road because the collision system doesn't seem to know what to do when two moving objects come in contact. The same thing happens when you touch a wall or any other solid object.
The tracks are all extremely boring, both in terms of design and gameplay. They might look different, but all of the courses run exactly the same - there is no difference between mud, dirt, snow, or ice. There are very few straight-aways and nothing to give you any sort of challenge. It's all middle of the road, casually winding paths. Every once in a while there will be random ramps set up, and some stuff to run over, but it has almost no real effect on the race. Winning comes down to collecting a couple boost power-ups to skip by your opponents at the last second.
The graphics are just plain embarrassing. The game is a PS2 port, but even for a last generation title the graphics are bad. Very bad. Truck models are blocky and the textures are blurry. When you apply the brakes, instead of actually lighting up, a semi-transparent red square appears over the tale lights. It's laughable. The environments fair no better. The track is totally flat, and it's usually surrounded closely by hills or trees (all the less to model). In one forest stage, the track is bordered by a flat wall, textured to look like trees. The few other background elements that are scattered in some areas are all very low polygon, and many of them are just flat cutouts. You can often clearly see black seams where polygons connect in the sky. It's no exaggeration to say that Excitebike on N64 is more visually appealing than this game.
The menu backgrounds are made up of still images of parked monster trucks that look like they were taken using a low quality digital camera. In the photo used for the backdrop of the main menu, it shows Bigfoot parked in front of a building - you can clearly see the reflection of the guy standing there taking the picture. Very professional.
Verdict
There's absolutely no reason anyone should buy this game when there is a FAR better alternative available on Wii in Excite Truck. You can probably find it for under $20 by now. It has better graphics, better sound, better controls, and better gameplay than Bigfoot: Collision Course. Software of this quality is unacceptable and has no place on a current generation console. You're definitely going to want to pass this one by.
