Excitebike ReviewExcitebike was one of the first games to come out for the NES along with the console itself. Back then, the game industry was beginning to bloom, and ideas that were needed to make games were fresh. It was only natural for them to bide time with a couple of sport games. Normally sport games bore and annoy me (unless it's like Mario Kart, of course). I would rather see games such as Kid Icarus in the store as they offer scenarios that would never happen in real life. But I suppose that some people hate what I like, so I should be respectful to their likings. I'll play this....excitebike and see how it fairs. Normally I would just play the sport in real life, but this is the sort of thing I might not get a chance to do, so put on your helmet, grab your bike, and get ready as we dive (or should I say DRIVE?) right into Excitebike.
Well, it looks like there are three modes, Section A, Section B, and.......what? Design? Really? This is real? You can design your own track? That is awesome for an NES game! I can't think of any other game that can do this. I would love to do that right now, but I should play Section A first to get the hang of the game play. Section A is were you play on your own and race through the track before the time spent on the track exceeds the qualifying time. If you exceed it, you get a game over and you must start again. You go through two laps before you finish. You get to choose from five track to play, but they are levels, and you get to choose what track to start off with, much like Tetris. You accelerate with the A button, but you use the Turbo with the B, which makes you go faster. Don't use it too much or all at once, though, as it'll over heat and you'll have to wait for it to cool down, which is a real time waster. Although if your lucky, you'll find some arrows on the track which, if you drive over them, your Turbo meter is fully green again. That's nice. There are ramps and dirt patches and grass in your way. The dirt patches and grass slow you down. The ramps can be maneuvered so they don't waste time when you land. You can press left or right to rotate in the air. The best way to do this is when you leap off a ramp and you go forward just enough so your at a slight angel on your front wheel when you land. Don't over shoot the angel, though. If you do, you'll crash, and have to press A and B rapidly to recover and get back to your bike.
Now, I have to admit, this is pretty fun. I wonder if the other sports games are like this? I'll think about that later. It is quiet addicting playing the track to beat the time, and more so with finding the right way to deal with certain ramps. It's hard at first, but once you get used to it, you'll find it fun to play. After track five, it loops. Now onto Section B. Section B is pretty much the same as Section A, only with other bikers! On yeah, this is what I'm talking about. Although the logic in this is a little profound. You start off with four bikers, but when you in first place (I assume that as there isn't that thing that tells you the position of were your at in a racing game), there is always someone in front of you, and I mean always. But it doesn't matter weather you come.....where ever position your at (I have no idea!), it's what time you finish. So it's exactly like Section A, only made harder with other bikers. Think of it as a hard mode. Why is it harder? Well, this is were the real fun comes in. You Can crash if you drive and hit the rear wheel of someones bike. But they can crash if they hit the rear wheel of your bike. This can be very annoying, but extremely satisfying at the same time. Brings back memories of thrashing that Toad off Mario Kart 64......*day dreams* ahhhhh.......
Oh yes, the review.....At times I like to on purposely slow down in front of someone to make then crash. Oh hello fellow biker, what say we-KA-BOOM! hey, you want to go out and play some-CH-CH-BOW! Oh hi there.......KLING! Ok, I probably should see a mechanical if my bike made noises like that, or someone off Star Wars, I don't know, but it's worth playing the game in Section B when you finished Section A. Now onto the design part of the game. Back then, this was almost a one of a kind feature that no-one had put in a game before. It was the start of many sand box games and custom games to come. As far as I can see, you ca play this track in both sections, it can only be made up to a certain length, and you can only keep one. The design part is really pretty simple. You move around the track to place obstacle. They label the obstacles A-S, but you only know what it is when you place it there. It would have been nice to have a preview of the obstacle, but you can just replace it with another obstacle, which is not a bad feature. After that, you can test your track. It doesn't matter how close or far you make the first obstacle, as it'll always take the same length to get there. Don't forget to add the end in.
Overall, I give this game a 8.8/10 my first thoughts of this game would be dull and rather boring to play after about a couple of minutes, but I was wrong, and am pretty glad of it. Next time, I won't turn down an ordinary sports game if I am offered to play it. The music is classical, but there is very little of it, it would have been nice if there was some music during when you played the game. The graphics are neat, the bikers look good and the audience cheering in the background is a nice touch when you cross the finish line. This game is a must play if your into NES games, and even if you don't like sports game, this is worth a try.
Graphics
8 Sound
6 Addictive
7 Depth
4 Story
2 Difficulty
7
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