is a
motocrossMotocross is a form of motorcycle sport or all-terrain vehicle racing held on enclosed off road circuits. Motocross is derived from the French, and traces its origins to British scrambling competitions...
racingA racing video game is a genre of video games, either in the first- or third-person perspective, in which the player partakes in a racing competition with any type of land, air, or sea vehicles. They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to entirely fantastical settings...
video game franchise made by
Nintendois a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel...
. It first debuted as a game for the
FamicomThe Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe and Australia in . In most of Asia, including Japan , China, Vietnam, Singapore, and the Philippines, it was released as the , commonly abbreviated as the...
in Japan in 1984 for a price of 5000 yen. It is the first game of the
Excite series, succeeded by its sequel
Excitebike 64is a video game published by Nintendo and developed by Left Field Productions. It was released in North America on April 30, 2000 for the Nintendo 64 video game console. It is the series' first 3D game. Excitebike 64 is the sequel to the acclaimed Nintendo Entertainment System game Excitebike and...
and the spiritual successors
Excite Truckis a video game published by Nintendo and developed by Monster Games for the Wii video game system. It features malleable environments and tilt-based controls. The game was one of the Wii launch titles in North America. It is a spiritual successor to the Excitebike series...
and
Excitebots: Trick RacingExcitebots: Trick Racing is a racing video game published by Nintendo for the Wii video game console. It was developed by Monster Games, is the fourth game in the Excitebike series and is the sequel to Excite Truck. Excitebots was unveiled in a release list from Nintendo of America on February 26,...
.
Whether the player chooses to race solo or against computer-assisted riders, he/she races against a certain time limit.
is a
motocrossMotocross is a form of motorcycle sport or all-terrain vehicle racing held on enclosed off road circuits. Motocross is derived from the French, and traces its origins to British scrambling competitions...
racingA racing video game is a genre of video games, either in the first- or third-person perspective, in which the player partakes in a racing competition with any type of land, air, or sea vehicles. They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to entirely fantastical settings...
video game franchise made by
Nintendois a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel...
. It first debuted as a game for the
FamicomThe Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe and Australia in . In most of Asia, including Japan , China, Vietnam, Singapore, and the Philippines, it was released as the , commonly abbreviated as the...
in Japan in 1984 for a price of 5000 yen. It is the first game of the
Excite series, succeeded by its sequel
Excitebike 64is a video game published by Nintendo and developed by Left Field Productions. It was released in North America on April 30, 2000 for the Nintendo 64 video game console. It is the series' first 3D game. Excitebike 64 is the sequel to the acclaimed Nintendo Entertainment System game Excitebike and...
and the spiritual successors
Excite Truckis a video game published by Nintendo and developed by Monster Games for the Wii video game system. It features malleable environments and tilt-based controls. The game was one of the Wii launch titles in North America. It is a spiritual successor to the Excitebike series...
and
Excitebots: Trick RacingExcitebots: Trick Racing is a racing video game published by Nintendo for the Wii video game console. It was developed by Monster Games, is the fourth game in the Excitebike series and is the sequel to Excite Truck. Excitebots was unveiled in a release list from Nintendo of America on February 26,...
.
Gameplay
Whether the player chooses to race solo or against computer-assisted riders, he/she races against a certain time limit. The goal is to qualify for the Excitebike (the championship) race by coming in at third place or above in the challenge race (preliminary race). The time to beat is located on the stadium walls (for first place) and in the lower left corner (for third place). In any race, the best time is 8 seconds ahead of third place. When the player places first, then they get a message: "It's a new record!" Additional points are by beating the previously-set record time.
The player controls the position of the red motorcycle with the Y-axis of the directional pad, and controls acceleration with the A and B buttons. Using B causes improved acceleration, but causes the motorcycle's temperature to increase as shown on a bar at the bottom of the screen. If the temperature exceeds safe limits (the bar becomes full), the player will be immobilized for several seconds while the bike cools down. If the bike goes over an arrow, it is automatically cooled down.
While the bike is in the air, the pitch of the motorcycle can be modified with the X-axis of the directional pad, left raises the front, while right lowers the front. The up and down arrows on turn the hand bar left and right, respectively when the bike is on the ground.
The player, at the start of the game, can choose whichever track he/she wants to race in, from 1-5.
Track times
By placing third or better in any challenge race, the player advances to the Excitebike race of the same track number. For example, if the player placed third or better in track 4 of the challenge race, he/she goes to the track 4 of the Excitebike race.
By placing third or better in any Excitebike race, the player advances to the next Excitebike race. For example, if the player placed third or better in track 4 of the Excitebike race, he/she goes to track 5 of the Excitebike race. The Excitebike races are little tougher than the challenge races, and that's why the best times in an Excitebike race are longer than in the challenge race (except in tracks 3 & 5).
Modes
ExciteBike has three modes of gameplay. In Selection A, the player races solo. In Selection B, CPU players join the player. They act as another obstacle; hitting one from the back will cause the player to fall off the bike, while any CPU riders hitting the player's rear wheel will cause them to fall off.
In Design Mode, the player has the ability to build his or her own racing tracks. The player can choose hills and obstacles of various sizes and place them. The player can also choose where to finish the lap, and how many laps there are (up to nine). After it is finished, the player can race the track in either Selection A or Selection B.
The game allowed saving the custom-designed track to
cassette tape, requiring the
Famicom Data RecorderFamicom Data Recorder HVC-008, is a compact cassette data interface for the Family Computer. -History:...
peripheral (basically the Famicom equivalent of the C-64's
DatassetteThe Commodore 1530 Datassette , was Commodore's dedicated computer tape recorder....
). Since this peripheral was only available in Japan (intended for use with Nintendo's Family Basic), track saving was effectively unavailable to American and European players (the game's English manual states that "Save and Load menu selections are not operable in this game; they have been programmed in for potential product developments."). Unlike
Wrecking Crewis a puzzle game for the Nintendo Entertainment System produced by Nintendo.-Gameplay:In Wrecking Crew, the player controls Mario and attempts to destroy all of a certain set of objects with a large hammer on each of 100 levels. Mario can't jump in this game because of the hammer's weight holding...
,
Excitebike was never re-released for the Famicom Disk System in its original form. Courses created using the Virtual Console release can actually be saved to the Wii's internal memory.
Vs. Excitebike
Excitebike was enhanced in two different versions, both titled
Vs. Excitebike.
The first version was released for
arcadesA video arcade is a venue where people play arcade video games that are housed in colourfully-decorated cabinets...
in 1984, some time after the Famicom release. The game was based around the VS. Unisystem unit. It is similar to its NES counterpart, though this version has the Design option gone and in the main game there are three difficulty levels (Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced), and the levels are arranged in a different setup: there are seven tracks that must be played twice, the first time as a challenge race, and the second time as an Excitebike race. Whereas the challenge race has no CPU bikers as obstacles, in the Excitebike race mode they appear. If the player fails to clear the track in 3rd place or more, the game is over.
The second was released for the
Famicom Disk SystemThe was released on February 21, 1986 by Nintendo as a peripheral for the Family Computer console in Japan. It was a unit that used proprietary floppy disks for data storage. It was announced, but never released, for the North American Nintendo Entertainment System...
peripheral in 1988. While the graphics and core gameplay are still the same, there are several differences between this version, and both the original and its arcade namesake:
- The game features a versus mode known as "Vs. Excite", in which two players compete for winning. The options include maximum number for rounds for deciding a winner, the track in which the players will race on, and the number of laps for said track.
- The music is completely different and none of the sound tracks from the original game is present in this version.
- The "Original Excite" mode is based actually on the main mode of the arcade version.
- Its rewritable disk format also allows the player to save created tracks.
Excitebike: Bun Bun Mario Battle Stadium
is a video game for the
SatellaviewThe was a satellite modem add-on for Nintendo's Super Famicom system in Japan released in 1995. It retailed for ¥18,000 .The Satellaview system was developed and released by Nintendo to receive signals broadcast from satellite TV station WOWOW's satellite radio subsidiary, St.GIGA...
(available only in
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
), and a remake of this game. Unlike the original
Excitebike, the human racers have been replaced by
Mariois a fictional character in his eponymous video game series, created by video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. Serving as Nintendo's mascot and the main protagonist of the series, Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his creation...
,
Luigiis a video game character created by Nintendo game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the younger brother of Nintendo's official mascot, Mario. Luigi first appeared in the arcade game Mario Bros., where he was featured as a main character alongside Mario...
,
Princess Peachis a fictional character in Nintendo's Super Mario Bros. series of video games. She is the princess of the fictitious Mushroom Kingdom, and often plays the "damsel in distress" role in the adventure series. She was known as Princess Toadstool outside Japan until late 1996, when the name "Peach" was...
,
Wariois a fictional Nintendo video game character originally designed by Hiroji Kiyotake. Wario was designed as another antagonist to Mario , and first appeared in the 1992 Game Boy title Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins as the main antagonist and final boss...
, Toad,
Yoshiis a fictional dinosaur. His debut was in Super Mario World on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System as Mario's accomplice, and he later established his own series with several platform and puzzle games, including Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island...
, and some of
BowserBowser, also known as King Koopa or Lord Bowser, is a video game character and the primary villain of Nintendo's Mario series...
's Koopa Troopas. The concept of the game was unchanged except for a "SUPER" mode where the player has unlimited turbo, as well as the addition of coins. The coins are spread out on the courses and increase top speed.
Other ports and remakes
The original
Excitebike has appeared on a number of gaming platforms since its debut in 1984.
- A version of the game was released for the Japan-only NEC PC-8801
The NEC PC-8801 was an early Zilog Z80-based computer exclusively released in Japan, where it became very popular, by NEC Corporation in 1981. It was informally called the "PC-88".-Hardware:*CPU: NEC PD780C-1...
by Hudson Softis a electronic entertainment publisher headquartered in Japan. It was founded on May 18 1973. Initially, Hudson dealt with personal computer products, but has expanded to the development and publishing of video games, mobile content, and video game peripherals. As of 2003, the company employs...
in 1985.
- Players can unlock the title on the Nintendo 64
The , often abbreviated as N64, is Nintendo's third home video game console for the international market. Named for its 64-bit CPU, it was released on June 23, 1996 in Japan, September 29, 1996 in North America, March 1, 1997 in Europe and Australia, September 1, 1997 in France and December 10,...
sequel game Excitebike 64is a video game published by Nintendo and developed by Left Field Productions. It was released in North America on April 30, 2000 for the Nintendo 64 video game console. It is the series' first 3D game. Excitebike 64 is the sequel to the acclaimed Nintendo Entertainment System game Excitebike and...
.
- Players can unlock the title (one of several bonus NES games included) on the GameCube
The is Nintendo's fourth home video game console with Wii being fifth, and is part of the sixth generation console era. It is the successor to the Nintendo 64 and predecessor to Nintendo's Wii....
game Animal Crossing.
- In 2003, it was released as a five E-card set game, entitled Excitebike-e, for the now-discontinued e-Reader
The is a device made by Nintendo for its Game Boy Advance portable video game system. It has an LED scanner that reads "e-Reader Cards," paper cards with specially encoded data printed on them....
, a device for the Game Boy AdvanceThe Game Boy Advance is a 32-bit handheld video game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo. It is the successor to the Game Boy Color...
used for scanning special "e-Cards" to play games, obtain information, or unlock special content.
- In 2004, it was released as part of the Game Boy Advance Classic NES Series
The Classic NES Series in North America are a series of Game Boy Advance games that were originally released on the Nintendo Entertainment System emulated on the Game Boy Advance...
. This version is the first non-Japan version to allow the player to save their tracks, although this port only has one savable track.
- The game was added to the European Virtual Console
A virtual console – also known as a virtual terminal – is a conceptual combination of the keyboard and display for a computer user interface. It is a feature of some operating systems such as UnixWare, Linux and BSD, in which the system console of the computer can be used to switch between...
on February 16 2007, the same day its spiritual successor, Excite Truck, was released there. The game was added to the North American Virtual ConsoleA virtual console – also known as a virtual terminal – is a conceptual combination of the keyboard and display for a computer user interface. It is a feature of some operating systems such as UnixWare, Linux and BSD, in which the system console of the computer can be used to switch between...
on March 19 2007http://www.n-sider.com/newsview.php?type=story&storyid=2681.
- The Nintendo DSi includes an Excitebike visualizer that is used while playing music from your SD card on Nintendo DSi Sound.
External links