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Excitebike 64
- November 24, 2000 14:47 PM PST
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Nintendo follows up its ancient motocross racer with Excitebike 64, a game that packs awesome sound, glitzy graphics and a ton of cool extras into an otherwise mediocre dirt bike racer.
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Motocross Madness
Nintendo certainly had the right idea with Excitebike 64. By eschewing the realistic approach taken by most motocross/supercross games, Excitebike hopes to draw in N64 gamers by offering fun, arcade-like gameplay. By tacking on the Excitebike name, Nintendo summons forth legions of old-school gamers who remember a time when a game's Fun Factor was more important than Graphics and Sound. By including loads of extras, they can appeal to newer gamers who find replay value in unlocking "bonus" material.
Unfortunately for Nintendo, Excitebike 64's extras are better than the core game. With all the various control problems, graphical slowdown, and weird sound glitches, playing Excitebike enough to unlock the extras can be a chore. It makes one wonder why they couldn't just release the extras and make players unlock the actual game.
Too Excitable
There must be a rule written somewhere that motocross games cannot control well. Although Excitebike's overall control is nearly perfect, they tend to tweak out on you at the most random moments. When recovering after a turn, you might find yourself swerving madly to the outside. If you land a jump wrong, it might take ten seconds to clear a hill and get your momentum back. Worst of all is the mechanic for knocking over other riders. You can smash into them at a full clip and they won't go down, but if they ride near your front tire, down you go. These are little problems, but they add up to mar the control rating.
The game suffers minor defeats in other areas as well. Excitebike 64 would be one of the best looking N64 games ever if it weren't for the annoying slowdown and shaky camera angles that plague the single-player mode. Excitebike's sound would be perfect if not for occasional sound glitches that fill your speakers with a white noise hiss. It's frustrating to watch otherwise perfect N64 graphics and sound threatened by glitches that should have been fixed in development.
Where Excitebike really scores is in its extras. You'll find a perfect version of the original Excitebike here, as well as a 3D update and a track editor. Go a little deeper and you'll find the Hill Climb, in which you try to force your bike up hills that actually look more like walls. Dig even further and you'll unlock the stupidly fun Excitebike soccer mode, in which two teams of two compete to ram a huge soccer ball into the opposing goal. These extras are so damn fun that, once they're unlocked, you may never play the regular game again.
Star-crossed Motocross
It could have been so much more, but Excitebike 64 manages to be only the latest motocross game whose reoccurring bugs mar an otherwise excellent racing game. Various unlocked extras make Excitebike 64 a truckload of fun, but it's playing to get those goodies that kicks up the dirt.
