Excitebike


is a motocross racing video game franchise made by Nintendo. It debuted as a game for the Famicom in Japan in 1984 and as a launch title for the NES in 1985. It is the first game of the Excite series, succeeded by its direct sequel Excitebike 64, its spiritual successors Excite Truck and ', and the WiiWare title '. 3D Classics: Excitebike, a 3D remake of the original game, was free for a limited time to promote the launch of the Nintendo eShop in June 2011.

Gameplay

At the start of the game, the player can choose from five tracks in which to race. Whether the player chooses to race solo or against computer-assisted riders, there is a certain time limit. The goal is to qualify for the Excitebike championship race by finishing at third place or above in the preliminary challenge race. The times to beat are 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, a message appears: "It's a new record!" Additional points are earned 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 greater acceleration, but also increases the motorcycle's temperature shown as a bar at the bottom of the screen. When the temperature exceeds safe limits the bar becomes full; the player will be immobilized for several seconds while the bike cools down. Driving over an arrow will immediately reduce the bike's temperature.
The pitch of the motorcycle's airborne trajectory can be modified with the X-axis of the directional pad: left raises the front, and right lowers the front. In the air, this rotates the bike, but can also be used to perform wheelies on the ground. Pushing up or down turns the handlebars left or right, respectively, when the bike is on the ground.
If the player crashes by colliding with an opponent or ramp, or by landing badly from a jump, the rider is knocked off the bike and lands in the field. Pushing A repeatedly allows the rider to run back to the bike and continue the race.

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 form of obstacle; hitting one from the rear will cause the player to fall off the bike, and 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 racing tracks. The player can choose hills and obstacles of various sizes and place them, represented by the letters A-S. The player can also choose where to finish the lap, and how many laps there are. After it is finished, the player can race the track in either Selection A or Selection B.
The Japanese version of the game allows saving the player-created tracks to cassette tape, requiring the Famicom Data Recorder peripheral. Since this peripheral was only available in Japan and intended for use with Nintendo's Family BASIC, track saving is effectively unavailable to American and European players even though there are "save" and "load" options present within the in-game menus of those versions. 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". These options were removed in the e-Reader version of the game.
Unlike Wrecking Crew, Excitebike was never re-released for the Famicom Disk System in its original form. Subsequently, courses created within the version available on the Wii Virtual Console release in all regions can actually be saved to the Wii's internal memory.

Ports and remakes

''Vs. Excitebike''

There are two enhanced versions, both titled Vs. Excitebike.
The first version was released for arcades in 1984, after the Famicom release. The game was based around the VS. UniSystem unit. It is similar to its Famicom Disc System counterpart, though this version has the Design option gone and in the main game there are three difficulty levels, and there are seven tracks, just like the Famicom Disc System version. This is the original game with the NES version shortening some tracks and rearrangement of track obstacles. In addition, there is no track editor. The first race is qualifier and has no CPU bikers as obstacles, they appear in the "race" mode. As in real-life supercross heat races, riders must complete the track in fifth position or higher to advance.
The second was released for the Famicom Disk System peripheral in 1988. While the graphics and core gameplay are still the same, the FDS version has several distinctive features that the NES and arcade versions lack:
also known as Mario Excite Bike or BS Excitebike, is for the Japan-only Satellaview peripheral for Super Famicom. As a remake of Excitebike, the human racers have been replaced by Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Wario, Toad, and some of Bowser'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.
The NES version has received generally positive reviews. Allgame gave Excitebike its highest possible rating of five stars. The review referred to the game as a "staple of any NES collection", praising its graphics as cute and its control as simple that still require strategy to apply properly. The review noted the design mode, as "the first of its kind in a console game, and greatly extends the life of the title by featuring 19 different components you can piece together to build your own course." IGN praised the NES version in 2007, stating "One of the original NES games, Excitebike was one hell of a ride 23 years ago -- and it still is today." IGN praised it as "ridiculously addictive" and that it "proves video games don't need to have flashy graphics or complex AI to actually be fun. Sure, there are other racing games out there today, hundreds of them. This one may not necessarily be better than the recent stuff, but it's unique, addictive, and demonstrates what gaming is really about." IGN ranked Excitebike as the 14th best game on the NES. GamesRadar ranked it as the 12th best game on the NES Classic Edition, saying that it has aged well with "a great sense of speed while driving and an excellent sense of balance while jumping and landing".
In Japan, Game Machine listed VS. Excitebike on their January 15, 1985 issue as being the fifth most-successful table arcade unit of the year.
Kotaku editor Jason Schreier was less enthusiastic about Excitebike when comparing it to the other games available on the NES Classic Edition. He ranked it as the worst game on the console, calling it "a truly awful video game" but with no further explanation.