This article needs additional citations for verification .(July 2008) |
Excitebike | |
---|---|
![]() North American artwork | |
Developer(s) |
|
Publisher(s) |
|
Director(s) | Shigeru Miyamoto |
Producer(s) | Shigeru Miyamoto |
Designer(s) | Shigeru Miyamoto |
Programmer(s) | Toshihiko Nakago |
Composer(s) | Akito Nakatsuka Soyo Oka (FDS) |
Series | Excite |
Platform(s) | |
Release | |
Genre(s) | Racing |
Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
Arcade system | Nintendo VS. System |
Excitebike [lower-alpha 1] is a motocross racing video game developed and published by Nintendo. In Japan, it was released for the Famicom in 1984 and then ported to arcades as VS. Excitebike for the Nintendo VS. System later that year. In North America, it was initially released for arcades in 1985 and then as a launch game for the Nintendo Entertainment System later that year, becoming one of the best-selling games on the console. It is the first game in the Excite series.
Designed and directed by Shigeru Miyamoto, the smooth side-scrolling game engine his team developed for Excitebike was later used to develop Super Mario Bros. (1985), which had the effect of Mario smoothly accelerating from a walk to a run, rather than move at a constant speed.
Excitebike was a critical and commercial success. It spawned several sequels and has been re-released multiple times onto other Nintendo platforms, such the Wii and Wii U Virtual Consoles, and Nintendo Switch Online.
Excitebike is a side-scrolling racing game in which the player takes control of a motocross racer. The two gameplay modes are Selection A as a solo race run, and Selection B against computer-controlled opponents. The objective of the game is to finish in third place or higher in a preliminary race to qualify for the Excitebike championship race. [4] The A button accelerates the bike, and the B button activates a turbo boost that enhances the bike's speed, but overheats the engine if it is used for too long, forcing an immobile cooldown period. [5] The engine's temperature can be reset by driving over arrows located along the course. [4] The player can use the directional pad to shift between lanes, and to shift the racer's balance midair after a jump. [5] Landing squarely on both wheels allows the racer to maintain momentum, but an uneven landing will result in a loss of speed or a crash. [4] Design Mode allows players to create tracks using 19 types of hurdles, [6] with options to save and load created tracks for the Famicom Data Recorder tape drive, which was unreleased outside Japan. [7]
There are two enhanced versions, both titled Vs. Excitebike.
The first version was released on VS. UniSystem for arcades in 1984, after the Famicom release. It is similar to its Famicom Disk System counterpart, though this version lacks the Design option, has three difficulty levels, and has other minor differences.
The second was released for the Famicom Disk System peripheral in 1988. The graphics and core gameplay are still the same, and the FDS version has several distinctive features that the NES and arcade versions lack:
Excitebike: Bun Bun Mario Battle Stadium, [lower-alpha 2] 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 was unchanged except for a "SUPER" mode where the player has unlimited turbo, and coins spread across the courses to increase top speed.
Excitebike can be unlocked in Excitebike 64 , which was released in 2000 for the Nintendo 64. It is also one of several unlockable NES games in Animal Crossing for the GameCube, released in 2001. The Nintendo 64 version restores the Save and Load functionality in Design mode, though it is limited to saving one custom track on the Game Pak, while the Animal Crossing version can be transferred to the Game Boy Advance by using a link cable.Excitebike was also released for the Game Boy Advance in the form of e-Reader cards, and later as a Game Pak for the Classic NES Series .
Excitebike was added to the European Wii Virtual Console on February 16, 2007, the same day its spiritual successor, Excite Truck , was released there. The game was later added to the North American Virtual Console on March 19. [9] It was re-released in North America for the Wii U Virtual Console on April 26, 2013. [10] 3D Classics: Excitebike was released on the Nintendo 3DS as a launch game for the Nintendo eShop in America, Japan and Europe; the game was initially offered for free for a period but then was sold at £5.40 / €6.00 for European markets [11] and $5.99 in the US. [12] It features 3D stereoscopic support and analog control support. This release was featured among other games from the Nintendo Entertainment System and Super NES to be released for the 3DS on a tech demo called Classic Games at E3 2010. [13] [14] It allows the player to save up to 32 custom created tracks that can be played in either 2D or 3D. [15]
Excitebike is one of the 30 games available on the NES Classic Edition, released by Nintendo on November 11, 2016. [16] Excitebike was released on the Nintendo Switch in the Nintendo eShop on September 21, 2018, by Hamster Corporation as part of the Arcade Archives series. [17]
Aggregator | Score | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Arcade | GBA | NES | Wii | |
Metacritic | N/A | 71/100 [18] | N/A | N/A |
Publication | Score | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Arcade | GBA | NES | Wii | |
1Up.com | N/A | C+ [19] | N/A | N/A |
AllGame | N/A | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | N/A |
Computer and Video Games | N/A | N/A | 8/10 [22] 84% [23] | N/A |
GameSpot | N/A | 6.2/10 [24] | N/A | N/A |
IGN | N/A | 7/10 [25] | N/A | 8.4/10 [26] |
Computer Gamer | Positive [27] | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Play Meter | 10/10 [28] | N/A | N/A | N/A |
In Japan, Game Machine listed VS. Excitebike on its January 15, 1985, issue as the fifth most-successful table arcade unit of the month. [29] In North America, the game was number 13 on the RePlay arcade software charts in December 1985. [30] It ended the year as America's second highest-grossing arcade system game of 1985, below Nintendo's Hogan's Alley . [31]
The game 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". [21] IGN praised the NES version in 2007, 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". [26] IGN ranked Excitebike as the 14th best NES game. [32] 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". [33] Game Informer ranked the game 44 on its top 100 games of all time. [34]
Kotaku editor Jason Schreier ranked it as the worst game on the NES Classic Edition, calling it "a truly awful video game" but with no explanation. [35]
The side-scrolling gameplay of Excitebike was key to the development of Super Mario Bros. (1985). The same Miyamoto-led team that developed Excitebike went on to develop a 1985 NES port of side-scrolling beat 'em up arcade game Kung-Fu Master (1984) called Kung Fu. Miyamoto's team used the technical knowledge they had gained from working on both side-scrollers to further advance the platforming "athletic game" genre they had created with Donkey Kong (1981) and were key steps towards Miyamoto's vision of an expansive side-scrolling platformer. [36] [37] While working on Excitebike and Kung Fu, he devised the concept of a platformer in which the player can "strategize while scrolling sideways" over long distances, and has colorful backgrounds rather than black. [38] Super Mario Bros. utilized the fast scrolling game engine Miyamoto's team had originally developed for Excitebike, which allowed Mario to smoothly accelerate from a walk to a run, rather than move at a constant speed like in earlier platformers. [39]
Excitebike spawned several sequels, including Excitebike 64 (2000), Excite Truck (2006), Excitebots: Trick Racing (2009), and the WiiWare game Excitebike: World Rally (2009). An Excitebike-themed track is downloadable content in Mario Kart 8 and is available by default in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. [7] A group of Excitebike racers cameo as an Assist Trophy in Super Smash Bros. Brawl .
Duck Hunt is a 1984 light gun shooter video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) video game console and the Nintendo VS. System arcade hardware. The game was first released in April 1984, in Japan for the Family Computer (Famicom) console and in North America as an arcade game. It became a launch game for the NES in North America in October 1985, and was re-released in Europe two years later.
Shigeru Miyamoto is a Japanese video game designer, producer and game director at Nintendo, where he serves as one of its representative directors as an executive since 2002. Widely regarded as one of the most accomplished and influential designers in video games, he is the creator of some of the most acclaimed and best-selling game franchises of all time, including Mario,The Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong, Star Fox and Pikmin. More than 1 billion copies of games featuring franchises created by Miyamoto have been sold.
Mario Bros. is a platform game developed and published by Nintendo as an arcade video game in 1983. It was designed by Shigeru Miyamoto and Gunpei Yokoi, Nintendo's chief engineer. Italian twin brother plumbers Mario and Luigi exterminate creatures, like turtles (Koopas) and crabs emerging from the sewers by knocking them upside-down and kicking them away. The Famicom/Nintendo Entertainment System version is the first game produced by Intelligent Systems. It is part of the Mario franchise, but originally began as a spin-off from the Donkey Kong series.
Super Mario Bros. 3 is a 1988 platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). It was released for home consoles in Japan on October 23, 1988, in North America on February 12, 1990, and in Europe on August 29, 1991. It was developed by Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development, led by Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka.
Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels is a 1986 platform game developed by Nintendo R&D4 and published by Nintendo. A sequel to Super Mario Bros. (1985), it was originally released in Japan for the Family Computer Disk System as Super Mario Bros. 2 on June 3, 1986. Nintendo of America deemed it too difficult for its North American audience and instead released an alternative sequel, also titled Super Mario Bros. 2, in 1988. It was renamed The Lost Levels and first released internationally in the 1993 Super Nintendo Entertainment System compilation Super Mario All-Stars. It has been rereleased for Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Wii, Wii U, Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo Switch.
The Legend of Zelda, originally released in Japan as The Hyrule Fantasy: Zelda no Densetsu, is an action-adventure game developed and published by Nintendo. The first game of The Legend of Zelda series, it is set in the fantasy land of Hyrule and centers on an elf-like boy named Link, who aims to collect the eight fragments of the Triforce of Wisdom in order to rescue Princess Zelda from Ganon. The player controls Link from a top-down perspective and navigates throughout the overworld and dungeons, collecting weapons, defeating enemies and uncovering secrets along the way.
Balloon Fight is an action video game developed by Nintendo and HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo. The original arcade version was released for the Nintendo VS. System internationally as Vs. Balloon Fight, while its Nintendo Entertainment System counterpart was released in Japan in 1985 and internationally in 1986.
Kung-Fu Master, known as Spartan X in Japan, is a side-scrolling beat 'em up developed by Irem and released as an arcade video game in 1984. It was distributed by Data East in North America. Designed by Takashi Nishiyama, the game was based on Hong Kong martial arts films. It is a loose adaptation of the Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao film Wheels on Meals (1984), called Spartan X in Japan, with the protagonist Thomas named after Jackie Chan's character in the film. The game is also heavily inspired by the Bruce Lee film Game of Death (1972), which was the basis for the game's concept. Nishiyama, who had previously designed the side-scrolling shooter Moon Patrol (1982), combined fighting elements with a shoot 'em up gameplay rhythm. Irem and Data East exported the game to the West without the Spartan X license.
Hogan's Alley is a light gun shooter video game developed and published by Nintendo. It was released for the Family Computer in 1984 and then the arcade Nintendo VS. System and Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985. It was one of the first hit video games to use a light gun as an input device, along with Nintendo's Duck Hunt (1984). The game presents players with "cardboard cut-outs" of gangsters and innocent civilians. The player must shoot the gangs and spare the innocent people. It was a major arcade hit in the United States and Europe.
Wild Gunman is a light gun shooter game developed and published by Nintendo. Originally created as an electro-mechanical arcade game in 1974 by Gunpei Yokoi, it was adapted to a video game format for the Famicom console in 1984. It was released in 1985 as a launch game for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) with the Zapper light gun.
Tennis is a sports video game developed by Nintendo in 1983, and released for the Family Computer (Famicom) in 1984. The arcade game version Vs. Tennis was also released for the Nintendo VS. System in 1984, becoming a hit at Japanese and American arcades that year; it was the sixth top-performing arcade game of 1984 in the United States. Tennis is one of 17 launch games for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in North America and Europe. The game was re-released for the Game Boy as a launch game in North America.
Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development Division, commonly abbreviated as Nintendo EAD and formerly known as Nintendo Research & Development No.4 Department, was the largest software development division within the Japanese video game company Nintendo. It was preceded by the Creative Department, a team of designers with backgrounds in art responsible for many different tasks, to which Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka originally belonged. Both served as managers of the EARD studios and were credited in every game developed by the division, with varying degrees of involvement. Nintendo EAD was best known for its work on games in the Donkey Kong, Mario, The Legend of Zelda, F-Zero, Star Fox, Animal Crossing, Pikmin, and Wii series.
The Virtual Console is a defunct line of downloadable video games for Nintendo's Wii and Wii U home video game consoles and the Nintendo 3DS family of systems.
Excite Truck is a racing video game developed by Monster Games and published by Nintendo for the Wii. It features malleable environments and tilt-based controls. The game was one of the Wii launch titles in North America. It is the third main game in the Excite series and the first to feature vehicles other than motorbikes.
A side-scrolling video game is a game viewed from a side-view camera angle where the screen follows the player as they move left or right. The jump from single-screen or flip-screen graphics to scrolling graphics during the golden age of arcade games was a pivotal leap in game design, comparable to the move to 3D graphics during the fifth generation.
Excitebike: World Rally, known as Excitebike: World Race in Japan and Excitebike: World Challenge in the PAL region, is a racing game released as a WiiWare title for the Wii game console. It is the fifth and final title in the Excite racing series, and is the first since the original Excitebike to feature classic 2D racing. The game was developed by Monster Games, and is their third developed game in the series. The title was announced through the NOA edition of the Nintendo Channel in October 2009, via an episode of Nintendo Week, and was released shortly after in North America on November 9, in Japan on February 2, 2010, and in the PAL region on February 5.
Super Contra, known as Super Contra: The Alien Strikes Back in Japan, is a run and gun video game by Konami, originally released as a coin-operated arcade video game in January 1988. It is the sequel to the original Contra and part of the Contra series. The game stars Bill Rizer and Lance Bean as they are sent to thwart another alien invasion from the vicious Red Falcon.
Pilotwings is a series of flight simulation video games beginning with the 1990 video game Pilotwings and most recently Pilotwings Resort in 2011. One of Nintendo's franchises, the series was released on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Nintendo 64, and Nintendo 3DS.
Nintendo 3D Classics is a a first-party series of NES/Famicom and arcade games updated for the Nintendo 3DS, with added stereoscopic 3D functionality and updated features while retaining their original art style and graphics.
Super Mario Bros. is a platform game developed and published in 1985 by Nintendo for the Famicom in Japan and for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in North America. It is the successor to the 1983 arcade game Mario Bros. and the first game in the Super Mario series. Following a US test market release for the NES, it was converted to international arcades on the Nintendo VS. System in early 1986. The NES version received a wide release in North America that year and in PAL regions in 1987.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)