Excitebike is back, bigger and better!
Pros:
-Very fun to play, great graphics for the N64
Cons:
Annoying voices, difficult at first
The Bottom Line:
One of my favourite games on the N64. If you like the type, you need to get this game.
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
Ive been a long-time video game player. I played the original Excitebike for the longest time, designing custom tracks that I knew my friends could never go through without crashing. It was great fun. The follow-up to this classic took some time to show its face, but it really lives up to the original.
Here are my impressions on Excitebike 64:
-THE VERY GOOD:
-The gameplay. Its very simply a blast to play. The action is fast, the controls are extremely responsive, and you really get the feel that youre on a motocross bike. The stunt arena is especially fun, and you can show off your stuff to your buddies or go head-to-head with them to see who can complete the most stunts in two minutes.
-The graphics. Theyre some of the best that Ive seen on a N64. Framerate is high, providing for smooth animation, and important elements are detailed. The backgrounds and crowds are much less detailed and more nondescript, showing the limitations of the N64s cartridge-based architecture.
-THE GOOD:
-The multitude of tracks. Youll be trying many new tracks along the way, on many different surfaces. Your technique must be adapted to every type of course, which increases the challenge faced by the player.
-Choice of riders. Each rider has its own strengths and weaknesses, and also his own signature stunt. You can customize the color of your rider and his bike, which is a neat option.
-The inclusion of the original Excitebike. Its nothing really special, but for people who played the original a lot, its fun to see if we can still win in the original.
-The sound effects. The sound of the motorcycles is very realistic and adds to the feel of the game.
-The stunts and crashes. Stunts are incredibly fun to pull off and to look at. Crashes are very well realized, with your rider flying in the appropriate direction and falling accordingly to the way he crashed. And who doesnt like watching a motocross rider fly over the handlebars of his bike?
-THE NOT-SO-GOOD:
-The voices. From the voice at the intro screen to the in-race commentary, they are too repetitive to avoid being annoying. The game would have been better if those voices had been left out.
-The initial difficulty level. When you first play the game, it seems almost impossible to win. It does take a few hours to get the hang of it, and its really necessary to do the tutorial, or else youll fumble around for hours.
-Difficult key combinations. To execute some stunts, complex combinations of button pressing and joystick movement are required, not unlike fighting games. These can be difficult to execute, but thats what makes stunts rewarding, I guess.
-Split-screen multiplayer. It becomes much more difficult to play with only part of the screen displaying your view. The game is much more enjoyable in single-player mode.
-The use of the memory expansion pak. The game is said to be optimized for use with the memory expansion, so I bought it along with the game. I tried the game both with and without the memory expansion installed, and I could not see and big difference between the two. If you dont have any other games that can benefit from the expansion pak, dont bother getting it.
-THE REALLY BAD:
-Nothing to report here
