Excitebike for Nintendo 64

*Excitebike 64*- Some of you will probably will remember the NES classic 'Excitebike' well, 2 generations later (SNES, N64) Left Field delivers the sequel and had a lot to live up to. A lot of people didn't even know the sequel was ever released and when it was, they ask how was it? And this is what I tell them; let's see how it turned out.

*Gameplay*- The game is fun and fast and there are many modes to check out and unlock. There are about 6 different racers, all having their equal advantages and disadvantages. First, you might want to check out the Tutorial if you want to find out how to play and you can practice a little bit, not a bad idea.

There's a season mode where you earn points for each race depending on what place you end up in. Then after 6 races the points are tallied up, and hopefully you make the ranking you need to, to unlock the next difficulty and a new mode.

Most of the unlockable modes are pretty damn fun too. 'Desert' you start off with and have a race driving over 10 fire places in a deserted huge desert. 'Trick Mode' you do tricks, and although it's no Tony Hawk, there are a handful of fun tricks to pull off. There are several other modes you can unlock, all of them very fun and one of them even includes the classic NES 'Excitebike' which I talked about before. If you've never played it, you'll have some fun with that as well. Other modes include "Soccer"(bikers hit huge soccer balls into net), "Hill Climb" (climb over huge hills) and 'Excite 3D'(an update/expansion of the classic NES one).

If you want you can race in the 12 rally tracks and stadiums to try to get the best times in 'Time Trials'. There's always a ghost of the record time so you know if you're beating it or not. Of course the ghost doesn't get in your way, you can ride right through it, if you'd like. If you'd like to save your records you will need a Memory Card (and I'm not sure how many blocks it'll take up)

I've mainly talked about single player stuff you can do but there's still hours upon hours of fun multiplayer wise as well. Besides playing your friends in some of the unlockable modes you can also race up to 3 friends (4 counting you) in 'Exhibition' mode or in one of your custom made tracks. Yes you can make your own stadium tracks and save them then race in them with friends. There are a lot of different ramps, slopes and ditches you can incorporate into your tracks. (To save your tracks, I think you need a Memory Card as well, otherwise everything else saves into the cartridge)

The only problem in the gameplay is most say this game is too hard and it is hard, but I like the challenge and its not that ridiculously hard.

*Graphics*- For an N64 game, the graphics are superb and the environment and tracks are beautiful, no problem here in the graphics department.

*Sounds*- I heard one critic one time claim this is the first console dirt bike game to actually sound like a dirt bike racer. In other word, the sound is just right for the game, and the music is pretty darn good too.

*Controls*- You have to worry about controls in a racing game, and the controls are fine, so no worries here.

*Replay Value*- I think I covered it, there is a hell of a lot to do in this game and it has some of the best replay value I've ever seen. The game difficulty is very hard to most people (although I find it easy, and I'm not any expert racer), however I find that a good thing, you always need a good challenge or two in a game.

*Final Word*- I don't know how a game that was so damn good, and got so many good reviews could be overlooked by so many, but I'm hoping this review will influence a few people to get up and get this gem, because it's truly a classic and shouldn't be dismissed in anyone's N64 or videogame collection. One of the better racing games (maybe even better than Mario Kart 64) for the N64 and even still keeps it's shine even now.