Excitebike is a motocross game originally made by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and arcade back in 1984. I'm usually not a fan of remakes, but this one really brought to me a lot of excitement.
The title screen has been totally revamped, changed to a new brighter look and nice music plays in the background. Starting the game brings you to the classic title screen, with the original menus of Selection A, Selection B or to Design your own tracks. There are 5 tracks for each selection, the basic difference between Selection A and Selection B is that you race alone in A and race with opponents in B.
The very obvious change that you will see is the ability to tilt the background, using the 3D slider. You of course need to turn on 3D when you access the game to enable this. You can basically see the structures in the background, and you'll also be able to see the clouds. It's as if there's a camera that moves from an angle above.
The basic mechanics of the game, accelerate and turbo is in tact. You could also move your bike sideways, tilt forward or backward to adjust your balance. You can also, of course jump on ramps! The animation, sprites and frame rate is basically unchanged, so fans would really feel nostalgic. You can quick save the game (fast, unlike the old days) and start from where you left off... But you lose your quick save if you quit or go to other modes of the game.
The new course editor gives you more freedom than before, as it now allows you to create multiple editable slots and name them according to your liking. You can test drive on your course anytime if you like, to see your wonderful work of art!
You can keep track high score (or rather, best time) but it's only good for your own use... No wireless Internet support. I would've loved to play this game with friends or other people online!
3D Classics Excitebike is really suited for the 3DS wide screen. It's very useful that you can adjust the 3D Depth in-game aside from being able to adjust it with the slider. You can change the controls where you best feel comfortable, but unfortunately for some reason the game doesn't support using the touch screen for easily accessing the menu buttons
Overall, 3D Classics Excitebike is really a refreshing experience and a lot of people really looked forward for this game. One question remains in my mind though, why did they note make the sprites look like the 3DS Music Player Screen Saver? Why?! And why is there no online/Internet support? Nevertheless, this is a really great game that old and new players will surely enjoy.
3D Classics Excitebike Critique Score
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Definitely one of my favorite classics from back in the day. I remember playing Excitebike and Pacman in my dentist's office as a kid. Best dentist EVER lol
ReplyDeletePretty good game indeed. Though I remember playing it back then because I had nothing else to play! Which is probably why it sticked on my mind for so long!
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