Excitebike (NES)

Excitebike

Long before Excite Truck for Wii, there was Excitebike for NES; a wheelie-poppin’, mud-flingin’, side-scrollin’ motocross masterpiece. Roar across the dirt and take down rival riders to claim victory in the main event, or design your own monster motocross track to race on!

Choose to either play alone and practise your techniques, or race against computer-controlled rivals in a thrilling Challenge race to qualify for the prestigious Excitebike Championship.

Hit the turbo just before a jump to send your bike soaring, but make sure you adjust your landing angle or you’ll end up eating dirt. If opponents get in your way, sideswipe them with your back wheel to make them spin out. Excitebike’s high-octane racing and high-flying hurdles make it an enduring, crowd-pleasing classic.

Excitebike Review

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Review by Darren Calvert

Excitebike Screenshot

This is a classic game which is as playable today as it was 20 years ago! (even though the graphics have aged!)

Playing as a motor-biking madman you will race on 5 different tracks. You basically race from left to right and move between four lanes. The aim is to avoid obstacles and sometimes other bikers. Each track takes a few minutes to complete, and with only five tracks means you'll finish the game quite quickly. However all is not lost, the inbuilt track editor allows you to add longevity to the game by creating the tracks you always wanted!

Excitebike Screenshot

ExciteBike has 2 modes of game: you can race against the clock or race against other bikers.

As one of the early NES games don't expect much in terms of graphics, presentation or sound. It's all about the gameplay here! The controls work like a dream and before long you'll be switching lanes and pulling off crazy jumps like evil knievel!

This is definitely one of the better NES games no doubt. The game itself is short and over quite quickly, but if you enjoy tweaking tracks with the track editor and setting yourself new challenges there is a lot of long-term fun to be had here.

4/5

Average reader rating: 3.62 (79 ratings)

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Screenshots

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Excitebike (Video Clip)

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Have your say about Excitebike

1. Shrapnel09 United States 20 Feb 2007, 10:40 GMT

Really there is a track editor? Hmm i played this game a little bit a few years ago and was considering buying it, i guess that seals the deal..... Once it comes out in the US that is :).

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2. Dazza United Kingdom 20 Feb 2007, 15:49 GMT

We kid you not, the saving grace of this otherwise short lived game is the track editor feature. It was ahead of it's time really.

3. Al United Kingdom 20 Feb 2007, 19:09 GMT

this is a good game, gets good when its two player, although 1 player is still fun

4. Sean United Kingdom 27 Feb 2007, 22:40 GMT

I know fickle legal issues keep this stuff from being released simultaneously in Europe and Stateside, but it's Excitebike, not Final Fantasy - which I'd rather have for the VC than on my DS, but Nintendo obviously stands to make more money in keeping franchises like that exclusive to one platform. Oh well.

5. Evan Canada 19 Mar 2007, 20:35 GMT

A must have for all of those people who have ExciteTruck! I loved this game on Animal Crossing!!!

6. Jadelouise United Kingdom 19 Mar 2007, 23:49 GMT

I have the NES version and love the track editor. If i had a wii id download this. Ducktales, Chip and Dale are still great games and need to come to the Wii VC but the licence rubbish is going to get in the way as Capcom need to get together with Disney like Konami did with Ubisoft for TMNT 89.

7. Jeremy United States 20 Mar 2007, 02:50 GMT

Not buying because it's on Animal Crossing, but this game is worth a buy if you don't have AC - it's very fun and lasts longer than a lot of other NES games.

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8. Masuyo United States 20 Mar 2007, 03:02 GMT

i have the NES cart... i don't know if it'll be worth the download since there's no real reason accept the track editor. There's no tournaments or anything its just a couple different tracks and u can make your own. It's an amazing game but it gets old so fast for me for some reason. get it if u have a friend or family member to play with you! definitely

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9. dualj United States 21 Mar 2007, 15:19 GMT

Its all good fun here. I liked this game alot. The opening music presented was used for a lot of nintendo spoofs and parodys.

10. Frank United States 25 Mar 2007, 18:51 GMT

When it comes to classic NES games like this you really have no reason to not pay the $5 fee. I don't care how many versions you already have. The convenience of having all these great games on the Wii's internal memory will sell me everytime. What's $5, ya know?

11. Sektor United Kingdom 25 Mar 2007, 22:09 GMT

this is amazing!
you can't acctually complete it but it has tons of replay value.
well worth 500 points
:P

12. Johannes Germany 31 Mar 2007, 20:01 GMT

I love this!
The best NES Game on the VC at the moment.

13. Manaman United Kingdom 15 Apr 2007, 18:10 GMT

I always found this game pretty 'meh' to be honest, even back in the day. I also have this on Animal Crossing so I find it hard to justify wasting 500 points on this.

14. mario/zelda_fan Canada 23 Apr 2007, 01:45 GMT

Yeah I'm going with everyone here this is a great game easily a 4 star ( nes ) game. But I also have this game on Animal Crossing, so I'm not downloading it. But If I didn't have it on Animal Crossing I would still not get it, 500 points is too much for this game.

15. DK United States 01 May 2007, 21:18 GMT

I owned this back in the days of the NES and I can't bring myself to download this game for 500 points. Maybe I would for 100 points. It's a fun game for a couple of hours but quickly loses its sparkle. There are better reasons to spend 500 points on the VC, but if money is not an issue and you've already purchased the other VC gems - download it!

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16. SKTTR Germany 11 Jun 2007, 11:09 GMT

Yeah, 4 Stars is what it deserves!
But I already own it on Excitebike 64 and Animal Crossing.
And played it hours and weeks. That's enough for now.

I am a bit confused about the people here who say they play it with two players. This game has no multiplayer which is the reason it don't get five stars. It's a classic nonetheless.

17. usmc2003 United States 22 Oct 2007, 19:20 GMT

Sweet game.
I did not know there was a 2 player option on it though.

18. darthmix United States 02 Nov 2007, 17:57 GMT

It was fun in its day, but it's got that very-early-NES feel and aside from the track editor the game itself just doesn't have enough to recommend it. The N64 sequel was awesome, though.

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19. Link O' Fett United States 19 Nov 2007, 20:55 GMT

A great game from my childhood and one that's still fun today. The track creator is out dated but still ok and knocking your opponents of the road is still a blast. Classic.

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20. Jogurt the Yogurt Canada 06 Dec 2007, 18:20 GMT

A great game in its day (I used to play it all the time on my 31-in-1 multicart), but nowadays even the wonderful track editor doesn't do much to salvage replay value. If the editor's the only saving grace, why not edit better stuff with a better editor in a better game? This one would have been a solid 3 stars back in 1990 or so.

21. learn japanese ds Canada 09 Jan 2008, 02:38 GMT

Tons of nostalgia value in this one for sure, I remember just using the track editor to make the biggest jump after the biggest jump. Wish excite truck had a level editor...

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22. The shoemaker Canada 26 Jan 2008, 05:29 GMT

Well I have the game on animal crossing so. BUT the level dessin kind of makes me want it.

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23. yeeat Canada 14 Feb 2008, 03:06 GMT

my additiction when i had the sega :)
Still in awesome game! however, the question is would you care to spend 500 points for it?

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24. Manicfatty United States 14 Feb 2008, 18:38 GMT

Go go track editor!!!! Replay value GET! Why don't more games involve you in the creation of your gaming experience?

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25. Roo United Kingdom 28 Feb 2008, 17:14 GMT

A great game you should add to your collection. That is all I need to say.

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26. GameGod3008 United Kingdom 01 Apr 2008, 13:09 GMT

Come on Nintendo, give us the N64 Version

27. TheDudeAbides United States 21 Apr 2008, 17:13 GMT

I deleted this game soon after I downloaded it. I just don't think it has aged well. Now, please give me Megaman. NOW.

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28. Mr. Cheez United States 28 Jun 2008, 22:34 GMT

another NES game I still have on my e-reader. I enjoy it quite a lot, and I might download it since this version lets you save custom levels, and you don't have to scan all those cards every time you want to play it.

I wonder if excitebike 64 will ever appear at the shop. If it did I'd so download it, especially since this is included as a bonus!

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29. Beau Skunk United States 07 Aug 2008, 05:18 GMT

I loved this game as a kid. Me, and a friend once stayed up almost all night making tracks with the track design mode.
The way you can tilt the bike by holding left, or right while doing a jump is acctually pretty well done, and impressive for it's day. (You can even do wheelies.) A classic NES game in my opinion.

30. puresthatred Ireland 07 Aug 2008, 23:48 GMT

A fun old Nintendo game but will run out of things to do shortly after getting it, the track editor is simple but wont take you long to get bored of it. Great for a quick blast the odd time but if building a killer list of games on your Wii, this might be lower down on the preferences when theres so many other long lasting classics out there.

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31. Tabbyluigi United States 09 Aug 2008, 17:00 GMT

Played it as a young child, good, but there are better games, but this game is pretty good.

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32. LordJamak United States 16 Aug 2008, 20:00 GMT

Had this on NES, then GBA, then emulator. This is going to be my next VC purchase (I am behind the times a little!!) Has anyone here actually successfully finished the 5th track? I can't remember when I did that last.

Here's a fun way to kill some time... leave the design track empty and put it on mode B, then just ride around on the empty track knocking over everyone else!!! Takes 5 minutes to complete the track, but it's so much fun!!

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33. Supermarioman United States 18 Sep 2008, 22:13 GMT

Loved it and played it as a kid, actually I was 2 and I was born in 96 so LOL I plyed classics as my first video games!I love old classics!

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