Platform: Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)

Developer: Nintendo

Publisher: Nintendo

Release Date: November 30th, 1984

Genre: Racing

Nerd Rating: 6.5 out of 10

Since it is Retroary here at Nerd Bacon, I decided my first review would be of the NES classic Excitebike! Excitebike is a racing game that is known for being the first installment of the Excite series, followed by Excitebike 64, Excite Truck, Excitebots: Trick Racing, Excitebike: World Rally, and 3D Classics: Excitebike. For those of you who have never owned an Excitebike game but think you have played it before in another game, that is very possible if you have played Animal Crossing as you can obtain an NES in that game which emulates Excitebike.

When you turn on Excitebike, you’ll be greeted by 3 game types, “Selection A,” “Selection B,” and “Design.” This first option, “Selection A,” is a race against the clock. On the wall you can see the 1st place time, and in the left corner you can see the 3rd place time. You must hit the finish line and beat at least the 3rd place time to move on. On the bottom of the screen in between the 3rd place time and your time, you will notice a bar labeled “temp” or temperature. The temperature bar will decrease as you accelerate, which you do by pressing A. Pressing B will make you go much faster, but will raise the temperature much quicker. If the “temp” bar heats all the way up, you will be immobilized for a few seconds to allow the bike to cool down. Your bike will also cool down by driving over the little arrows on the ground.   On the race track you will be greeted by multiple obstacles, weather it be jumps, mud, or areas where the track shortens to one or two lanes. Once you beat all 5 race tracks, you will probably get bored of the “Selection A” game mode, unless you have friends to compare best times with and to challenge to beat your time.

That being said, I now bring you “Selection B.” This game mode is against CPU controlled racers. Although there are other racers now, this is still for the most part racing against a set time. These extra racers will prove to be another hard obstacle, as hitting them will cause you to fall off your bike. If the other racers hit you, they will fall of their bikes. If you fall off your bike, pressing A+B repeatedly will make you run back to your bike and get on faster. Personally, I found this game mode more challenging and much more enjoyable.

The final game mode is called “Design.” In this game mode, you are able to design your own race track. You can customize your race track with hills and other obstacles of various sizes and place them among your track. You can also choose where the finish line will be, and how many laps are required to finish the race. You can choose up to 9 laps. Once you complete your track, you get to race it on either of the other game modes. In the design menu, there is a save and load feature. These options, sadly, do not work on the NES. This game was originally made in Japan, and you were able to save your tracks on a cassette tape in Japan.

My final verdict of Excitebike was 6.5 out of 10. The reasoning for this verdict was the fact that the game is indeed fun, and has replayability. However, this replayability is limited if you get bored of the same tracks and have no interest in making your own, or you have no friends to compare top times with. The game is definitely challenging which leads to much “excitebikement” (see what I did there? I know, corny.) The game’s soundtrack was nice when music actually played (from what I remember, music does not play during races.) The music for winning a race is definitely my favorite in the game, and it makes you happy for winning. Enough about my thoughts! What about you? D0 you feel my review was spot on, a little off, completely off?  Feel free to leave your own thoughts and comments on Excitebike for NES down below in the comment section!

Written by Nerd Bacon