Excitebike 64

Engines, dirt, mudflaps... what more do you need?

Dirt-bike games across all formats have always shown promise at first... until that is, you actually get to play them. Nobody has previously managed to capture the feel of tearing across jump-filled, rut-infested dirt tracks at 60mph on a bike that can out-accelerate a Porsche... until Excitebike 64 that is. At last, the true feeling of this exhilarating sport has been transferred to the videogame arena with style, grace and healthy doses of the big air, tight racing and frightening speed that motocross is known for. Nintendo may have taken its time in delivering Excitebike 64 to European shores but never has a wait been more worth it!

So what's it all about? Well, for starters, motocross fans can forget about playing as their daredevil heroes and petrol-heads will be disappointed that the bikes aren't based on the real models. The only thing that even hints of officialdom is the odd logo from companies like Scott, who make motocross clothing and goggles. So without the periphery aspects that other developers use to sell often second-rate games, developer Left Field has had to actually come up with a game that relies on gameplay to sell it.

Burnin' Rubber

Excitebike 64 has you hooked from the very first corner but its not until you learn the control nuances that the game really comes into its own. The control system itself is fairly simple with buttons for accelerate, brake, turbo and slide. On top of this you have the trick controls, but Excitebike 64 is best played as a pure racer. To begin with, you inevitably find yourself trailing the pack and hitting the deck with annoying regularity. The idea isn't simply to go as fast as you can on the straights and take the corners as smoothly as possible because motocross tracks aren't the flat smooth places that most racing game fans are probably used to.

You're constantly up against jumps, ruts, bumps, hills, burns and bomb-holes of hugely varying sizes and intensity. To get through all the obstacles that the tracks throw at you and still keep your speed up, you need to make deft use of the turbo button (which acts and sounds like the power-bands on a scrambler). If you don't apply this extra burst of power at just the right moment, you land incorrectly and lose your momentum, only to watch the pack go sailing past you. After grasping how to ride your dirt-bike to a certain degree of proficiency you can then really start to race the AI-controlled opponents, which is where the fun really begins.

Down And Dirty

A motocross start is one of the most nerve-racking moments in motorsport and Excitebike 64 portrays it to perfection. The race to the first corner for the 'holeshot' is tense and exciting and the feeling doesn't let up for the rest of the race. Your opponents try every trick in the book to block or get past you, and you have to be doing the same with them. Every corner is a challenge.

MEMORY OPTIONS

• MEMORY: Stores scores and unlocked tracks
• CONTROLLER PAK: Stores time-trial ghost

Every jump a nightmare when you're in the pack, but when you come out of the thick of it in first place, the feeling is pure satisfaction. And that's just on the easier modes. Once you get up to the Pro difficulty level you find the racing even tougher. But after practicing until you're good enough to really mix it with the big boys, you gain even more enjoyment and satisfaction from the action.

Riding a motocross bike is a particularly terrifying experience and the Left Field staff have obviously ridden a few in their time, because Excitebike 64 is brimming with realism. They've got the cornering down to a tee – whether it's long sweeping bends, tight horseshoe corners or steep burns. Even more authentic than the cornering though, is the way in which your bike and rider handle the undulating terrain and truly stupefying jumps. It has to be said that this only looks great when you get it just right, but then that's real incentive to keep getting better and better, isn't it? In short,

Do It Yourself!

Excitebike 64 has eighteen brilliantly designed racing tracks. It will take a long time to learn every corner, jump, rut and obstacle on each course and it's only then that you can really start to push the envelope and race to win in the Pro difficulty mode. However, it doesn't stop after you've learned everything as Left Field has thoughtfully included a track editor in the game. So when you've mastered everything the game has to offer, you can then start to build your own courses, which gives the game an almost infinite lifespan!

Left Field has created easily the most realistic and enjoyable motorbike physics engine ever. Doubtless PC fans will have something to say about that but we've never seen the kind of fluidity that can be achieved over the rough terrain in Excitebike 64 in any other game.

Rev It Up!

All this realism would be useless however, without the other key factor that makes Excitebike 64 such a great playing experience – the tracks. These are the most authentic we've ever seen on a dirt-bike game. The outside motocross tracks are long, hill-strewn affairs with rough jumps and natural obstacles to avoid. The corners vary between sweeping curves and tight angles, while the jumps are often three-pronged affairs in that you might hit two on the way up a hill before you actually reach the main death-defying leap. These outside courses often prove faster than the more technical stadium-based supercross circuits where tight jumps, wrist-breaking sequences of bumps and sharp corners are the order of the day. It's in the stadiums though that your technical ability is really tested. You have to traverse masses of bumps and ruts and time your jumping to perfection, because – more often than not – the landing leads directly onto a corner. Supercross may be slower and tighter, but like motocross, the tracks are plenty wide enough to make overtaking possible.

Off-Road

Left Field hasn't stopped at creating the best racing tracks ever seen though – there is also a whole load of extras to be unlocked. Only two are open at the start – the stunt track and the desert race. The stunt track is stadium-based and is just a free-ride area filled with jumps, ramps and kickers. It's here that you can perform a limited but exciting array of tricks.

In My Day...

There are loads of hidden extras in Excitebike 64 – the original NES version of the very first Excitebike! It's well worth unlocking this, as it's an action-packedz retro blast from the past. Is that cool, or what? which are accomplished using combinations of the stick and the Camera buttons – this is fiddly, but fun nonetheless.

The desert race is more instantly rewarding and takes the form of a point-to-point sprint with no track boundaries. The challenge here is negotiating the huge sand dunes while keeping your speed up and not overheating your engine. It's superb fun and playable over and over again as there's no actual track and the course randomly generates each time. Other extras include a multi-player soccer game and the original 2D Excitebike game, all of which will keep you playing for an age.

We've purposely avoided telling you about the graphics so far because Excitebike 64 is one of those rare entities in gaming today – a gameplay-led title. Which is lucky because the graphics are nothing to write home about. Even the Expansion Pack doesn't add much to the visual side, but as you are generally concentrating on controlling your scrambler and thus not looking at the scenery it really doesn't matter. Having said this though, the tracks themselves are all drawn extremely well and – more to the point – designed authentically. It's just that the whole thing seems to have a rugged, unpolished look about it.

Out Of Sight!

There are a few niggling problems within the game itself. Firstly, it can be very frustrating, especially in Season mode. Here you have to place first overall but at times the odds seem unfairly stacked against you. If you don't score well in the first few races you find yourself restarting the whole season which can become extremely time consuming. However, once you've truly mastered the controls, you're able to give as good as you get and fight it out in every round.

Another problem is that, like many other Nintendo racers, when you can't see your competitors, they seem to have a mind of their own. This basically comes down to the fact that if you get the 'holeshot' and a good first lap, you encounter back markers by the second lap. However, make a few mistakes on lap one and you won't see any back markers for the entire race. This is obviously built in to make it more exciting when you're leading, but it's basically redundant.

The few problems that arise with Excitebike 64 are outweighed ten times over by just how much fun it is to play. The tracks are stunning and the physics engine manages to feel realistic, but also work perfectly as a game. Not only this, Excitebike 64 comes complete with its own track editor, meaning that you'll probably still be playing it for years to come! It really is the first truly playable, ultra-addictive motorbike game. It's also one of the last great N64 titles, so motocross fan or not, you really have to have Excitebike 64. Period.

2nd Opinion

This game caused a major stir in the Gamefabrique office as we all went multiplayer motocross mental for a while! Excitebike is totally ace, and has everything you'd want from a console racer.

Pros:

• Looks great
• All the bikes handle incredibly well
• Loads of race modes
• Contains the original Excitebike as a minigame!
• Four-player mode manages to keep up the speed

Cons:

• Never seems to get boring, no matter how long you play it for!
• Controls a little tricky to start with
• Difficulty level might well be set a little high for a lot of gamers.

BOTTOM LINE

CONTROLS

• L: Turbo
• R: Slide
• B: Cancel / Use Item
• A: Accelerate
• C Up: Change camera view
• C Down: Stunts
• C Left: Look behind
• C Right: Not used
• D-Pad: Steer
• Z: Turbo

RATING

• Graphics: 4 / 5
• Audio: 4 / 5
• Gameplay: 5 / 5
• Challenge: 4 / 5
• OVERALL SCORE: 92%
• Soundbite: The best motocross game we've ever played! It's fantastic!

When we first saw these screens of Excitebike 64, we all uncomfortably laughed hoping they weren't really from Excitebike 64. Problem is, they are. Although this December release from Nintendo and Left Field looks like any no-name motocross title we've come across, we do have to give it the benefit of the doubt. Whatever the case, the cart will have a track editor and various one- to four-player modes.

A few years ago Nintendo produced a classic motorbike game for it's console of the time, the NES. Excitebike was a 2-D side-scrolling racing game which provided jumps and obstacles for you to tackle on a small squeaky motorbike. The gameplay was extremely addictive, which made up for the limitations of the old hardware and it was extremely popular with gamers of that generation.

At last Excitebike has returned and developer Left Reid Studios have made an excellent job of bringing the classic racer into the 21st century. A totally new racing engine has been developed for this game, giving plenty of control and (maintaining a good frame rate no matter how many other racers are on the screen. The action is all totally but in essence the gameplay is very similar to the 2-D version of old. The game may no longer be side-scrolling but you must still get the correct amount of speed up to ensure that you land on a downslope - hence maintaining maximum speed over the obstacles. Failing to control your motor over the various hazards results in a slow climb to the top of a hill or an extremely unpleasant accident.

Kick Start

The control system in this game is fairly complex but by using the training mode you soon learn how to get the best from your bike. Tricks like double-tapping the Turbo at the top of a jump for extra distance and using the R button to turn sharp corners are vital if you want to win the championship seasons and open all the secret stages. At the end of each of the training sessions there is a small trial to test your skills and when everything is completed successfully, the original NES Excite bike becomes a playable feature. This of course meant that many hours in the office were spent reminiscing and playing this classic title, which still has plenty of appeal, even after all this time! By completing the whole game a very special, totally amazing 3-D NES Excitebike game is unlocked. We think this may have been a canned SNES development but whatever the origin it's totally wild and offers multiple camera angles. These old-fashioned games certainly bring back memories and provide great entertainment for a while, but the N64 version is just far too enthralling to let these classics delay you for too long.

Into The Groove...

All the tracks in the game are superbly detailed and with over twenty different courses to choose from you'll be playing this game for ages. The humps and bumps are frequent, giving you plenty of opportunity to perform stunts. The tight corners make for an interesting race as well. Some of the more difficult tracks are awesome and feature tricky U-turns handy shortcuts and huge canyon leaps where you fall a long way if you don't use the Turbo. Like its NES counterpart, Excitebike 64, also has a built in track editor which allows you to devise devious courses to race your friends on! There are also K loads of multiplayer games included f on this amazing cartridge along with several bonus games which can be opened by competing in r the championship season. The bonus multiplayer modes on offer include a football game where you must use your bike to nudge a giant ball into a goal and the Hill Climb event, which requires you to try and get man and machine as high up the steep banks as humanly possible. Six different riders are available to you, each with their own unique abilities and you can alter the colour of both the bike and rider. Three difficulty settings make the game steadily more difficult as you progress but to open the amazing Hill Climb you must win the ultimate Motocross challenge. The stunts are a Original IVIES Classic By completing the Training Tests, including all the stunts, you unlock the original NES Excitebike in full colour, if you practice hard and complete the Gold Championship Season, you then access an enhanced version of the NES Excitebike in 3-D with multiple camera choices. little more tricky to perform than those in Wave Race er... isn't that a boat game? - Roy but then you get much longer in the air on Excitebike. Each rider also has their own special stunt, but this can be more than a little tricky to puli off! Top quality racing and performing massive crowd-pleasing stunts gets your heart pumping so fast you'll be dying to hop back on and hit the trail again!

No Fear

The graphics in Excitebike 64 are excellent. Taking an enormous jump as you sear through the mountains literally takes your breath away, while the crashes almost bring tears to your eyes. The sound effects are reasonable and the commentator doesn't get too overly involved, leaving you to enjoy the buzzing of your bike. There's a highly polished feel to this title and with Left Field already confirmed as a 'next generation' Nintendo developer, it's obvious that there will be plenty to look forward to on the Dolphin. We were amazed by the fluidity of the control and the way that the riders seem to glide effortlessly over the table tops. Jeremy McGrath Supercross 2000 and EA's Supercross 2000 are extremely shallow compared to this gem of a racer and it's lucky that both games came out before it, otherwise they wouldn't have sold very many copies! Excitebike 64 was a really pleasant surprise and reminds all of us that the quality of Nintendo's games just keeps getting better, which can only be a good thing. Taking the time to have a good splash around in the mud proves highly entertaining and with such an array of wonderful indoor and outdoor courses you'll keep going for quite some time. The Expansion Pak has been used to add further polish to the graphics and increase the frame rate and after each race you can watch an optional replay where you can really enjoy the visuals.

Extreme Excitement

Excitebike 64 has taken motocross racing to the extreme. The thrill of riding the big jumps and sliding around the corners with one foot on the floor has been captured brilliantly, but unlike the real thing you can crash as many times as you like without causing yourself any fatal injuries. Motorbike games have never been the most popular genre in the past but then the choice has been only average compared with the many excellent car racers like Ridge Racer and Roadster. Left Field however have redressed the balance, because the feel of this game is incredible and every second spent racing on the dirt is thoroughly entertaining.

These new screens may make the Excitebike 64 look like a regular old motocross title, but this one- to four-player game has more in common with the NES classic than we first thought. For starters, the original 2D Excitebike is contained here (and note you can now save your custom tracks--a feature missing from the original), along with a 3D, behind-the-bike version that captures the feel of the NES game perfectly. Excitebike 64 also packs an expansive desert level (much like the open stages in Motocross Madness for the PC), an oddly fun multiplayer soccer game and a hillclimbing event. Of course, you also get the standard motocross action seen in these screens, as well as a complex track editor. Developed by Nintendo-funded Left Field Productions, Excitebike 64 will be published by Nintendo in May.