Excitebots: Trick Racing

Excitebots: Trick Racing
Developer(s) Monster Games[1]
Nintendo SPD Group No.3
Publisher(s) Nintendo
Producer(s) Kensuke Tanabe
Composer(s) Masaru Tajima
Shinji Ushiroda
Series Excite
Platform(s) Wii
Release date(s)
  • NA April 20, 2009
Genre(s) Racing
Mode(s) Single-player, multiplayer, online multiplayer[1]

Excitebots: Trick Racing, known in Japan as Excite Mou Machine (エキサイト猛マシン), is a racing video game published by Nintendo for the Wii video game console. It was developed by Monster Games, is the fourth main game in the Excite series and is the sequel to Excite Truck. Excitebots was unveiled in a release list from Nintendo of America on February 26, 2009. It was released on April 20, 2009 in North America. Excitebots features animal-themed robot vehicles. The game can be bought packaged with or without the Wii Wheel. Nintendo Australia's Managing Director, Rose Lappin has said that Excitebots will not be seeing an Australian release "due to lack of interest."[3] The game was never released outside North America, however Japanese Club Nintendo members are able to exchange points for a copy starting from over 2 years of the original release date.[4]

Excitebots features short minigames during racing, such as pie throwing, bowling and soccer. The game keeps track of in-game achievements and scores.[5]

Gameplay

Excitebots features six-player online multiplayer. In this screen-shot, the track being raced on is "Silver Mexico" and the "Hummingbird" bot is selected.

Excitebots is controlled with the Wii Remote horizontally or optionally with the Wii Wheel. Most of the games are played on courses large in size with many opportunities to take meandering paths. The 25 different courses offered are modeled after real locations on Earth. Because of the size of each course, most races are two laps long and offer opportunities to gain massive altitude, perform various maneuvers, and obtain various items.

Each race is scored on a grading system from "S" to "D", with "D" being the lowest score. In order to obtain a higher score, players must perform various tricks, stunts, complete minigames, and finish the race before the other bots. Each of these tricks yield stars, which are used to determine how well the player did during the race. The more stars the player has when crossing the finish line, the better score they will receive. Examples of some of the methods to obtain stars are: gaining extreme altitude from jumping off inclined terrain, smashing into other bots during high speed, altering the terrain ahead and sending leading bots skyward, ramming into bowling pins, getting various offensive items and using them strategically i.e. bombs, hammers, and swinging on bars including a mandatory "red bar" in each course.

Multiplayer

Excitebots features six-player online multiplayer via the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection as well as local, split-screen 2-player racing. Online gameplay modes include six-player "Excite" races as well as "Poker" races which can be played anonymously or with friends using Nintendo's Friend Code system.[6] During online play, players are able to place bets on themselves with in-game tokens which can be exchanged for unlockable items.[7] Unlike its predecessor, Excitebots does not support the ability to play custom music from an SD card.[8]

Play modes

Excitebots features many game modes that can be played:

You can also play up to five other people online with the Nintendo WFC. Options exist after each race to save replays and ghosts and send them to other Wii consoles including their own and attach awards to the ghost challenges.

Environments

Excitebots features a variety of robust racing environments, including some redesigned tracks from Excite Truck.

The tracks themselves also have unique features. For example, in Kilimanjaro, there are dinosaur fossils that come to life, Guatemala, the Moai statue heads can breathe fire at times, and in Tasmania, several rock monsters will alter tracks or attack players. Other locations featured include: Fiji, Canada, China, Egypt, Finland, Scotland, and Mexico. The only environment that is not based on a real location is "Crystal Nebula", a fictional planet made entirely out of various crystals and is regarded as the hardest track.

Reception

Reception
Aggregate scores
AggregatorScore
GameRankings80.19%[9]
Metacritic77/100[10]
Review scores
PublicationScore
Edge4/10[11]
GamePro7/10[10]
GameSpot8.0/10[12]
IGN8.4/10[13]
Nintendo Life[14]
Nintendo Power8/10[15]
Nintendo World Report9/10[16]

Excitebots has received favorable reviews from a variety of publications. IGN proclaimed the game as pure fun, and awarded it a score of 8.4 out of 10.[17] Nintendo World Report had similar things to say about the game, calling it a "fantastic game". Nintendo Power awarded the game a score of 8/10. While this score was slightly lower than that previously awarded to Excite Truck (8.5/10), they considered the game an improvement over the latter, the reason for the lower score being that they had to account for Mario Kart Wii and other racing games made since Excite Truck.

StageSelect.com awarded Excitebots a 7 out of 10 and said that 'twitchy controls don't harm the fun.'[18]

References

  1. 1 2 "IGN: Excitebots: Trick Racing". IGN. Retrieved 2009-03-05.
  2. Blundon, Matthew (2011-08-30). "Excitebots: Trick Racing to be Released in Japan as a Club Nintendo Reward". Nintendo World Report. Retrieved 2012-04-24.
  3. http://www.aussie-nintendo.com/?pageid=article&t=18184
  4. http://club.nintendo.jp/present/P125/index.html
  5. "Excitebots' Online Betting System". IGN. Retrieved 2009-04-20.
  6. "Hands-on with Excitebots: Trick Racing". GameSpy. Retrieved 2009-04-20.
  7. "More Details on Excitebots". GoNintendo. Retrieved 2009-04-20.
  8. "N-Europe on Excitebots". N-E. Retrieved 2009-04-20.
  9. "Excitebots: Trick Racing for Wii". GameRankings. CBS Interactive. Retrieved May 24, 2013.
  10. 1 2 "Excitebots: Trick Racing Critic Reviews for Wii". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved May 24, 2013.
  11. Edge (Future Publishing), no. 203, July 2009, p. 100 Missing or empty |title= (help)
  12. Watters, Chris (April 24, 2009). "Excitebots: Trick Racing Review". GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Retrieved May 24, 2013.
  13. Casamassina, Matt (April 21, 2009). "Excitebots Trick Racing Review". IGN. IGN Entertainment. Retrieved May 24, 2013.
  14. Dillard, Corbie (May 1, 2009). "Excitebots: Trick Racing (Wii) Review". Nintendo Life. Nlife Ltd. Retrieved May 24, 2013.
  15. Nintendo Power (Future US), May 2009, p. 87 Missing or empty |title= (help)
  16. DiMola, Nick (April 28, 2009). "Excitebots: Trick Racing Review". Nintendo World Report. Nintendo World Report, LLC. Retrieved May 24, 2013.
  17. http://wii.ign.com/articles/975/975068p1.html
  18. "Excitebots: Trick Racing Review". StageSelect.com.

External links

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