Excitebike 64 Preview

Fans of the old NES motorcycle-racing game have been waiting for an update to this series for quite some time. Nintendo is finally delivering an update to the series, and so far it's looking pretty solid.

Excitebike 64 sports different characters, all with their own stats, as well as both indoor and outdoor tracks and a track editor. Also, you'll be able to unlock the original NES game - a nifty addition. Remember how the NES version had a track editor and a save button, but saving didn't do anything? Remember how you weren't smart enough to read the directions and discover that the save function didn't work, so you spent hours wondering why you couldn't save your tracks? Fear not. The save function is now fully functional, so you can save your 8-bit tracks and play them until your eyes bleed.

Other hidden modes include Excitebike 3D, which puts you on a track that looks like the old Excitebike tracks, and a multiplayer soccer game, which puts you in a small, flat area with an enormous soccer ball. The game sports some pretty good animation, particularly when you crash. The gameplay has a bit in common with the original game, containing both a turbo button and a temperature gauge. Nintendo used the Space World show to give gamers a peek at its Excitebike 64, which up until now had only been seen on video, with Nintendo keeping its lips sealed pretty tightly about the game. The game had looked good on video but video doesn't tell us anything about gameplay. Videogames.com's Sam Kennedy tried out Excitebike 64 at length at Space World '99 and found there's more than meets the eye, at this early stage.

"After I landed a few minutes of playtime, a Nintendo crew member came up to me and asked me a few questions - mainly, he was wondering if I could tell him why I liked the game. To me, it was quite simple - Excitebike 64 plays a lot like the original Excitebike, except now it's in 3D.

Excitebike 64 was loads of fun to play - the control was simple, and it was somewhat reminiscent of the original Excitebike. When you jump off of one dirt mound and land on another, you have to use the analog stick to direct how your bike will land. The game also features some top-notch graphics on the Nintendo 64. In fact, if I had to place my finger on the game that most surprised me visually at the Space World show, it might be this one. I also got to try out the two-player mode (there's also a four-player option), and it played great, with no slowdown or other noticeable problems.

So the key is, it plays like the original game. Which is to say, easy. There are no complex racing tactics to figure out, and there are no fancy controls. It's just pure, simple fun. Just the way I like it. When you go off jumps in the game you have to make sure to land properly, as in the original Excitebike - but with the analog pad it works really well. You really get the feeling that you have complete control over your bike.

The graphics, in my opinion, are simply top notch for the Nintendo 64. From a distance you'd almost swear the game is running on the Dreamcast - in large part because of its high res. I heard a few complaints from others that it was tad choppy, but to be perfectly honest I didn't notice any choppiness or slowdown. While observing someone else playing the game I noticed one or two instances of pop-in, but it was such a rare occurrence that if you weren't looking out for it, you'd never spot it. And of course the title is only 50 percent complete, leaving ample time to remedy any of that.

The game lets you choose from six options at the start: Season Mode, Special Tracks, Multiplayer Racing, Time Trials, and (what will easily be the title's greatest attraction) the Custom Track mode. I got a chance to try out the two and four player modes, and both worked great. It's easy to see what you're doing in both cases - the game is perfectly scaled down into the smaller windows. The version on display at the Space World show offered six tracks; three stadium courses, a jungle level, and two taking place in a quarry. The Jungle course was easily my favorite of the bunch, as it featured lots of extreme terrain throughout the track. You'll drive through areas with water and you'll come across parts where you can go up on hills while other racers will remain down below you. It's some great track design in my opinion. The game also makes great use of the Rumble Pak, offering some of the best rumbles yet felt with the device.

Excitebike uses a very similar engine system that the original game used - you accelerate with one button, and then if you want to go any faster than that you can use your turbo engine. However, you can only use this for limited amounts of time, as you don't want your engine to overheat. As you play through the game more and more you can get better at using the turbo; finding the exact time when to press it and when to let go. There are even certain tracks (such as the jungle level) where you absolutely have to use the turbo power to progress past a specific part correctly.

So while the Space World version of Excitebike was only listed as being 50 percent complete, I felt the game already looked quite polished. It was definitely one of my favorites. Fans of the original Excitebike (like myself - I still think the original title is one of the best games of all time) are going to love this one. It's one of the few instances where a great 2D game has successfully made a transition to the 3D world."

Excitebike 64 is slated for release in February of 2000 in Japan, so hopefully the US version will be out around the same time. We'll keep you up to date on any more details, shots, and releases. Ben Stahl's Gameplay Impressions:

From just playing Excitebike you get the impression that this is a far different game from any of the other dirt-bike games found on any console. Excitebike 64 has got that x-factor that made the original Excitebike such an incredible game. You really get the impression that making Excitebike as true to actual dirt-bike racing as possible was a top priority for Left Field.There are several different modes, but one of the coolest is the hill-climb mode, which depicts the hard-core sport of riding dirt-bikes up incredibly steep mountains to see how high you can get before you flip the bike over backward and break a majority of your bones as you roll back down to the base of the mountain. The hill-climb mode is incredibly fun, as it's realistically difficult - you'll have to be crafty with the turbo and steering to make it up the mountain, and you get to watch your rider come tumbling down if you aren't.

Excitebike 64 takes a really cool approach to dirt-bike racing, and it is sets up more like an actual arcade racer than a dirt-bike simulation. There are shortcuts to be found, and your bike doesn't stay on the track. If you hit a jump and fly past the markers, you'll have to ride back to the boundaries. This effect is just too cool for words, and it really gives the game a distinct feel of realism.

There are both indoor and outdoor tracks, and the differences between the two are more than just cosmetic. Indoor courses are more focused on a series of jumps and turns, while the outdoor tracks are longer and have a significantly fewer number of jumps.

Additionally, there's a perfect port of the original Excitebike and a new mode called Excitebike 3D. Excitebike 3D is, in essence, a 3D version of Excitebike - the track is linear, and it consists only of jumps - there are no turns or scenery. This mode is extremely cool.

Excitebike 64 appears to be the sort of dirt-bike game that anyone would love, and we'll just have to see if this is true when it releases in May.