Excitebike
Reviewed by Brian Mulholland
A motocross game that I remember loving at the time but can't stand
anymore. Excitebike was one of those games that came out early on and
as a result features weak graphics, and not much sophistication.
Graphics 4 out of 10
The graphics are pretty bad and some of the obstacles are pretty badly
drawn, and other than the track there's not a whole lot to look at. But
you've got to cut games like this some slack for when they came out.
The animation in particular aggravates me on this game. The word
'physics' means nothing in the game. The only good thing I can say is
that the makers seem to recognize their limitations and didn't get
to ambitious.
Music and Sound 4 out of 10
Music? What music? There's some repetitive engine noise and a few
other background noises, but calling it music would be to generous.
The engine noises are pretty bad, and the crash noises aren't any better.
But again, the developers stayed minimalistic and avoided over-reaching.
Game Challenge 7 out of 10
The game's pretty easy but the time you race against gets faster and
faster as the tracks get insanely slow with large obstacles keeping you
from making good time. Better yet, you have the ability to design your
own tracks to challenge your buddies. It is this feature which is Excitebike's
only redeeming feature. The ability to design your own level in such a
primitive game showed great forethought on the part of the developers.
As a result you can compete with one another to see who can take your
home-brewed tracks faster and this can be entertaining and challenging
in a way that the rest of the game simply does not seem capable of.
Game Play-Fun 7 out of 10
You should enjoy challenging friends with custom tracks, but other than
this the game offers precious little entertainment. The races, even with
computer racers, just are to boring to offer anything more than fleeting joy.
Frustration
Trying to meet the insane time trials on tracks with three story obstacles
stacked one after another can be frustrating, but you quickly realize that
this is not what Excitebike is good for and will quit to go design your own tracks.
Replayability 5 out of 10
The custom tracks are attractive, but eventually you'll get bored of these
as wells because there are really only a limited number of truly original
combinations and mixes you can come up with. Eventually you realize
you're just making subtle variations on the same couple themes and you
and your friend will get bored.
Overall 3 out of 10
This is an overall loser game but which is salvageable because it has one
great feature that was way ahead of it's time. That feature might make
it worth a buck, but only barely.