Excitebike

A bit dated in many respects, but given the other variety of launch titles on the console, Excitebike proves a fun enough time to keep your patience just for a little bit. Having the two modes is nice, even if the experience is relatively the same regardless, and the level editor is a nice addition, especially for 1985. Definitely a case of a game that hasn't aged the greatest, though, in spite of its "classic" reputation.

"For the time," is certainly something we don't use in reviews too often. Music can be appreciated directly in the moment, for the most part. Books are certainly an exception, usually with a very directed point-of-view that may be seen as trivial or outdated or simple by our standards today. I feel videogames may fall into this camp too. They can certainly still be fun and entertaining, but it seems almost necessary to take a look at a game from the time it was made. Not to give excuses, certainly a fun game 'then' must still be a fun game now, or else it still had flaws to begin with. Fun is fun, but maybe our ideas of what games offer and how they offer 'fun' changes with each new generation. With that said, Excitebike for the NES offers up some great arcade-style racing and some mechanics that were quite intuitive for the time.

Begin at the start, end at the finish, do jumps and don't crash in the middle: These are the basics. The core stands really well. Graphically it has charm, the sound is decent, and it certainly is a great game of the pick-up-and-play variety. Where it gets a little better is not with the AI options (though it is a little fun), but with the track-builder. Pretty neat for the time, and even today, the ability to create your own custom tracks and race them is awesome. It puts all the tools at your fingertips and doesn't hold up.

Overall, Excitebike seems simple by today's standards, but remains a fun classic to visit and offers a few twists here and there that seem to keep it fresher than a lot of newer downloadable titles today.