Excitebots: Trick Racing
Animal-themed robot vehicles with minigames during races.
Excitebots: Trick Racing, the fourth Excite series game and a follow-up to Excite Truck, was released for the Wii in 2009. Developed by Monster Games and published by Nintendo, it features animal-themed robot racers and short minigames like pie throwing and bowling. While critics received it positively, the game never saw a retail release outside North America, though it later became available in Japan through Club Nintendo.
Quick Facts
- Developer
- Monster Games
- Publisher
- Nintendo
- Director
- Richard Garcia
- Producer
- Kensuke Tanabe; Keisuke Terasaki
- Composer
- Kenji Yamamoto
- Masaru Tajima
- Shinji Ushiroda
- Designer
- John Schneider
- Programmer
- Dave Broske; Dave Pollatsek
- Series
- Excite
Facts from the source article.
Gameplay
Excitebots is controlled with the Wii Remote held horizontally, optionally with the Wii Wheel. The 25 courses are modeled after real locations on Earth and are large, offering many meandering paths. Most races are two laps long and allow players to gain massive altitude, perform maneuvers, and obtain items. Each race is graded from D (lowest) to S (highest). To achieve a higher score, players perform tricks, stunts, complete minigames, and finish before other bots. Stars are earned through actions such as gaining extreme altitude from inclined terrain, smashing into other bots at high speed, altering terrain to send leading bots skyward, ramming bowling pins, using offensive items like bombs and hammers, and swinging on bars including a mandatory red bar per course. The game features six-player online multiplayer via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection and local split-screen two-player racing. Players could bet in-game tokens on themselves, exchangeable for unlockable items. Game modes include Excite Race, the main mode; Super Excite, a harder version with higher star requirements and a hidden course; and Mirror Excite, with mirrored tracks and tougher CPU opponents, unlocked after a perfect score in Super Excite.
Reception
Excitebots received favorable reviews from several publications. IGN gave it a score of 8.4 out of 10, calling it pure fun. Nintendo World Report described it as a fantastic game. Nintendo Power awarded an 8 out of 10, lower than Excite Truck's 8.5, but considered the game an improvement, attributing the lower score to accounting for Mario Kart Wii and other racing games released since Excite Truck. StageSelect.com gave a 7 out of 10, noting that twitchy controls do not harm the fun.
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