The Excite series is one that, in my opinion, has always been treated with very high quality. The original Excitebike was extremely fun, quite challenging, and a great 2-player game. Excitebike 64 was easily one of the best games of the N64 era, with a level editor, crazy minigames, and 4-player action. The launch of the Wii saw Excite Truck, which changed bikes to trucks, but kept the exciting high-octane action of the previous versions. And now, a mere 2.5 years later, we have yet another great Excite game: ExciteBots: Trick Racing. ExciteBots is an interesting game. Instead of racing bikes or trucks, you race various robots shaped like small animals or insects. For example, you can be a tree frog, a ladybug, or my personal favorite, a bat. The controls are basically the same as Excite Truck: you turn the Wii Remote like a steering wheel to drive. This makes it harder and easier at the same time. While almost everyone is already used to steering to drive something, the controls are very accurate, so for some areas, you have to be extremely precise in your movements. But that’s not a bad thing.
You may start the game and feel that it’s essentially ExciteTruck with new vehicles, but it’s much more than that. You see, ExciteBots is a video game that knows it’s a video game. What I mean is that it never tries to be something that could be done in real life. Granted that ExciteTruck was never exactly physics-accurate, but at least it had real trucks with 4 wheels and such. ExciteBots doesn’t care that you can drive a giant centipede over a hill, grab a red bar with a mechanical arm, spin around it while gaining speed, launch off of it at insane speeds, and then do a 1080 before you hit the ground again.
Sounds insane, but really, that’s the whole appeal. You see, the Wii Excite games work a little different than normal racing games. Rather than win, you have to have enough Stars at the end of the race to unlock the next one, so technically you could lose the race, but still move on. Strange, but it can be fun, especially considering some of the things you do in the race. For example, pick up an item block and a set of bowling pins will appear ahead of you. You get one star for each one you knock down. Another one might be a giant football in the middle of the road. Kick it through the uprights for a field goal (3 stars, of course). And don’t forget my favorite: Find a piece of bread. If you get it, a sandwich fixing appears further ahead. Get all the pieces together and get a Super Sandwich! Seriously! How can you not own a game that lets you get a Super Sandwich?
There are also plenty of mini-games to keep you entertained. You can play an entire game of bowling, kick soccer balls into goals, hit clowns in the face with pies, go fishing (all while driving, of course)… it’s just plain crazy. There’s even a Poker Race. You start with a set of cards, and you can exchange them for other cards if you can find them on the track. Get more points for better hands! Plus, you can send replays to friends and award them some of your stars if they can beat your score. Or, play local multiplayer, of course.
Excitebots is a crazy game, to be sure. But that’s not a bad thing. It’s a very fun game, almost as much for single player as it is for multiplayer. It’s also a little easier to unlock everything that the last one (which is nice). Plus, it’s only $40 new (probably less, now), so it’s definitely worth buying. Get out there! Race! NOW!
Pros:
- Insane and crazy racing
- Hilarious and awesome bonuses and minigames
- Very affordable and very fun
Cons:
- Some of the motion controls are a little repetitive at times
This game has earned a Blatantly Biased:
