LogFAQs > #975583555

Game #8 - Excitebike (Nintendo, 1984)
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/5/4/AAN-f8AAExbu.jpg
Final time: 1:20

I got first place on all five tracks, which is good enough for me. I did the first four with other racers, but for the last track I just played by myself. I did this for two reasons. First, when you collide with another racer, you bail 99% of the time and they just keep riding like nothing happened. They can just change into your lane at will and wipe you out without any risk and it's kind of lame. Second, the other racers don't even matter because other racers will just spawn further down the track, and your placement is determined entirely by your time and not where the other racers are.

As for the game itself, I'm not a huge fan. I don't like the way the crashes work and how sometimes your guy just rolls for days. I even saw my guy roll up and ramp and all the way down the other side, losing like 10 whole seconds. Other than that, I guess it's fine, but I'm not a big racing fan so I was probably never going to really get into it. Running solo is a lot better than playing with CPUs though, and it feels good when you hit a ramp or sequence of ramps perfectly. Mechanically, it's pretty impressive for the time, and I believe the engine it uses for acceleration was later adapted to Super Mario Brothers, so we should thank it for that at least. The controls don't suck, so that's enough to slot it solidly ahead of Ice Climber.

Also, I didn't touch it, but you can design your own tracks. I'm no historian, but I feel like a level designer is pretty impressive for the mid-80's. Does anyone know any other games that have one from this time period?

NES games beaten: 7/65
Total games beaten: 8/217
Total play time: 27 hours, 49 minutes

MZero Game Ranking

Pokemon Trading Card Game
Balloon Fight
Ice Hockey
Excitebike
Ice Climber
Mario Bros.
Baseball
Donkey Kong