Excitebots: Trick Racing for Wii Reviews by Gamers

It's been nearly three years since Nintendo released the Monster Games-developed Excite Truck for Wii and in so doing surprised racing fans with a compelling, if not thrilling title that took the neglected franchise into a new high-flying direction. So what has the development studio that crafted that experience been up to since then? Well, another 'Excite' game, but it doesn't feature trucks or bikes this time around. Rather, you control animal-like robots, which can transform shapes on the fly when necessary, around a series of over-the-top courses. The experience is still blazing fast. The controls are tighter than before. There's all sorts of new mechanics and modes. And Excitebots Trick Racing is so wonderfully surreal that you can't help but appreciate Monster Games' unabashed roadblock to realism. Whether you're gliding through the air in your frog vehicle, smacking a giant football through uprights, twirling around bars or engaged in a mid-level bout of poker, you will be reminded at every turn and jump that you are playing a good old-fashioned videogame. It won't always make sense, but you won't want to stop.

Those of you who played Excite Trucks previously will already have a firm grasp on the foundation for this unofficial sequel. It's the same engine. The same visual style. The same fundamentals. But with a variety of new bells and whistles, all of them welcomed. In some ways, Excite Truck bordered on the generic side, but Monster Games' journey into surrealism has benefited the Excitebots experience. You'll find yourself cracking up at some of the vehicles selectable in the game -- frogs, spiders, bats -- all of them able to transform in certain situations. You'll laugh at these changes because in a blink your previously rolling vehicle will now be running along on two legs and you'll need to seesaw the Wii remote left and right to keep up the momentum. And just when you think it couldn't possibly get any weirder, your vehicle sprouts a top-arm and you can press the A button to hit a home run, to throw a dart or any number of equally outlandish tasks. This ridiculously videogame-y, whimsical side to Excitebots flows into the presentation and aids with the title's overall style, much more pronounced and definable.

Click here to watch some gameplay footage from the racer.

The presentation is benefited by a number of great options, some definitely more predictable than others. In addition to the Excite Race mode, which houses the guts of the single-player experience, you can play Poker Races. Yeah, you read correctly. As you speed through courses, you must configure hands of poker -- cards are strewn about tracks and you simply replace the bad ones in your hand for good ones in order to form pairs, three-of-a-kinds, full houses, straights, and flushes. The entire premise is completely and totally outlandish, but it's smartly designed, challenging and immeasurably fun. If you're hoping for a racing simulation, this is the wrong game, but arcade racing fans will surely love the carefree, try-anything-that-works nature of the project.

You can also select to play various mini-games that appear as mid-level challenges in the single-player mode -- soccer bowling, red bar, song rails, darts, hand escape, glider, etc. It plays like it reads in this review. As you race along a course, you actually veer off momentarily, drive your ball into a soccer ball and try to send it into a net. Or you might tap the A button to throw a dart at a giant bulls-eye off the side of a roadway. I've already established that this game doesn't even try to stay glued to reality. Like poker, you gain stars for your performance and will ultimately earn a rating, 'S' being the very best. There's incredible replay value to be had here.



Meanwhile, completionists will appreciate the title's collections section, which is home to all sorts of purchasable icons, statues and dioramas. The more stars you earn in races, the more currency you'll have at your disposal to unlock and buy these items. In the case of dioramas, you will actually need to perform special challenges in order to open them up. For instance, to unlock the drift diorama, you will fist need to complete 50 super drifts within the races. These unlockables are not easy to come by. You will really have to sink some time into the game, win races, poker and mini-games, if you're going to have any hope of buying either these unlockables or the flimsy, but expensive selection of vehicles that await you. If you don't have an online connection, the process is going to take you forever, a truth bound to please some. For my money, though, acquiring everything the game has to offer is a little too insurmountable if you don't have a way to go online.

Of course, the biggest addition to Excitebots is online play and thankfully the end result is better than anticipated. You can race against six other players online, either friends or random opponents. Naturally, you'll need to swap friend codes for the former, but what else is new? The game's online mode is fantastic for a few reasons, the first and most important of which is that it just works. You login seamlessly to Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection and you're given the option to play anyone in standard 'Excite' or poker races, or to play against friends. Once you choose, you're automatically paired with a group and then you have some options at your disposal. You can all vote on the level you want to play, select your vehicle. But best of all, you can bet. Actually wager stars in great quantity that you're going to win the match. If you do, you'll get those stars back double. If not, you'll lose 'em for good. The system is excellent, not only a great way to increase competitiveness, but a great reward for a job well done. If you wager 2500 stars in a handful of matches and win, you'll earn enough currency very quickly to buy extra vehicles and unlockables. This is by far the speediest way to accomplish that lofty goal and that's why single-player-only gamers are out of luck.

As impressed as I am with the game's many features, I am disappointed with two exclusions. First is the removal of SD Card support so that you can create your own customized soundtracks. I think the music in Excitebots remains one of its weakest elements and would have appreciated the option to supply my own soundtrack, as I could in Excite Trucks. And second, while Excitebots' online mode is robust, lag-free and ultimately very engaging, I still find myself incommunicado with the five other participants during online bouts, which is just silly. These experiences would have been enhanced with simple WiiSpeak support, but sadly, the hardware has gone completely ignored in Excitebots. Too bad. Hopefully we'll get another great sequel that addresses these shortcomings.

It's clear that even with a few missed exclusions, there's a lot to love about this racer. I've focused entirely on all of the extra bells and whistles in the review thus far, but don't worry because the core gameplay control and level designs are just as compelling. You've got got Excite and Super Excite modes, the latter of which is only unlocked after you've obtained 'S' ratings in every race of the former. That challenge definitely separates the men from the boys. There are only five so-called cups -- school, bronze, silver, gold and platinum -- and you can blaze through them pretty quickly if you have any experience at all with Excite Trucks or with any Wii racer played by holding the controller sideways. That said, acquiring those 'S' ratings to unlock Super Excite mode is definitely trickier than merely making it through the cups with 'A' ratings.

Excitebots is great fun. The good news is that the controls are noticeably tighter than they were in Monster Games' previous effort. Vehicles respond faster and seem all-around more precise. The smart trick system is quickly mastered and will make all the difference in getting those coveted 'S' ratings. Boost off a huge jump, hold 2 and up/down on the D-Pad, and start those seesawing movements. Your vehicle will in turn begin spinning, racking up additional stars. The more sports you're successful at -- football, baseball, darts, etc. -- the more starts you'll gain. Drifts. Big air. Bar stunts. Pulling out of a would-be crash. All of these and more contribute to stars. It's a really engaging setup that will definitely hook you. Finishing races in first place is a secondary goal if you know how to score through the matches themselves. Take, for example, the last online game I played before I wrote this review. I came in third place, but I still won the race overall because my star count was well beyond everybody else.



There are about 20 tracks in the game, and while the designs themselves are varied, the themes don't differ too much, which is a slight letdown. Mexico, China, Fiji, Kilimanjaro, Finland, Egypt -- these same locales return again and again throughout the experience. However, the designs encapsulated within are unique and all of the stages are overrun with crazy, big-air opportunities, unpredictable twists and turns, all sorts of sports challenges, and land masses that change dynamically as you near them. It's all very much like Excite Trucks -- if, that is, the title were amped up on the insanity level several notches.

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