Japanese gamers get to experience the joy of Excitebike with a different camera angle and online play today, with the release of Excitebike World Rally (as "Excitebike World Race"). It's a pretty faithful adaptation of the original, something that can't be said for Tecmo's Are? DS ga Sakasa Desu Kedo: Gyaku Shooting, a shooter with elements of its own Star Force, but played from the other side -- and with the DS upside down. Using the DS's touch screen, players control the enemies firing downward at what is usually the player ship. DS ga Sakasa Desu Kedo: Sakasa Drops takes the same approach and applies it to a falling-block puzzle game. Check out a trailer for Shooting after the break.
Quarth (MSX, 1-2 players, 800 Wii Points)
Contra (MSX, 1-2 players, 800 Wii Points)
Excitebike World Race (WiiWare, 1-4 players, 1,000 Wii Points)
Are? DS ga Sakasa Desu Kedo: Gyaku Shooting (DSiWare, 1 player, 200 DSi Points)
Are? DS ga Sakasa Desu Kedo: Sakasa Drops (DSiWare, 1 player, 200 DSi Points)
Artist ni Narou! Minna no Nurikai Museum Hen (DSiWare, 1-2 players, 500 DSi Points)
Hobonichi Rosenzu 2010 (DSiWare, 1 player, 500 DSi Points)
Renjuku Kanji: Shougaku Sannensei (DSiWare, 1 player, 500 DSi Points)
You know how this works by now. One of those mysterious updates that changes the game in some way, but we rarely find out how. Update at your own risk! Thanks to Marl0 for the heads up!
A portion of a Hanafuda Times review…
Yes, Excitebike World Rally is essentially a sexier clone of the NES Excitebike, but this shouldn’t be something that is frowned upon. Online Play makes the game palatable to modern gamers. Excitebike was always fun because of it’s simplicity. Why fix something that isn’t broken?
Wait! Come back! The motion controls sound okay! We know that you're already groaning about the potential ruin of an NES classic with unwarranted waggle, but according to 1UP's preview of Excitebike: World Rally, the limited Wiimote motion sensing added to the traditional Excitebike control scheme actually improves the game.You still move with the D-pad and accelerate with a button, but you can now tilt the Wiimote to lean your rider and "affect the pitch of your bike." "Jumping was always the trickiest part of Excitebike," 1UP's Jeremy Parish notes, "and the analog smoothness of the motion controls makes it intuitive -- it became second nature before the end of the first track."We're curious enough about this sensible-sounding innovation that we'll delay throwing our controllers down in disgust. For now.
This week's most noteworthy item on the Nintendo Channel is undoubtedly the unveiling of Excitebike World Rally -- if you haven't had a chance to check out the brief trailer for November's WiiWare racer then, by all means, get with the clicking. If that doesn't tickle your fancy, then we suggest you check and make sure it's still breathing, because a new Excitebike is definitely a fancy tickler.Head past the break for this week's Nintendo Channel content.
Turn on your Wii and check out the Nintendo Channel right now: on the weekly "Nintendo Week" program, the hosts revealed a new WiiWare version of Excitebike, called Excitebike World Rally, due out November 9. It looks like a 2.5D version of the original Excitebike redone in polygons, with the classic track editor. But this version has online multiplayer! Take that, Vs. Excitebike.There's also footage of Castlevania: The Adventure Rebirth! It looks fantastic. That comes pretty early in the show. The Excitebike reveal comes only after a Frag Doll appearance and a Scooby-Doo style fast-motion chase sequence. And a zombie grunting his way through a description of Zombies Ate My Neighbors.
