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In 1985, the Excitebike was launched in the US as a “black label”. It didn’t *look* that impressive, but it was technologically notable, and also generally well-received as fun and easy for all ages.
Simple game mechanics allow you to accelerate, brake, boost and reorient your rider to increase your speed. Balance this with preventing the bike from overheating and avoiding obstacles. You’ll crash a lot, but once you get the hang of Excitebike, it’s extremely satisfying.
Excitebike was the creation of Nintendo legend Shigeru Miyamoto. According to Wikipedia, the team he led on Excitebike will use the same game engine and acceleration mechanism in Super Mario Bros. Most previous sidescrollers had their characters move at a constant speed, but the Excitebike engine allowed players to accelerate smoothly. The effect gave Super Mario a special feel.
At its core, Excitebike is a fairly primitive racing game. The graphics only improve incrementally from the deep solids of the Atari 2600, the sound effects are harsh, and the gameplay is minimal. But it has its undeniable charm and challenge.
Interestingly, the game has a creator mode that allows players to organize their own tracks. As far as I know (let me know if I’m wrong) this was completely unheard of at the time. This feature certainly provided players with many hours of entertainment than the game’s limited scope would have allowed. And decades before Mario Maker and Geometry Dash. Good job, Miyamoto-san!
Excitebike was truly a product of its time, and not just because of its simple gameplay and graphics. When Excitebike was released, gaming culture began to move away from arcades and into gamers’ homes.
Arcade games were designed to be played standing up, scoring every minute or two, prompting you to insert another quarter. Arcade gamers had no time to explore and certainly no time to create their own motocross tracks.
The increasing emphasis on home games allowed designers to create more casual, slow-burn experiences where they could seek out and invest time in not just living another minute and getting a higher score.
As such, Excitebike was one of the few games of its generation that was born on a console and ported to arcades later. Several Black Label NES games shared this life cycle.
I’ve said it enough times, but Excitebike really was a primitive Neanderthal game that pounded rocks in a tent made from a brontosaurus ribcage. (Don’t look it up, just trust me, it’s probably historically valid, huh?) But back in 1985, it was pretty impressive. And I’m sure players were intrigued by the possibility of creating their own tracks.
Today it’s a quick and easy source of racing adrenaline and a truly great piece of gaming history that, imo, belongs in a museum as much as it does on a collector’s shelf.