Originally released for NES, October, 1985
Wii Points: 500 ($5)
Review it yourself

As a younger gamer, I found instruction booklets were notoriously difficult to keep track of. After just a few days of ownership, most went missing, meaning many of the games I borrowed or found at the local shops were sans instructional materials. In those days before the vast resources of the internet, this left me struggling to figure out gameplay and controls for myself.

Luckily, most console games were pretty straightforward back then, but I was bound to miss things here and there. For example, up until this week's purchase of Excitebike on Virtual Console, I had no idea that those damned arrows actually did anything. Thanks to a read of the included electronic manual standard with games acquired through the Wii's download service, I finally realize that they cool down the bike's engine. Of course, I suppose I'm getting a little ahead of myself.

At heart, Excitebike is a rather simple motocross racer. It contains a grand total of five tracks, two gameplay modes, and the option to create and save a single custom map. Compared to today's standards this may all seem a bit limited, but hey--it was 1985.

Despite its lack of content, Excitebike still proves--pardon the pun--an exciting affair. With only two face buttons on the NES controller or rotated Wii remote, one for acceleration and the other turbo boost, the primary challenge comes from navigating the various jumps and bumps of the tracks as fast a possible without toppling over, a feat far more involving than it sounds. Deviously placed ramps force players to avoid clipping the bike's front wheel on a ledge by shifting weight backwards with the left directional arrow, but then require them to lean forward moments later for a level landing with the right arrow.

On top of the literal balancing act in jumping and landing, careful use of turbo for optimal time represents another challenge. Put too much pressure on the engine via turbo and it overheats, but that's where those afore-mentioned cooling arrows come into play. Should opponents populate a track, the other racers add another degree of challenge as they must be avoided as well.

This experience comes to an end rather quickly. Excitebike only features a grand total of five levels, and once you conquer the last track, it simply loops until you either fail to place within the top three times or inevitably shut it off out of boredom--whichever comes first. The two gameplay modes merely toggle whether there are other racers on the track. Either way, you still find yourself racing against the clock across those same five levels. The ability to create a track of your own devious trappings--complete with a selection of 19 varied pieces--adds a bit of replay value, but without any way to share the custom track and with no multiplayer features, it represents little more than a temporary distraction.

All of that said, there is still much fun to be had with Excitebike while it lasts. I got sucked into it for a few hours, first swearing at all the tricky track layouts and then reveling in it as I constructed my own. Curiously, in many ways, the experience reminded of Evolution Studios' much more modern off-road racer MotorStorm, just released for PlayStation 3--the game is a lot of fun while it lasts but offers little incentive to return later. All things considered, there are far worse ways to spend a few hours than with some throwback nostalgic goodness. Whether that is worth $5 is up to you.