ExciteBike: World Rally Review

By Christian Donlan Published 9 February, 2010

Oh rally?

Version tested: Wii

There's always been a beautiful simplicity to ExciteBike, and Monster's gentle remake hasn't muddled things up very much. One button means "go fast", another button means "go a bit faster", and that's about all World Rally has to say on the subject of buttons. The game's casually impossible tracks have laps, but no bends to worry about, and while there are other riders strewn across the course, they're obstacles rather than rivals.

In single-player, you race against the clock and the clock alone: you learn the placement of the jumps and mud flats, get to grips with a handful of very simple handling systems, and then you just bring it all together across the space of four different Cup runs.

Those systems are very simple, too. Using turbo too much will overheat your bike, forcing you to explode rather politely before returning to the race after a brief but extremely annoying time-out. To combat this, you must keep an eye on your temperature gauge as you fly along the track, while remaining on the lookout for cooldown strips painted onto the course itself, which will allow you to chain together long periods of boost if you're sufficiently skilful to hit them all.

'ExciteBike: World Rally' Screenshot 1

It's Japan, so prepare to race past a Pagoda.

And while there's no cornering to concern yourself with, you can use the d-pad to shift between the track's four lanes, avoiding patches of dirt that will slow you down, or skimming around other racers and concrete bollards. If you fancy yourself - and really, that's the attitude that ExciteBike expects from you - you can wheelie over both of the latter, by tilting the remote at the last minute. You can also wheelie to get extra lift on each course's many jumps, and follow it up with a perfectly-angled landing to retain your momentum.

Having mastered all of these relatively simple ideas, you may soon realise that you've started to play a different game to the one you started out with. Like its older brother, World Rally is about tactics and memory rather than the simple freestyling buzz of rattling around a track, and - odd as it sounds, given that every course is essentially an uninterrupted straight - this is a game with a real racing line, as you get to grips with the placement of obstacles and slowly gain a sense of when to gamble on the wild cards of other riders.

As such, the whole thing really comes alive in the gap between beating a track and acing it - between the grades of B and S, to use the ranking system that Monster has imported from its own lovely ExciteTruck. World Rally is charming enough to look at in a chunky, colourful sort of way, and the smattering of local detail as you zip around courses located everywhere from Mexico to Paris are unfailingly pleasant, but the game's main appeal comes with knocking a millisecond off a lap time rather than waiting to see what graphical marvels the design team have in store for you as you head into the Platinum Cup.

'ExciteBike: World Rally' Screenshot 2

It's Italy, so prepare to race past a change in government.

Multiplayer (online only, which is weird; largely lag free and packed with racers, which is even weirder) fills out the package, with four-player races available for both friends and strangers.

Finally there's a track editor, which comes with options to save and share your work. With no-frills obstacle-selection and placement, it's pretty easy to construct horribly unbalanced chunks of racing villainy, filled with sadistic jumps leading into lengthy gravel pits, topped off with a mile or two of uninterrupted bollards. You can probably piece together something a little kinder, too, if you're feeling more emotionally stable. Make no mistake: World Rally's track editor isn't about to make 2010 a landmark year for anyone, but it's nice to have all the same.

That's pretty much applicable to the wider experience, really. Like Nintendo's original, ExciteBike: World Rally is simple fun. This is no Trials HD, but it's still great to play as a chummy pass-the-controller game, and nice to have stuck on an SD card for a rainy Sunday afternoon when there are no Columbo re-runs to watch on television. Nostalgic, colourful and modest, this is retro-gaming at its least self-conscious.

7 / 10

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Picture of Christian.

About Christian Donlan

Chris Donlan writes about games for Eurogamer and some magazines. His heroes include Eugene Jarvis, Errol Morris, and Linus Van Pelt.

Read more articles from Christian by visiting the Christian Donlan archive page.

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Comments (32) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • cianchristopher #1 2 years ago

    Those graphics look amazing!

    Come in Trials HD, your time is up...

  • Retroid #2 2 years ago

    "Oh rally?"

    Oh dear! :D

  • Poorandugly #3 2 years ago

    I rally can't believe that pun.

  • ianegg #4 2 years ago

    I have far too many Wii, PC and PS3 games to get through so a cool as this game looks to me, I can't see myself investing any of my Wii time to it. If there was a DS version on the other hand, it sounds like it would be great on the tube.

  • mingster #5 2 years ago

    I actually want this.

  • X #6 2 years ago

    I played Excitebike for absolutely ages on my NES so this is tempting - would be my first WiiWare purchase. Come to think of it I've not purchased anything on Nintendo's service yet...

  • secombe #7 2 years ago

    Please, EG, add release date / format / cost to your reviews. Without going off and searching, I've now idea if this is WiiWare, retail, when it's out or how much it costs.

    Only the mention of an SD card at the end made me wonder, up till then I figured this was a disc release.

  • Jeepers #8 2 years ago

    Echoing Secombe here - price and format would be small but very helpful addition to the reviews.

  • vegard #9 2 years ago

    will not believe a review written by a fellow who insists that watching "Columbo re-runs" counts as a good time;)

  • HEAVYface #10 2 years ago

    prefer the nes graphics. and i like the columbo re-runs. god i'm old.

  • sneetch #11 2 years ago

    @secombe
    Please, EG, add release date / format / cost to your reviews. Without going off and searching, I've now idea if this is WiiWare, retail, when it's out or how much it costs.

    That would be great, please put the cost in sterling and euro too. I realise the actual euro price changes from country to country (because of tax rates and all that) but it gives us a good idea of what to expect: a better deal if we order from the UK, normally. ;)

  • secombe #12 2 years ago

    Price is probably awkward for retail releases considering currency differences, but for WiiWare / XBLA it makes sense as the price is standard across the board.

    Format and release date should be easily do-able though.

  • smoison #13 2 years ago

    No local multiplayer will keep me away, too bad.

  • Tomo #14 2 years ago

    YA RALLY

  • Tomo #15 2 years ago

    PS: this got a terrible write-up in Edge :s

  • Senate #16 2 years ago

    EDGE made it quite clear a long time ago what they think of anything related to Nintendo Tomo.

  • snick #17 2 years ago

    Updated excitebike64 next please, now that was a good 2D to 3D conversion.

  • gav_and_the_gavster #18 2 years ago

    Trials, now this...you know they say these things come in 3's...someone do Kickstart HD!

  • erp #19 2 years ago

    Now this may be completely rose-tinted nostalgia, but I have extremely fond memories of Excitebike 64 on the N64 being my absolutely favourite physics-based racer.The intricacy of its controls and the demands of your concentration are things I don't remember seeing matched since.

    I'd like some of that on VC yes please!

    (This one sounds cool in the meantime too.)

  • FairgroundTown #20 2 years ago

    Great game.Perhaps a little too luck-dependent, depending on what the other bikes do, but my aching hands say it can't be put down.

  • Oh-Bollox #21 2 years ago

    O RLLY would have worked better, plus at least one mongoloid would have complained that "You've mis-spelled the O RLY internet meme."

  • barnard666 #22 2 years ago

    KICKSTART HD - bring it on!

    this has top be wiiware - surely....

  • Zapatero #23 2 years ago

    caption #2. classic

  • cianchristopher #24 2 years ago

    How the hell could Kickstart HD be wiiware, given that the wii isn't even HD?

  • gamingdave #25 2 years ago

    Firstly, you should get all the Columbos on DVD, then re-runs isnt a problem ;)

    Definately going to get this, the NES conversion is permenantly wedged in my GBA Micro, love it.

    For local multiplayer to work, it would have to be split screen, and with your bike already being small, this could potentially cause problems on smaller sets. Shame its not an option, but as its really a single player time trial game I dont see it as a real loss

  • imamazed #26 2 years ago

    This looks like it will rally excite

  • esbenf #27 2 years ago

    Well a new Kickstart on Wii would be higher resolution than the C64 originals anyway, given the definition of HD is kind of a mess, you could call it Kickstart HD compared to them..

  • figaro7 #28 2 years ago

    It really is a pleasent little game however i dont agree that you need to memorise the track at all. Ive Gone through the game, now going back and s ranked the bronze cup, its all a matter of going hard, boosting at jumps and hitting those all important heat reduction marks on the track so you can keep on boosting! Really is a little clever game and great fun in short bursts.

  • smelly #29 2 years ago

    >this got a terrible write-up in Edge

    it's edge.. they dont care about gameplay - only graphics (like cianchristopher above).

  • smelly #30 2 years ago

    >given that the wii isn't even HD?

    You dont have to be 720p to be considered HD.. just look at halo.

  • smelly #31 2 years ago

    @SHARXTREME : Gamers like you depress me. Its almost as if all you want out of games is purdy graphics where you run around grey and brown worlds shooting things.

    I find it depressing because casual gamers like you who only care about graphics are spoiling it for the rest of us who like to actually (you know) have fun. Too many games publishers make graphic wank fests while forgetting the actual gameplay element nowadays to appeal to the casuals like you.

    meh. Ah well, i'm sure you'll go back to lusting after GT5 with it's box physics gameplay, or the latest fps game which amounts to nothing more than an extended game of whack a mole.

  • smelly #32 2 years ago

    @frod : yeah.. that DOES seem weird doesnt it?

    Ah well, i dont have any friends anyhows - so no skin off my nose