Nitrobike Review

By Tom Bramwell Published 7 February, 2008

Exciting?

Version tested: Wii

Nitrobike starts off well by being called Nitrobike. We like silly names, and Nitrobike certainly is one. Good controls, too. You hold the Wiimote with the buttons facing upwards and rotate it like a steering wheel. Turning is responsive, and the bike handling is intuitive enough that you quickly understand its limitations; when you need to throttle back, and the effect that the d-pad nitro boost has on cornering. Re-orientating the bike and performing tricks in the air are simple actions, the latter adding extra chunks to your boost meter so that you can rev for longer without exploding, with one chunk lost again whenever you're unseated.

Unfortunately, Nitrobike has a big problem. Nitrobike's big problem is called Excite Truck. Released here in early 2007, Excite Truck also had good, intuitive controls, but beyond that it offered bright, sharp and friendly visuals, huge, massively varied tracks with deformable terrain, a boost system that demanded vigilance to avoid overheating but paid out extra surges for good landings and tricks, and ongoing rewards that justified failure while sweetening success. Nitrobike does have some of Excite Truck's other good bits - like the jump-through-the-hoops levels, which take time to master, narrow the game's focus to precise steering and boosting and keep you coming back - but there's little else to shout about.

'Nitrobike' Screenshot 1

Like Excite Truck, you can only boost for so long before overheating, although you don't have to feather it as much here.

There's plenty to shout at, though. The steering can be great, but the camera isn't, and when your bike's spun around and you find yourself staring at it head on, you routinely overcompensate to correct your course, struggling to find purchase in the mud, while the camera swings back round. You're turned around a fair bit, too, because the braking is harsh and because bikes are fragile things, and the game's eager to smash them to bits or stop them in their tracks. The other nine bikers in any given race rob you of any speed or flip you around on contact, and the environment - full of barrels, nobbly incidental scenery and other bits that stick out unhelpfully - is inconsistent in its response to your brushes and bangs, blowing you to pieces and ragdolling your biker to the ground in some cases but barely worrying you in others.

Track design is largely unexciting. There's one route to follow, and while bits of the terrain can be smashed to pieces, the pieces just bobble around on the track like enormous rocky balloons. There isn't enough up and down, even though motocross - particularly arcade gaming motocross - is meant to be all about that. There are jumps, and getting the most air off them requires skill that will increase as you master lines into specific corners and improve your handle on the controls, while getting the best landing out of them requires good Wiimote wiggling and knowledge of which opposing ramps dovetail best into one another. But the scale is surprisingly small. The hillier individual circuits come into their own on the through-the-hoops levels, but in races and time trials they lack personality and feel more like gauntlets to run than challenges to relish.

This has a lot to do with how the game looks. Wii games aren't Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 games, and are sometimes accused of being a bit GameCube 1.5. Nitrobike is N64 1.5 - fuzzy, muddy, jagged and indistinct, full of geriatric effects and Vaseline textures. The way the camera drags you into the picture as you boost is a positive, and the sense of speed and consistency of frame-rate isn't in question, but if you dig out that Excite Truck disc again - as we did - the difference is alarming. One is full of rich, detailed graphics and effects. It's not this one.

Across the game's nine tiers there's undoubtedly a fair amount of racing to be done, with enough variety to stop you tiring of one particular discipline, but the game's various flaws conspire again and again to push you away. You dominate some tracks but get thrashed in others - the main difference being where you couldn't avoid contact with silly objects or other racers because of bottlenecks or the camera not showing you what's coming up. There's a decent stab at a reward system, with Achievements of sorts that unlock stat boosts, or even mini-games like Bowling, where you race down a course and smash into a barrier, your rider being flung the remaining distance to the ten pins.

'Nitrobike' Screenshot 2

The jumps give you an opportunity to perform tricks by holding combinations of buttons and d-pad directions. This adds chunks to the boost meter.

Where Nitrobike does exceed its contemporary is in multiplayer, because as well split-screen there's six-player online racing. Except you'll struggle to get anywhere unless you coordinate carefully with your friends, because the "Auto-match" option wants you to input specific game-type and size parameters for each search. For all we know there could be dozens of other people sitting there staring at their "Attempting to match with other players" screens just as we have done for two evenings in a row, but without the option to widen the search or meet in lobbies the most likely outcome is a lot of drumming fingers before giving up. If you do find someone, often they're alone with you on a big track, and if one of you messes up then it can be very hard to close the gap again, discouraging risk-taking and theatrics off ramps, which are surely things the game ought to reward.

Nitrobike does have redeeming features. The hoop levels are enough to steal an hour here and there and the satisfaction of besting one is considerable, and there's no denying that developer Left Field Productions has a good handle on the Wiimote, which means we do. Plus it does well by default - there simply isn't much competition. But when the game finds itself up against one cheaper, much better year-old rival and fails to make any in-roads, it's hard to justify sending you out to buy it. Better to hang around and see if Nintendo re-commissions Monster Games for another round of Trucks, because this certainly fails to excite.

5 / 10

Read the Eurogamer.net scoring policy
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About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (47) Latest comment 4 years ago

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

  • caligari #1 4 years ago

    Poor Ecosse.
    Edited by 1 at 07/02/08 @ 10:42

  • Darren #2 4 years ago

    I watched the GameTrailer's video review minus sound and thought the game looked great fun if a little old-hat then noticed the final score of 4.0! That's the last time I judge a game on its video alone!!! LOL

  • optimusprym8 #3 4 years ago

    bikes have steering wheels?

  • david78 #4 4 years ago

    Oh well.

  • Big-Swiss #5 4 years ago

    *drumroll" and again a 5/10...........

    /feels bad for Wii owners

  • bitesize #6 4 years ago


    great, here comes another thread full of "wiilol".

  • Benno #7 4 years ago

    the Wii has a shit games library doesn't it

  • IAmBatman #8 4 years ago

    "Nitrobike" is a better name than "Excite Truck" though.

  • Pac-man-ate-my-wife #9 4 years ago

    /laughs and points at the trolls
    /goes back to playing Super Mario Galaxy and Zack & Wiki

  • Solty #10 4 years ago

    It's not like any Wii owners (not me anyway) were expecting anything from Nitrobike. I started playing Excite Truck a couple of months ago, and I'm amazed by how fun it is. Never thought I'd like a game with trucks.

  • gingerlink #11 4 years ago

    Ok, so far, Nintendo themslves havn't made anything that bad for the wii.

    Third parties on the other hand...

    I think it's disgusting that Nintendo were trying to reinvigorate the market with the wii, but now all 3rd parties seem to be abusing it and churning out poorly thought out games in order to make easy money...
    Third parties still have no reason to complain that their games don't sell well on the wii compared to Nintendo's, it's because they're rubbish! jeez...
    Edited by 1 at 07/02/08 @ 11:07

  • Killerbee #12 4 years ago

    Excite Truck is indeed great.

    Hadn't really considered this all that much, so no great disappointment or surprise at the score - I think I'll probably wait for Mario Kart before I pick up another racer on the Wii. I'm still busy finishing off all the games I got over Christmas...

  • Carlo #13 4 years ago

    /goes back to playing

    SMG & Trauma Center

  • Daymare #14 4 years ago

    I've just skimmed through a Monster Trux Arenas review on IGN, which is a "re-release" (after a couple of months) of Offroad Extreme! Special Edition, only with different levels and cars. It's horrible what developers/publishers are doing with Wii..

  • Aretak #15 4 years ago

    It's essentially the GameCube all over again. Strong offerings from Nintendo and fuck all from 3rd parties, save for the odd gem from companies like Capcom.

  • ShiroBen #16 4 years ago

    Ah, that's a shame. I was hoping it'd be as fun as Excite Truck but improve on some of its weaker aspects (like multiplayer). Oh well.

  • vegard #17 4 years ago

    bring me excite truck 2! and/or a prostitute.

  • FooAtari #18 4 years ago

    Just picked up a Wii for Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games. Other than that not sure what else to get as I'm not a huge fan of N's first party franchises. Excite Truck is pretty cheap, when I saw this review I thought it might be a good alternative. Obviously not, Excite truck it is then.

  • Artemus #19 4 years ago

    It's essentially the GameCube all over again. Strong offerings from Nintendo and fuck all from 3rd parties, save for the odd gem from companies like Capcom.

    The difference being Nintendo has actually sold a shit load of consoles regardless.
    Edited by 1 at 07/02/08 @ 12:04

  • symbiote #20 4 years ago

    Nintendo Wii: shitest average game score for any console ever. Probably Fact.

  • snick #21 4 years ago

    Such a shame, I for one thoroughly enjoyed excitebike on the n64, its relative simulation style gameplay was great, forcing you to really learn the nuances of the course. I was disappointed that this was going for the excite truck style gameplay, despite enjoying that.

    Roll on excitebike 64 on VC (if its not already there, haven't turned the wii on in months)

  • SBfistfun #22 4 years ago

    Nitrobike?

    Shitetrobike more like

  • Katsumoto #23 4 years ago

    My god, these trolls don't give up!

    Shit, a wii game got a bad mark! LOL the wii must be shit!

    /looks up countless 360 games which scored under 5/10

    Shit, the 360 is crap too!

    /looks up countless ps3 games which scored under 5/10

    Fuck, not that as well. This is hopeless. Time to give up gaming for good guys.
    Edited by 1 at 07/02/08 @ 12:36

  • Muddtallica #24 4 years ago

    Well, that's a bit balls, isn't it? I seem to remember this having some good buzz about it, based off the fact it was from former Nintendo second-party Left Field, makers of the well-regarded Excitebike 64...seems like they've largely been churning out crud since then, though, so I guess Nintendo did a good bit of business in cutting them loose. Excite Truck sounds quite good though, actually...

  • GordonCaladan #25 4 years ago

    *gives away his wii*

  • Nikanoru #26 4 years ago

    bring me excite truck 2! and/or a prostitute.

    Indeed. One of the rare games where I actually feel a craving for a sequel with online play. Also, I want better points for different ways to crash. That one star for every crash was hardly worth it. D:

    Anyone who has not played it, shame on you, and get to it! And SHAME on Eurogamer for not including it in 2007's top 50, while plenty of shitty games did make it in.



    *gives away his wii*

    LOL yeah like you have one, silly little troll. Get back into your basement.

  • GordonCaladan #27 4 years ago

    "LOL yeah like you have one, silly little troll."

    I seriously do have one. Queued up for it on release day, actually. Its games library is, so far, a big disappointment.

  • MoGamer2006 #28 4 years ago

    So, what games have you got then Gordon?

  • GordonCaladan #29 4 years ago

    Twilight Princess, Super Mario Galaxy, RE4 Wii, Excite Truck. Tons of VC downloads.

    All of these are, of course, great games. But I enjoyed Wind Waker a whole lot more than TP, which feels like a Ocarina of Time rehash. Love RE4, but I played it to death on the Cube. Super Mario Galaxy is untouchable. Excite Truck is nice, but I'd rather play Burnout...

    Edited by 2 at 07/02/08 @ 14:49

  • Sid-Nice #30 4 years ago

    I was expecting a lot more from the makers of Excitebike 64; if fact I was disappointed when I found out that Leftfield weren't doing Excite Truck. Monster games; I was expecting a pile of shit like Monster Trucks? When playing Motorstorm on the PS3 I wish that I could use the Wii-mote as a controller and while playing Excite Truck I wish that the vehicles and terrain were in HD like Motorstorm.

    As for the concerned trolls; I’m a Wii owner with the option to play Excite Truck, Motorstorm and Burnout Paradise until Mario Kart arrives. I was hoping that Nitrobike was going to be Excite Truck on bikes; the outcome wasn’t that much of a surprise with Ubisoft at the helm.

    PS: I have a migraine and I can’t see what I’ve written; I hope all those trolls who want to fight with Nintendo fans are going to buy Brawl?

  • erp #31 4 years ago

    Excitebike on the 64 was brilliant. I loved it. Why can't we have another one of those please? It's like people have forgotten how to make games recently or something.

    Or sod it, just give me Excitebike on VC instead.

  • bitesize #32 4 years ago

    memo to nintendo: please get the makers of excite truck to make a new excite bike. thanks.

    ps. can it be online as well.

  • smelly #33 4 years ago

    EDITl didnt realise BuckoA51 was quoting someone else!

    My bad! I appologise to him
    Edited by 1 at 08/02/08 @ 00:18

  • bitesize #34 4 years ago

    ^ i think the first part of BuckoA51's comment was a quote from symbiote - who was actually wanking over his ps3 at the time. second part was his own addition, saying the wii's got better games. no involvement from the 360 anywhere in the post...

    i think you've got some unhealthy 360 obsession there man.

  • Nithron #35 4 years ago

    Well he does have a bit of a point, there does seem to be a vast amount of crappy minigame collections, bad ports and other miscellaneous shit on the Wii right now. But it also has some damn good games(Even if i don't personally like them), and let's face it, who won the last console war?
    The PS2.
    Which console had the biggest amount of shitty shovelware?
    The PS2.
    Hmm....

  • Katsumoto #36 4 years ago

    Someone worked all this out on the forum not too long ago and the Wii was only like 0.4 behind the 360 in terms of the average mark awarded. 360 trolls just conveniently forget all the crap that comes out for their console of choice, whilst also forgetting all the good stuff that comes out on everything else.

  • Ryze #37 4 years ago

    There's no excuse but sloppiness and lack of skill where it comes to ugly looking Wii games.

    Several PS2 games such as Wipeout, Burnout, Gran Turismo... the list is almost endless... these games all looked wonderful on PS2 hardware, which the Gamecu... Wii should piss all over.

    As the Wii will be a secondary console for me, there'll be ZERO purchasing of games scoring lower than 7/10 - not that there ever is... but I don't need to be tempted by any shite to fatten out my game library, seeing as I just bought GoW 2 and DMC 3 for the PS2, and have a load of 360 games unfinished.

    /rant over

  • captainrentboy #38 4 years ago

    My God the Wii is quickly becoming overloaded with absolute tripe isn't it? It's basically the new PS2. Now I'm not denying that the Wii like the PS2 before it has some corking titles, there are definitely some right gems on there, but clearly the curse of being the console of choice for the 'casual gamer' (or totally clueless gamer over the age of 35) is that developers will release any old shit on there, bang out an absolute turd in a couple of months, and still sell a few thousand. And it's only going to get worse, no fucker, bar Nintendo, is going to make much of an effort on this machine, I can see it coming.
    Ohh and katsumoto, I think a lot of the games on Wii are actually so shite that they go totally ignored by a high percentage reviewers anyway. Chicken Shoot springs to mind, what the fuck is that shit? I certainly don't remember it being deemed worthy of an EG review.
    Edited by 1 at 07/02/08 @ 22:03

  • smelly #39 4 years ago

    "My God the Wii is quickly becoming overloaded with absolute tripe isn't it? It's basically the new PS2."


    Reet.. about 95% of ALL game released in a year are going to be not worth owning (the other 5% being games scoring 90% or above).

    All games cant POSSIBLY be 90% or above.. as then that means all games will fall between 90 and 100%.. So you may as well then change your scale so that 90 becomes 1%, etc.

    Now.. Knowing that..

    The machine which sells the most obviously gets the most games. The PS2 sold 120 million units, and the number games released on it were due to that. Now 95% (appx) of those games are going to be crap. Now the wii is best selling machine, it'll get the most games.. and therefor the most crap.

    Simple math.

    Even a retarded fanboy on a games forum can figure it out!

    BTW - One of the reasons for the ps2's popularity WAS the number and variety of games available.. joe public doesnt care about quality - he cares about quantity. IF joe public cared more about quality - then the cube and dreamcast (or even the xbox) would've sold shit loads better than the ps2 did.

  • smelly #40 4 years ago

    Btw 2 : Any gamer who doesnt own a wii and doesnt own metroid 3/mario galaxy/zelda (and soon smash bros) cant call himself a gamer imho :-)

  • BartonFink #41 4 years ago

    Agreed on most counts smelly.
    But what if you hate Metroid with a passion? (well the broken archaic save mechanics really).

  • erp #42 4 years ago

    ZOMG!!!!!!! Metroid has no quick save!!!!! The game's broken!!!!!!!!!!

    The saving mechanic in Metroid is integral to the atmosphere the game creates, the same atmosphere that plays a large part towards making it such a refreshing change from all the other identikit FPS games available.

    See also: the original Resident Evil's save system, and why RE4's "improvements" to it also lessened the experience overall.

    So you don't like it, fair enough. But that doesn't make it broken.

  • Nikanoru #43 4 years ago

    (well the broken archaic save mechanics really)

    Yeah funny how I keep hearing people lauding save-anywhere systems, when THAT is the very definition of a broken game. It's like savestates in Super Mario Bros. It ruins games, it's for children and pussies, it's the reason I cannot consider any modern FPS game with such a system "hardcore".

  • erp #44 4 years ago

    Nikanoru: Amen to that.

  • captainrentboy #45 4 years ago

    Smelly your sums don't really work, do they? Take the 360 for example, or even to a lesser extent the PS3, now they both had their fair share of software releases last year, but in no way was there a 90% junk to 10% playable (and I'm only talking playable here, y'know, not bona fide classic) ratio going on.
    That's the problem I'm talking about with the Wii, because that ratio you mentioned IS becoming a bit more appropriate with regards to its software releases.
    I wasn't talking about how many releases there are for a format in any given year, only the decent to shite ratio is important, and at the mo there's faaar too much utter drivel on the Wii.
    Ohh and Joe public cares about price, which has the spangliest advert on tv, and brand name, not quantity. If quantity was the case then surely the 360 would still be hammering both formats.
    Oh and no need for name calling, no-one's a retard, people just have different opinions, that's all.
    Edited by 1 at 09/02/08 @ 22:16

  • eviltwin #46 4 years ago

    /Cries

    I really wanted this to be good. Loved Excite Truck.

    /Cries some more.

  • stoopidgreg #47 4 years ago

    sorry but from what i saw of this game on gamespot's show it looks fucking awful, how the hell could you give this a 5??