Excitebike World Rally Review

After tacking the Excite moniker on to everything from racing trucks to racing robots, it’s nice to see the term once again being applied to the piece of machinery that that started it all. Excitebike World Rally for WiiWare is an honest bid to give fans of the original title something they’ve been marching up and down the Internet demanding for what feels like a small eternity.

Whether using the new, default isometric viewpoint or the more traditional side scrolling one, the game is much closer to the original Excitebike than Excitebike 64. There might be the instant hit of retro nostalgia because of the visuals, but World Rally replicates this feeling in everything it does, right down to the gameplay.

The basic idea is to guide your dirt bike rider around the side scrolling course in the quickest time possible – everything else is an obstacle in your way, aiming to slow you down. That includes rough patches of track, concrete barriers, and even other riders. World Rally isn’t concerned about what ranking you are on the track – the all important factor here is the time it takes you to get around the required number of laps.

To that end you’ll need to switch between the four lanes to avoid obstacles and make judicious use of the wheelie function to vault anything you can’t avoid (including other riders). World Rally is another title that emulates the NES pad by requiring you to hold the Wii Remote horizontally and tilting it to the left performs the wheelie. Angling it to the right is used to level out the bike (thereby maintaining speed) once you’ve popped an impossible wheelie off a humongous ramp.

Aside from being able to boost, angling yourself over cool down points on the track to stop your bike from overheating, and frantically shaking the Remote to get back on the course when you crash, in a nutshell that’s all there is to World Rally. It’s a simplicity born out of the original game and one which naturally results in it having a the same vibe as the original.

In order to progress, the player must earn the minimum rankings on each stage. Later on the time limits can get pretty tight, offering a suitable challenge. However the pursuit for faster times all comes down to the skill of the player in avoiding obstacles and getting the right combination between mastering jumps and boosting without overheating.

There is an four player online mode (although sadly no local multiplayer) and while this is a nice addition, your fun will all depend on being able to find anyone to play against. A track editor is also included to allow you to create your own devious layouts and upload them for others.

Excitebike World Rally is a simplistic title, but this is one of those rarities where that neither hinders it. Nor does it actually help it. Instead it delivers another concentrated jolt of nostalgia that WiiWare seems to have excelled in lately with the Rebirth titles.

This means fans of the original Excitebike will surely love World Rally as it’s the game they’ve been clamouring for, even if the more casual player will be left wondering what the fuss is about.