Vs. Excitebike (NES) Playthrough - NintendoComplete
1,125A playthrough of Nintendo's 1988 racing game for the Nintendo Famicom Disk System, Vs. Excitebike.
Excitebike was originally released for the Japanese Famicom at the end of 1984, and its arcade counterpart, named Vs. Excitebike, was released later the same month. Both games would see releases the following year in the US, and it was extremely popular.
You can find my video of American NES version here: https://youtu.be/pkAtNjRSZds
And of its Wii remake here:
https://youtu.be/qkboABi-eXM
Unbeknownst to most non-Japanese gamers, however, is the fact that there was a greatly enhanced remake of the game released in 1988 for the Famicom Disk System. Taking advantage of the larger storage capacity of the floppy disk format, the updated console port brings home all of the extra content featured in the arcade game along with a whole slew of new bells and whistles.
Original Excite mode is the single-player tournament mode. There are now seven tracks, and you play each track twice: first is a solo qualifying lap (like in Selection A in the US game), and that is then followed by a race with CPU drivers on the track (as in Selection B). Once you've finished all seven tracks, the seventh repeats until you've lost all of your spare chances.
There is a new bonus round that now shows up after the third and sixth races, and I think it's probably my favorite part of this version. In a nod to Evel Knievil, you jump your bike over big piles of trucks, which I think is something that I previously didn't know I wanted, but I'm sure glad it happened anyway. It's a sweet inclusion.
The game now features an actual soundtrack, too! It was composed by Soyo Oka, famous for her work on Super Mario Kart, SimCity, and Pilotwings, and though it's very different in style from Nintendo's other in-house NES composers, it's just as upbeat and catchy as her later efforts turned out to be.
The disk version also features a full 2P split-screen race mode. Crazy, right? I didn't have a 2P handy when I was recording this video, but I did include a short look at the mode at 23:35.
And finally, the design mode has seen a very nice update. I mess around with it at 25:09, making a custom track and racing a quick lap around it. In Vs. Excitebike, now not only is it easier to use now thanks to the icons representing the different track pieces, but the disk allows you to save up to four custom tracks. How nice would that feature have been back on the NES cart?
If you're a fan of Excitebike and haven't tried this game, you're missing out. It really is a remarkable upgrade in every way, and I can't recommend it highly enough.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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