| Product: |
Nitrobike (Wii) |
| Date: |
29.04.08 (41 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: It is cheap
Disadvantages: Terrible graphics, sound and gameplay
Remember the highly addictive game that was Excitebike? There were a few different versions of the game spanning many years that quickly became a favourite with many gamers. Early last year Nintendo released the equally addictive Excite Truck for the Wii. This was seen as a close relative to Excitebike but many people still craved the real thing. Enter Nitrobike. As you may have already guessed this isn't Excitebike or even made by Nintendo, but on the face of it Nitrobike does look the same and this made many people think their prayers had been answered. Has Ubisoft managed to recreate the glory of Excitebike with the developers of Excitebike 64 on board?
Graphics/Sound
As we saw in Excite Truck, the Wii is capable of pretty impressive visuals despite everyone's concerns. The fact that it is possible makes the bland mess of polygons that is Nitrobike all the worse. They are jagged, with smeared textures when you go faster, which look like someone has taken a thick paintbrush to your screen and only used about 3 colours in their painting. As well as the hideous graphics, the sound is minimalist, producing generic guitar noise and constant clattering whenever you hit something.
Gameplay/Lifespan
One main thing a racing game of any sort should include is exciting and varied tracks, to keep the players coming back for more. Again, Nitrobike fails as its tracks are pretty boring and flat, not boasting any of the huge jumps or chasms seen in Excitebike 64 and Excite Truck. As well as the narrow, repetitive courses the AI players seem to favour suicide over racing, and you may well do as well after trying and failing to navigate clusters of objects. Then we come to your bike, which should be a fast moving, hard to master thrill rider. Of course, it isn't, in fact it tries to be realistic which defeats the purpose of a "Nitrobike", as you would expect them to be anything but ordinary. There are no incentives for nice landings or good driving like on Excite Truck, making the whole racing experience even more dull and mundane. There is a trick system but they all count towards the same thing, making numbers appear on your screen. All the tricks might as well be the same, another point which shows the game's distinct lack of variety.
Controls
If you play Nitrobike you will notice straight away the controls are exactly the same as Excite Truck. Tilt left and right to steer, while pressing 2 to accelerate and 1 to brake. Nitrobike can't even copy properly it seems as the controls can be twitchy at times, not what you want when trying to drive at very high speeds. The nunchuk isn't used at all.
Wi-Fi?
The game does have an online mode but of course, it isn't without its problems. Apart from the unappealing gameplay itself, playing online requires you to over-specify your game type, causing ridiculous waiting times. Why there couldn't be a quickmatch feature is a mystery.
Cost
One sensible thing Ubisoft did was release this game at a price of £20. However, with Excite Truck released over a year ago, you can easily pick it up for £20 or less. Excite truck is better in every area, apart from having no online play, so it is highly recommended over this. Or you can download the original Excitebike off the Virtual Console for Wii, for a much cheaper price. Put simply, Nitrobike isn't even worth £20 with competitors like Excite Truck around.
Conclusion
This game had so much potential with the Excitebike 64 developers onboard. Instead they have decided to do the opposite of everything that made Excitebike 64 great, and Nitrobike is the result. If this game was one of a kind, it may attract some attention, but it is just impossible to recommend over its competitors. With poor graphics, sound, and gameplay, Nitrobike should be avoided altogether; there are much better games available.
Overall Score 3/10
Summary: A poor racing game in all areas with many better alternatives available
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