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WiiU

Excitebike 64 Making First Virtual Console Appearance Tomorrow In North America

by Donald Theriault - November 16, 2016, 10:26 am EST
Total comments: 24 Source: Nintendo

Along with a rather shaky game from a well known Nintendo developer.

Nintendo's game list for North America has revealed tomorrow's releases, and one is a first for any Virtual Console.

Excitebike 64, a 2000 N64 game developed by Left Field Productions, will release tomorrow for standard N64 pricing ($9.99 US/CDN). A more modern interpretation of the old NES game, Excitebike 64 takes cues from Wave Race 64 in its jump handling and has a full track editor. Its release is the first time it has come out on any Virtual Console.

Joining Excitebike 64 tomorrow will be Wario Land: Shake It from the Wii. Already out in Europe and Japan, the 2008 Wii title was an early collaboration with future Kirby's Epic Yarn/Yoshi's Woolly World developers Good Feel.

Talkback

Wario Land Shake it is a... well, I'm a little strapped for cash, so I hesitate to say a day one purchase...

OedoNovember 16, 2016

I'm glad Wario Land: Shake It is finally makes its way to the North American Virtual Console. It's on my short list of games to play soon.

TomatoNovember 16, 2016

Finally! Excitebike 64 has gone forgotten for too long.
Also, now pretty much every Excite game is playable on the Wii U. Maybe the Satellaview version is next! /joking

fred13November 16, 2016

I've never played either of those games. I'll have to look into them.

pokepal148Spencer Johnson, Contributing WriterNovember 16, 2016

Wario Land Shake It is really good but I got a physical copy at Gamestop for half the price the Virtual Console has it for so it might be worth checking there first.

ejamerNovember 16, 2016

Shake It! is a fantastic game. The art and music are both wonderful, and it's got some really good level design. The game is easy if you don't want to collect everything or find secrets - but can be challenging if you want to see everything it's got to offer.


Totally agree with pokepal148: while I love it being available, many people will probably be able to buy for a lower price if you look for a physical copy instead of going digital. That choice is yours to make.

Mop it upNovember 16, 2016

ExciteBike 64 was pretty awesome, but I'm not sure how well it would hold up to new players. The control and physics are obviously not as tight as modern games, but the gameplay is still solid and it has good, varied track design. The few minigames like soccer are also fun if you have the opportunity.

Am I to assume that it still does not emulate the Controller Pak in any way? If so, it'd mean you could save only one created track, which would be a bit of a bummer. I'm also curious if it will still contain the NES ExciteBike...

NES_RPG_NERDNovember 16, 2016

Man, f*** Excitebike 64! Where the hell is my Mario Kart 64?!?

I've been waiting for Wario Land: Shake It for a while now, so I'm very glad to finally be able to download that. I've never played Excitebike 64, and I'm not sure it's something that would interest me. I've never liked the original Excitebike, but I loved Excite Truck and ExciteBots.

Luigi DudeNovember 17, 2016

Anyone that like Kirby's Epic Yarn or Yoshi's Woolly World owns it to themselves to get Wario Land: Shake It since it was made by the same developer Good Feel.  To me it's easily the best of the three, especially when going for 100% where it offers a much great challenge then the other two.

One word of advice for people that haven't played it, when shaking things, you don't need to literally shake the Wiimote.  Just give a simple jerk, and then just gentle move the Wiimote up and down and it'll work much better this way.  All the game wants is a sudden jerk to activate the shaking mechanic once you've grabbed something but it only needs to feel some kind of steady movement which just simply moving it up and down will do.

If you literally try and shake the controller, it'll not only hurt your hands after a while but it actually fucks up Wario's shaking so you don't get the most coins out of bags and enemies because all that aggressive motion causes the shaking to stop premature.  So going slow and gentle is the way to do it since it's easier on the hands and gives you more coins as well.


Oh yeah and if you're going going for the speed achievements, if you fuck up the running sections after the mid-stage checkpoints, if you pause and hit restart the stage, you'll restart from the checkpoint, not the actual beginning of the stage.  The game doesn't really tell you this so some people actually think it sends them back to the very beginning, when in reality it takes you back to the checkpoint before the speed sections begin, making these achievements not as tedious as some think.

PhilPhillip Stortzum, November 17, 2016

Quote from: Oedo

I'm glad Wario Land: Shake It is finally makes its way to the North American Virtual Console. It's on my short list of games to play soon.

I think Insanolord was wanting this on the North American VC, so his wish comes true! Awesome to see Excitebike 64 appear on the VC for the first ever time too!

Ian SaneNovember 17, 2016

Wario Land: Shake It is one of my favourite Wii games.  It is however a classic example of tacked on motion controls.  The shaking mechanic is essentially a substitute for button mashing.  I think Wario only has two speeds of shaking items.  There are some platforms that you tilt the remote to rotate but they rotate in big clock style increments.  The motion control is very much digital on-off stuff and you could probably easily have mapped everything to traditional controls.  Thankfully the game still controls quite well but if you're like me and can "see the strings" with motion control games that may drive you nuts at times.

But it's a really fun game and it's absolutely gorgeous!  Back when I was a kid and polygons wasn't something I was aware of I assumed games today would look like this.  It looks like a cartoon.  I would be thrilled to see a Mario game look like this instead of the dull NSMB style.

nickmitchNovember 17, 2016

Quote from: Luigi

One word of advice for people that haven't played it, when shaking things, you don't need to literally shake the Wiimote.  Just give a simple jerk, and then just gentle move the Wiimote up and down and it'll work much better this way.  All the game wants is a sudden jerk to activate the shaking mechanic once you've grabbed something but it only needs to feel some kind of steady movement which just simply moving it up and down will do.

If you literally try and shake the controller, it'll not only hurt your hands after a while but it actually fucks up Wario's shaking so you don't get the most coins out of bags and enemies because all that aggressive motion causes the shaking to stop premature.  So going slow and gentle is the way to do it since it's easier on the hands and gives you more coins as well.

Wish I had this advice when I played it the first time around. Lolz

Mop it upNovember 17, 2016

Quote from: NWR_insanolord

I've never played Excitebike 64, and I'm not sure it's something that would interest me. I've never liked the original Excitebike, but I loved Excite Truck and ExciteBots.

What is it that you didn't like about NES ExciteBike? Perhaps I can help you figure out whether you'd like EB64 or not. I would say that the game is closer to Excite Truck than it is ExciteBike, especially when it comes to the outdoor tracks.

Quote from: Mop

Quote from: NWR_insanolord

I've never played Excitebike 64, and I'm not sure it's something that would interest me. I've never liked the original Excitebike, but I loved Excite Truck and ExciteBots.

What is it that you didn't like about NES ExciteBike? Perhaps I can help you figure out whether you'd like EB64 or not. I would say that the game is closer to Excite Truck than it is ExciteBike, especially when it comes to the outdoor tracks.

I don't know if I can really explain what I didn't like about Excitebike, it just never clicked with me.

UncleBobRichard Cook, Guest ContributorNovember 17, 2016

Quote from: Tomato

Finally! Excitebike 64 has gone forgotten for too long.
Also, now pretty much every Excite game is playable on the Wii U. Maybe the Satellaview version is next! /joking

I cannot figure out for the life of me why Nintendo has all these hidden games (the Satellaview, the 64DDs, their arcade titles) and never releases them.  F-Zero X anyone?

StratosNovember 17, 2016

Quote from: Tomato

Also, now pretty much every Excite game is playable on the Wii U. Maybe the Satellaview version is next! /joking

Is the WiiWare version available somehow in a modern fashion? Id love to get playing the online of that game again.

PhilPhillip Stortzum, November 17, 2016

Should be able to still download it in Wii mode, right? EDIT: Oh, I think you meant the online mode. :X

The online wouldn't work anymore, though. It died along with everything else on the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection.

UncleBobRichard Cook, Guest ContributorNovember 18, 2016

Isn't there a home brew way of playing WiFi Connect titles online?

StratosNovember 19, 2016

There is, but I've never tried it. Seems like a fair bit of work, but nice to know it can be done.

adadadNovember 20, 2016

Excitebike 64 is an awesome title, one of the all-time greats IMO. The handling is superb and the tracks are ace. (Not nostalgia talking by the way - I only played this for the first time a few years ago.)

Mop it upNovember 21, 2016

Quote from: UncleBob

Isn't there a home brew way of playing WiFi Connect titles online?

The last time I checked, it worked on a game-by-game basis, and so not all games were compatible. This means it mostly centers on the popular titles.

That was a while ago though, I should probably look into it again.

StratosDecember 03, 2016

I suspect that it may be that someone with the know-how has to get the individual game to talk, so yes, it is probably only popular games.


A pity because I'd love to play some more BWII.

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