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3DS

Excitebike Releasing as 3DS Classic, Free to Download in Japan

by Karlie Yeung - April 26, 2011, 6:00 am EDT
Total comments: 21 Source: Siliconera, Nintendo, http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/library/events/110426...

Update to the new firmware next month and Excitebike will be free on the eShop in Japan.

Excitebike will be among the first games to be released as part of the 3DS Classics on the Nintendo 3DS eShop for Japan when the service launches in late May. These games are classic Nintendo releases enhanced for the 3DS. The NES title will be available free of charge following the long-awaited firmware update next month, which is set to make several 3DS features available including 3DS Virtual Console.

The announcement was made at Nintendo's recent Investors Briefing for the fiscal year 2010 to 2011. Nintendo also confirmed that the first 3DS Virtual Console games will be for Game Boy and Game Boy Color, with other platforms to follow.

Talkback

Killer_Man_JaroTom Malina, Associate Editor (Europe)April 26, 2011

To be clear, the launch of the eShop in May is worldwide simultaneously, right? Or is Japan getting the update before everyone else?

Mop it upApril 26, 2011

I find it interesting how the game will be free, although it seems like a dangerous precedent. Will people pay for future VC games if the first batch is free? I wonder how they plan to make money in this way...

I'm pretty sure this will be the only free one, and it'll likely be for a limited time only.

AVApril 26, 2011

Sounds great to me. I guess if you want to see how this will look you can view it on the 3ds music channel. It's one of the backgrounds. I think it's pretty cool if you stop music the hills/valleys disappear but once the music plays they pop up again.

CericApril 26, 2011

Quote from: Mr.

Sounds great to me. I guess if you want to see how this will look you can view it on the 3ds music channel. It's one of the backgrounds. I think it's pretty cool if you stop music the hills/valleys disappear but once the music plays they pop up again.

Where are you guys finding all this stuff in the sound channel... Mind just looks funny at me.

NeoStar9XApril 26, 2011

When you are playing music you can change the background by pulling the cord in the middle of the screen.

CericApril 26, 2011

Ah I have no music on mine so it takes me straight to the recorder...

4-DApril 27, 2011

Wow. This game. Awesome

MaryJaneApril 27, 2011

Wait, is a 3DS Classic the games that are 'enhanced' into 3D, or is just their version of VC?

Mop it upApril 27, 2011

I wonder why they would choose ExciteBike as the first 3D title and not something from a more popular series. Is it because they feel it would benefit more from 3d than other games?

CericApril 27, 2011

Quote from: Mop

I wonder why they would choose ExciteBike as the first 3D title and not something from a more popular series. Is it because they feel it would benefit more from 3d than other games?

Hold your tongue.

Quote from: Mop

I wonder why they would choose ExciteBike as the first 3D title and not something from a more popular series. Is it because they feel it would benefit more from 3d than other games?

Because they're giving it away for free. People would be more willing to pay money for the more popular games.

CericApril 28, 2011

Quote from: NWR_insanolord

Quote from: Mop

I wonder why they would choose ExciteBike as the first 3D title and not something from a more popular series. Is it because they feel it would benefit more from 3d than other games?

Because they're giving it away for free. People would be more willing to pay money for the more popular games.

I just checked both of your ages and now I'm not so surprised.  The original  Excitebike was an iconic highlight of the NES.

I like Excitebike. I'm just saying that if you've got it and, let's say, Zelda, and you're choosing which one to give away and which one to charge money for, it's pretty obvious that the right business decision is to give away Excitebike.

CericApril 28, 2011

Quote from: NWR_insanolord

I like Excitebike. I'm just saying that if you've got it and, let's say, Zelda, and you're choosing which one to give away and which one to charge money for, it's pretty obvious that the right business decision is to give away Excitebike.

I agree between those choices.  I also think its a safe bet because lets face it it be really really hard to screw up Excitebike.

Mop it upApril 28, 2011

Woah, hold on now. I did not mean to imply that ExciteBike is not a good game or worthwhile to start the service with, I simply recognize that it isn't as popular as many of Nintendo's other franchises. Insanolord's logic makes sense to me though, I hadn't considered that. ExciteBike is one of the games we had with our NES when I was young, a time when I was not very interested in videogames, and I still liked that one. Even though I was always heartbroken that I couldn't save my creations (I left the "saving" screen on all day once just to see if it ever did work), I would still spend hours building tracks in that game.

CericApril 28, 2011

Being to save and share the tracks would be really cool.  Especially being able to share your favorite as part of the Streetpass for the game.  Excitebike is making more and more sense.

Mop it upApril 28, 2011

We can hope, but I don't think they've said anything about adding features to titles beyond making them stereoscopic 3D.

Unless I missed something, this is the first solid info Nintendo's ever released about the 3DS Classics line, so we really don't know much of anything. I'd imagine, though, that it will be along the lines of what we've seen with Wii's Virtual Console Arcade, where they may tweak things and add minor features (or major features, as with the addition of online play to that Puyo Puyo game).

CericApril 28, 2011

I would think track save was always intended but ax from the original due to the limitations of the day, budget, tech, etc.

Mop it upApril 29, 2011

I'm pretty sure it's because in Japan, ExciteBike is a Famicom Disk System game so a track could be saved onto the disk. In North America the game was an NES launch title, and the instruction manual for ExcitBike states that the save/load functions are not operable and were programmed in for potential product developments. So they may have considered releasing the Famicom Disk System (or equivalent) in the US at that time and left the save/load feature in the game in case they ever did.

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