Exictebots is a racing game from Monster Gaming- the people responsible for ExciteBike (yes, that Excitebike), Excitebike 64, and Excite Truck. So, you can see that they went back to the drawing board for this game. Instead of having motocross bikes or monster trucks racing through an off-road course, they went with animal robots racing through an off-road course.

As you can tell, this was a major departure for Monster.

And, I know what you’re saying to yourself right now, “Abraxas, you clever fiend, this is just like Mario Kart but with animal-shaped robots instead of Mario.”

Yes, you’re mostly right. It is a lot like Mario Kart, except not as cool nor as fun. In reality, Excitebots is built in the image of the Mario racing franchise, but thankfully is not a re-skinned copy of Mario Kart. So, good job there, Monster- you managed to not completely rip off another game.

As a racing game Excitebots could best be summed up as A Novel Idea. It is a racing game that follows the tradition of various racers of differing strengths and weaknesses to take advantage of skill level and styles of play. But instead of classic franchise characters we have animal robots ripping around the track. Inexplicably, these robots can also walk in addition to having wheels.

Yeah, I don’t get it either, but why the hell not have robots that can walk or run during the race as well as roll through the race? It’s a Novel idea.

Then we add little things you can pick up on the track and use against the other racers to slow them down. Like a bear trap. Yeah, a bear trap! Mario doesn’t have a bear trap. Or a tambourine! That’s a novel idea!

And, because this is for the Wii-

Oh yeah, Excitebots is only on the Wii. Probably should have brought this up before. Oh well.

Anyway.

And since it’s on the Wii we’ll have to use the motion capture for it, and not just for steering. We’ve already done that with Monster Truck. We’ll have to come up with some thing new. I know! We’ll add these unavoidable points in the race that you’ll have to swing the Wiimote about in a circle to get the robot to gain more momentum and release at key points.

How novel! The players will love it because they can’t avoid it and it forces them to do more than steer the damn robot around the course.

But what about mini-games? The kids love mini-games. We need some of those. They’re not so novel, having been around awhile, but we’ll make them novel. Let’s put in soccer balls, darts, oh oh oh, and pie! Everyone loves pie!

Not so Random Fact: minigames are little subgames found inside a larger video game. They are simple actions or puzzles that can be opened or unlocked through the course of the overgame. For example: Excitebots has several minigames available in various tracks. Players are required to kick soccer goals, throw darts, or go bowling while still trying to race through the game.

So, yeah. Excite added non-sequitor minigames to their racing game. Like darts. And bowling. No, I’m not joking. There’s even a pie throwing part. You do all of this while racing too. I guess it’s to make it more difficult?

Normally, I would call this sort of thing a Pointless Gimmick. These minigames are not thematically connected, nor do they improve or advance any part of the overall game in which they are found. As you all know, Pointless Gimmicks just piss me off in a game. If you’re going to do this sort of thing, it should express something about the game in some way. They should enhance the idea of the game world, or if possible, reveal something about it.

And, all of the floating poles, the item boxes, and minigames in Excitebots do none of that. They’re novel ideas added to a race game in an attempt separate it out from the crowd of race games out on the market.

But if you remove these gimmicks from Excitebots you’d just have these cars racing around a track. Just like Monster Truck- you know, a boring-ass race game. This boring-removal factor makes the inescapable bars, the tambourine’s, darts, and pies gimmicks and not pointless. The fact is all of these novel ideas are not so great as to be interesting beyond a few moments or so exciting that you have to tell your friends about it.

Graphically speaking the game is no great shakes, but it’s not pixel vomit on the screen. It does what it needs to do, and that’s present a race course that gets rather blurry as you race around it.

From a control perspective, the steering is fine if a bit sloppy because of the limitations of the Wiimote. But it’s nothing that can’t be over come by the player within a race or two. And it’s not like you’re a nascar racer- you know, someone who’s entire job is to drive through traffic and turn left.

In my Un-Humble Opinion©, Excitebots: Trick Racing on the Wii is a race game with some novel ideas that don’t really develop the world the race is taking place in. If you’re into race games it’s passable, but not innovative. If you’re not into race games, it’s strictly a party game that you rent. Don’t drop cash on it.