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Forums - Nintendo - Excitebots - Info/Boxart

Rhonin the wizard said:

Images and info of ExciteBots: Trick Racing from Nintendo Power here.

 

 Retyped from that screenshot, with interesting parts bolded.

Bowling pins, field goals, pie-throwing, and robotic bugs – Monster Games lets its checkered freak flag fly with its sequel to Excite Truck, Excitebots: Trick Racings.


    Any surprise involving bugs usually isn’t a good one, but Excitebots: Trick Racing – a follow-up to Excite Truck featuring insectlike vehicles – has only just been announced, and it’s nearly out! Yep, April will see the return of Excite Truck’s turbo-jumping, tree running, air-spinning madness, with even more features, cool stunts, and what-were-they-thinking craziness than before. We’ve played the game for several weeks, and we’re pleased to report that, as much as we loved ‘Truck, ‘Bots is set to blow right past it as one of the top arcade-style racers on the Wii.
    In the shadow of the overwhelming success of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and Wii Sports, Nintendo’s Excite Truck (developed by Monster Games) made its mark on the Wii launch by earning a dedicated and die-hard fan base. If you’re not a fan yourself, you’ve probably met one or come across them on online message boards. Excite Truck isn’t merely a good game; it’s the kind of game that inspires others to sing it’s praises. We spoke with Hiro Yamada, Supervisor at Nintendo, and Richard Carcia, Team Lead and President of Monster Games, who offered a simple explanation: “Fans love the thrill you get from the mind-blowing combination of attempting crazy stunts while racing at lightning speed. It’s an experience that triggers and adrenaline rush that you can’t get from any other game.” Excite Truck crusaders will be glad to know that everything they loved about the game is back in Excitebots (except the trucks, naturally), and has been taken to a new level.

Trick Racing
    As the game’s subtitle implies the racing action in Excitebots isn’t just about finishing in first place. Yamada and Garcia explain: “Excite Truck was the product of our desire to create something that was more than your conventional racing game where the objective is to win first place _ something we’d been getting slightly bored of. Of course, the earlier you finish the race, the higher your bonus points will be, so the ideal scenario would still be to finish the race as fast as possible, while at the same time managing to pull off all the stunts. Fast-paced racing combined with the insane stunts is what triggers the rush.” In both Excite Truck and Excitebots, your overall rank for the race is determined not only by your finishing position, but also by the points earned from stunts. So, very much against the grain, these games make it possible to win without coming in first.
    Another hallmark of Excite Truck was the ability to morph straightaways into mammoth ramps, a feature that is back and even wilder in Excitebots. A well-timed boost can send you soaring over a large part of the track in a breathtaking jump. You can rack up points with Air Spins while in the clouds or by drifting and smashing into other bots back on the ground. All of the courses are off-road and teeming with multiple paths and shortcuts, so you have a lot of freedom to find your own path around the track.
    None of [Excite Trucks's] gameplay elements are impacted by Excitebot’s switch from trucks to robot critters, but we’ve found the change to be a huge improvement nonetheless. The bots add a lot of personality, and their wildly varied designs present a more compelling reason to try out multiple vehicles. With a lineup of insects and animals as diverse as a ladybug, a beetle, a grasshopper, a bat, a frog, a turtle, a mouse, and a mantis, you’ll want to try them all out. Of course, each one drives differently due to their varied weights and performance ratings. And with the right in-race power-up, bots can even transform for a short time and run on two legs!
    So, we’re sold on the bots, but why were trucks dumped in the first place? The developers explain: “The original Excite Truck stood out from the crowd because of the unlikeliness of trying crazy tricks with regular trucks that you might see every day. This time, we’re bringing even more insane stunts and tricks. However, when we raced the new tracks with the trucks, we felt that two elements didn’t match up quite as well as we hoped, and we couldn’t get immersed in the game like we wanted to. So, we really wanted to create an offbeat, unconventional design that no one would find anywhere else and would fit with the wacky action. That’s how we came up with these robot critters.”

Taking Control
Of Excite Truck’s many features, best known is its Wii Remote tilt-control steering, which was a revolution when the title launched alongside the Wii. This control method is unchanged in Excitebots: you hold the remote sideways in both hands with the buttons facing up, and you tilt either side up or down (Like a seesaw) to turn left of right. Twisting the Remote towards or away from you lets you angle the bot in midair to land on all four…

 

 

And that's where the article seems to end. Seems like they're may be more on the next page. The part where Monster's people are talking about how they tried the new tracks with Trucks and didn't think it was a good fit might be one of the reasons Nintendo doesn't announce titles until they're nearly ready. So the developers can freely change direction without violating previously set expectations. Like what happened with "Banjo-Threeie".

Oh, and dibs on the frog car.

 



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I call the turtle bot. :)



Pixel Art can be fun.

Gamerace said:
MaxwellGT2000 said:
famousringo said:
Rhonin the wizard said:

Images and info of ExciteBots: Trick Racing from Nintendo Power here.

 

Fun read. 

Apparently, the answer to 'why bots and not trucks?' is that they tried trucks, but felt they weren't insane enough for the incredibly insane gameplay they came up with.

 

Yeah nice info Rhonin, looks really nice like Excite Trucks did, and I'm a little more confident in the game itself lol

I feel a little better after reading that, but I think I'll need to see some video before I'm sold.

 

Pretty much how i feel. The screens definitely make it look more professional than the boxart implies, and it looks like the same basic mechanics will be there

 

I do like the fact that they might it more of a competition than strictly a race, something you could win in a more roundabout way. (like if you're .2 seconds out of first place, but you win because you played the stage better

 

"Taking Control
Of Excite Truck’s many features, best known is its Wii Remote tilt-control steering, which was a revolution when the title launched alongside the Wii. This control method is unchanged in Excitebots: you hold the remote sideways in both hands with the buttons facing up, and you tilt either side up or down (Like a seesaw) to turn left of right. Twisting the towards or away from you lets you angle the bot in midair to land on all four…"

Is this one of multiple control schemes, or is this the scheme. If so, i think it would be very awkward for the Wheel, don't you?



Monster Hunter: pissing me off since 2010.

Mr Khan said:

"Taking Control
Of Excite Truck’s many features, best known is its Wii Remote tilt-control steering, which was a revolution when the title launched alongside the Wii. This control method is unchanged in Excitebots: you hold the remote sideways in both hands with the buttons facing up, and you tilt either side up or down (Like a seesaw) to turn left of right. Twisting the towards or away from you lets you angle the bot in midair to land on all four…"

Is this one of multiple control schemes, or is this the scheme. If so, i think it would be very awkward for the Wheel, don't you?

That's the old control method, released well before the Wii Wheel. They have Wii Wheel support right on the box, so they must have some kind of option to tilt with the buttons facing towards the player. I bet you could even program the game to play with buttons up or buttons forward without requiring a change in settings.

 



"The worst part about these reviews is they are [subjective]--and their scores often depend on how drunk you got the media at a Street Fighter event."  — Mona Hamilton, Capcom Senior VP of Marketing
*Image indefinitely borrowed from BrainBoxLtd without his consent.

awesome i will definitely get this



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Thanks Rhonin the wizard & BrainBoxLtd.

This article sample gives a better idea of why they choose to vehicle style they did instead of Trucks. Basically it's Excite Truck 2. Sounds good so far...

sidenote: This makes it a good rule of thumb not to have a hissy fit without knowing all the details. O.o



The Interweb is about overreaction, this is what makes it great!

...Imagine how boring the interweb would be if everyone thought logically?

famousringo said:
Mr Khan said:

"Taking Control
Of Excite Truck’s many features, best known is its Wii Remote tilt-control steering, which was a revolution when the title launched alongside the Wii. This control method is unchanged in Excitebots: you hold the remote sideways in both hands with the buttons facing up, and you tilt either side up or down (Like a seesaw) to turn left of right. Twisting the towards or away from you lets you angle the bot in midair to land on all four…"

Is this one of multiple control schemes, or is this the scheme. If so, i think it would be very awkward for the Wheel, don't you?

That's the old control method, released well before the Wii Wheel. They have Wii Wheel support right on the box, so they must have some kind of option to tilt with the buttons facing towards the player. I bet you could even program the game to play with buttons up or buttons forward without requiring a change in settings.

 

Actually that's how it always worked, and now just like mario kart.

Excite Truck was setup so you had to hold the wiimote NES style and tilt left/right to turn.

Mario Kart you can play like that OR like a steering wheel (w or w/o the actual wheel).

This game follows mario karts sytle.

 



Rhonin the wizard said:

Images and info of ExciteBots: Trick Racing from Nintendo Power here.

Excite !!!

 



 “In the entertainment business, there are only heaven and hell, and nothing in between and as soon as our customers bore of our products, we will crash.”  Hiroshi Yamauchi

TAG:  Like a Yamauchi pimp slap delivered by Il Maelstrom; serving it up with style.

LOL at everyone :)

Basically - all the "hardcore" Nintendo Wii games fail. If they are too succeed (WiiSports/WiiFit/MarioKart/etc) they need to drop any "hardcore-only" edge, and become a generic game that *can* appeal to everyone.

I have no doubt that the "Trucks" in ExciteTruck were part of the reason it sold so badly - the casuals just ignored it as some "generic" racing game.

Nintendo do NOT to release a Motorstorm game - they want another Mario Kart.

Really looking forward to videos for this - how the hell do you combine a "mini-game" of Poker into a fast-paced racing game, such as Excitetrucks?

(unless its something you have to do to recover when you crash - or even at the end of laps, to get a start on the others?!?)



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famousringo said:
Mr Khan said:

"Taking Control
Of Excite Truck’s many features, best known is its Wii Remote tilt-control steering, which was a revolution when the title launched alongside the Wii. This control method is unchanged in Excitebots: you hold the remote sideways in both hands with the buttons facing up, and you tilt either side up or down (Like a seesaw) to turn left of right. Twisting the towards or away from you lets you angle the bot in midair to land on all four…"

Is this one of multiple control schemes, or is this the scheme. If so, i think it would be very awkward for the Wheel, don't you?

That's the old control method, released well before the Wii Wheel. They have Wii Wheel support right on the box, so they must have some kind of option to tilt with the buttons facing towards the player. I bet you could even program the game to play with buttons up or buttons forward without requiring a change in settings.

 

Point of interest. The article seems to continue onto the next page. The last setance from the scan is "Twisting the remote towards or away from you lets you angle the bot in midair to land on all four" no period, and says four not fours suggesting the next word is actually wheels.