WTF. DS; Bots; Excite Truck. This makes no sense at all, which probably means it is genious.

Dabbled in a bit of Excite Truck recently. It's still totally brilliant (and not in a Timmy Mallet way).

DS?

It looks like they've introduced lateral bars which you have to spin around, and there is some kind of risk reward staying on the bar for silly boost thing happening... Wonder if they replace the Rings.

I still have to get a PAL Excite Truck, waiting on a cheap new one for the loyalty points.

Running through that game from scratch will be very entertaining.

Sorry misread it as being on DS. Obviously this is Wii.

Apology accepted.

Tried Trackmania DS?, I've still not dabbled.

A lot of folk across the net haven't taken well to this, it seems. Most say they'd just like more of the same old Excitetruck. Which is stupid, obviously. If Nintendo just did 'more of the same' then we never would have had Excitetruck in the first place.

Personally I'm looking forward to it. If the in-race mini-games can help you get a boost or screw over your opponents then it could be ace. Am hoping for a cross between Excitetruck and Mario Kart.

Bad news by the way. I spoke to Nintendo and they said there were no plans to release Excitebots in the UK. US Wii it is then.

... wha ... what?

not uk... what?

but the uk is the centre of the gaming universe ...

The Internet thought Wii was a stupid name, so, deux digits to that.

Well the Internet was wrong and we were right

Still have a US Wii, so I should be sorted. There was a looooong delay between Excite Truck US and PAL versions. It defo wasn't a release title in the UK (and it should have been). Maybe this is more of the same bonkersness?

Maybe. He did say he'd let me know if the situation changed so perhaps they're just undecided at the minute.

It doesn't really bother me, as I have a US Wii too, but it's a bit disconcerting to think that at least one branch of Nintendo may have passed over on this one already.

http://uk.wii.ign.com/dor/objects/14325482/excitebots-trick-racing/videos/Excite_Bots_Teaser_TrailerV6-H264.html;jsessionid=2it228i2mukq9

Cool, its ExciteTruck with more stunts and more environmental events over terrain changing.

The interesting thing being that I don't recall many people on the Internet actually understanding the Stunts at all, in fact, the incorrect consensus was that they didn't work.

So more advanced Tricks are going to bamboozle folk who couldn't even manage the Air Spin.

I love all this generalisation, I feel all NGJ.

The Airspin was a bitch to get down, once you did though it was magic. I'm struggling to get back in the groove now that I'm back in the Excite Universe.

Once one worked out it was like that sociopathic neck breaking technique one had down, it all clicked. The satisfying final twist of success.

More worryingly, I stumbled across Mario Super Sluggers that has never been released over here in PALand... I had the notion that they just release everything in a deluge of content kinda way... maybe they are picking and choosing and avoiding the more Americana releases over here as not to dilute the crisp bourgeois brand they've concocted for themselves over here.

news aggregator:

http://www.nintendoeverything.com/?p=12189

highlights:

- Tilt Wiimote in quick seesaw motions to make bot go faster when it’s running on two legs

- There is a difference in how the bots handle compared to the trucks from Excite Truck

- Has a bunch of Challenge modes - more than in Excite Truck

- Has new tracks and old tracks from Excite Trucks

mediumlights:

- Has more of a techno soundtrack

This has disappeared from UK release lists, was out in the States at the beginning of this week.

US Wii ftw!

Any of you chaps playing this? We'll have to exchange friend codes and stuff. Maybe get some online play in.

I'd be playing it if it wasn't for Nintendo's continentism / regionism.

Grumble grumble.

Got hold of this recently - hell of a game! Nintendo really need to bring this out in Europe.

It is everything good about Excite Truck exaggerated to the point of pure fun and ridiculousness. Great stuff.

So ordered.

lalalalalal lalallalalal I'm not listening.

This is gaming gold. Best game I've purchased for a while. It's Excite Truck +++. I absolutely love what they've done with this. I worried that the bots and associated gimmicks and gizmos would ruin the purity of the game. I also worried that steering wheel control might mean no more 'classic' (I think I can you that term already) Exite Truck control settup. I need not have worried. This game turns fun all the way up to 11.

What confuses me is why oh why is this not getting a PAL release it's a racing game ffs and Europeans love racing. I would have thought this is a no-brainer. If I was part of the Excite bots team I would be phoning up Lego around about now and talking to them about a possible Bionicles tie in. With some redone bot models and a bit of light lego branding I can see this shifting by the skip full.

I think because no one in the States went out to buy it

I should give you a game online, eh

Do you think there's something wrong with us. I mean really?

Maybe we're just not in the groove anymore (if we ever were). I feel popular opinion on gaming moving ever further away from my reality.

I mean Excitebots is a fucking racing game with transformable robots, selling it should have been as easy as breathing.

--edit--
oh and yeah defo up for some online fun send me a PM.

I think the Wii right now just has the wrong audience for this sort of thing. It was good for November 2006, but no good for the Wii Fit moms and Mario Kart kids of today (where is Mario or Sonic, and what is an ExciteBot)?

Neither of those will understand why it has such a strange name, and who cares about robots unless there is a Lego and/or film tie in? Oh, I see you spotted that already

The main audience for this kind of 'weird innovation' (note: not weird, just confusing to people who haven't played games before the Wii) these days seems to be XBLA and Steam. Nintendo have accidentally destroyed their core audience I think, who seem to be stuck in some apathetic mope about the lack of yearly Mario, Zelda, F Zero and Pilotwings games. They have been spoilt by the rival systems they have had to endure while Nintendo home systems floundered, and their tastes have been fundamentally altered as a result. Even when the faithful are delivered something spot on like Punch Out it barely registers. Also see the strangely muted reaction to Wii Music, not gamey enough for the whinging die hards, but not simple enough to understand for the Wii Fit audience. Oops. Ever played drum mode in that? Hell of a game.

We're the people who are still interested in Nintendo delivering innovative games, whereas most our group have given up and plumped for the 360/PS3, while getting in a huff about Wii games being too simplistic and complaining that Nintendo have abandoned the hardcore. Too many people seem to think if their elderly relatives can enjoy it, and they are not getting their full 1080 pees, then there must be something wrong with it.

Do you think this would have fared any better on PS3? The sixaxis could in theory do this type of game, although I think you'd lose some of the control precision of the Wii version.

Yeah, you would think that would work wouldn't you. I reckon the motion controller that ExciteBots uses would be basically identical to what the sixaxis has inside it.

I noticed there is a bizarre, officially licensed wheel now for the sixaxis akin to the Mario Kart wheel. Madness.

Not had a chance to play Poker mode properly, only been through the training, but the concept sounds interesting. It's clear to me that the devs have been very careful to take the game up a notch from Excite Truck, but not to completely overwhelm the player with additional brain load.

There is an element of multitasking, now that pickups are part of the game. Not being a particularly good poker player I think I will find it quite tricky to build a hand whilst driving at break-neak speed .

It's going to take a looooong time before all the goodness in this game is unlocked.

OK so I've been playing this quite a bit recently. I restarted from scratch using a new save slot and so far I'm about 1/3 of the way through Super Excite mode, which is where the bulk of the game is at. I've completely sranked the poker challenges, been stumped by the minigames and taken it online for a quick random matchup.

The kicker with this game is that nearly everything you unlock has to be purchased using stars and the only way to generate significant starrage is to compete online and use the betting system. I racked up over 2000 stars in a single race, so I reackon you'd have to put in a good few hours online to get enough stars to unlock all the important stuff (basically extra bots). I haven't bothered to add up the total number of stars you would need to unlock everything in the game, but it seems like an enormous number would be needed.

I would say that the track design in this game isn't quite as good as Excite Truck. There are plenty of paths you can take, but they feel more linear somehow. Not sure I can really explain it properly, it's just not quite as well thought out. Still good though

I'm about the same point on Super Excite mode, and really need to get back to it.

I thought the tracks were the Excite Truck ones mixed with new ones? I didn't have much trouble with it, I guess the new power ups and poles do make things more linear.

I think some of the tracks are the same, but they're all remixed to an extent due to the new trick bars etc. Whilst these are great fun they do make the game more point to point than excite truck, which doesn't create the same 'edge of the seat' feeling.

I'm nit-picking really as it's all good. Going to have to go online too to rack up those stars...

Finished off Super Excite last night. Still need to go back and srank some of the circuits to unlock Mirror mode. My preferred bot at the moment is the bat. Bot weight appears to effect how rapidly you can spin around the bars, which is a nice touch. My ideal bot would be light with high grip and masses of turbo natch. Not quite unlocked the details of the last bot, need anouther 2000 stars.