You may remember in a previous post that we went quickly went over Excitebots well now, we have the full review! For it’s time Excite Truck had amazing visuals and exciting gameplay, even if it was a bit repetitive when played over long periods of time. Now Monster Games,the creator of Excite Truck, has fully unveiled their follow-up, Excitebots: Trick Racing. And, from the looks of it, it is everything Excite Truck was, and far, far more.
Perhaps the main premise of Excitebots is the “bots”: a variety of very cool racing machines that take the form and attributes of certain animals. For example, the turtle is very heavy and has perhaps the slowest land speed, yet has great boost power. In contrast, the bat is extremely light and fast, but doesn’t have very good grip. At the game’s beginning there are a total of six bots to choose from: frog, grasshopper, beetle, bat, turtle, and ladybug, all of which have their own strengths and weaknesses. As you play through the game you will unlock stars that can be used to purchase new bots.
As for the actual gameplay, the levels are generally very open, yet somehow very fast-paced. Like in MarioKart, there are floating boxes here and there that when crashed into are advantages that can be activated with the A button. For example, there is a bottlerocket that when fired gives you a boost up into the air. There are windup teeth that when activated can latch onto other players, slowing them down and leaving them struggling to remove them. There’s also a hammer that can be used to strike the ground and create earthquakes around you. Another much-sought for power up is the wrench. When snatched the racer will transform so that it is using it’s legs to sprint at amazing speeds.
Then there are the question marked boxes. Coming into impact with these will alter terrain, give you a shortcut, or activate a minigame that must perform on the fly for extra points. These minigames include bowling(which requires you to crash into the pins and knock down as many as possible), soccer(where a soccer ball will pop out of the ground and you will have to try and knock it into the net before moving on), darts(which has you throwing a dart into a hovering board with the A button), and pie chucking(which is much the same as darts only there’s a floating clown head instead of a board). These may sound unnecessary, but these micro-games add a whole new depth and variety to racing.
There’s more to say about this delightful game, but I think you get the idea. With Excitebots there are surprises around every corner, and it’s to great effect. Don’t confuse this game with those other lowbudget racers that are just cashing in. Monster Games knows what they are doing, and if Excitebots is anything as good as it looks it will give MarioKart Wii a run for it’s money.
