ExciteBots: Trick Racing for the Wii

ExciteBots is one of the most exciting games I've seen for the Nintendo Wii for a long time. It's the sequel to their release of ExciteTrucks and is a lot of fun for me, my wife and kids. My wife played it for a few hours and she doesn't usually play racing games. She likes games like Mario Party. She's an animal lover so I think the bugs as vehicles really appealed to her.

Pros
I love the bugs. It's cool in the middle of the game when my bot ends up walking on its legs after picking up a wrench and stomp on the competition, or soar through the air on wings with tons of air time and skip huge chunks of the course to catch up to the leader. My son loves the huge choice of bugs available and the different colors to choose from.

The zany games such as soccer, bowling, darts and the tambourine all add to the skill involved with staying on the course while trying to complete these challenges.

I really enjoyed the graphics. Such bright and vivid colors give me the feeling of being outdoors on a sunny day even if it's stormy outside. Connecting to my screen through component video probably helps a bit with the graphics. You can't get me to go back!

Cons
Yeah, you guessed it. The remote/sensor has a hard time of telling sometimes when I want to turn, especially when I get excited about my flip into the air and my power boost off of the pink bar into the tree just off of the path when I land while I try to frantically turn my bot and steer it away. Argh.

The red bar is a pain in my frogs nitro butt. Really. For some reason, the computer bots land on the bar and are already half way through getting off of it by the time my frog has gone up 2 marks. The idea is that you're supposed to move your wheel (or just your remote) in a circle in time with the bot as it goes around the bar.

Turning is also kind of hard in this game. Especially in the air, while I can see that my frog isn't very aerodynamic and has no wings to be able to ride the wind, with the game being designed for you to boost off of every hill, bump, rock or mountain, I believe there should be better turning. And while you're on the ground, you end up getting tons of drift for the most turns instead of just turning. Maybe I just get carried away about turning because of my frustration with the remote...

Thoughts
Well, what could make this game better? Certainly improved controls, but what is it missing? Really, not much is missing at all. There are very few weapons involved in destruction which is good for kids. Who needs to blow the competition away with a tactical nuke anyway? Ok, well the idea appeals to some of us gamers. Vehicles with flame throwers, drop some tacks on the road, throw up a smokescreen to blind them, razor sharp shredders to tear apart the tires and chassis of the cars you are rubbing with. Well, ya know...it could be fun, but it's out of style with this game. Maybe a sequel to this game might do just that :)