http://www.gonintendo.com/viewstory.php?id=101724
"The latest issue of Nintendo Power teased a reveal that would pop up in this week's Nintendo Week feature on the Nintendo Channel. It looks like Nintendo has let loose with their secret, and it sounds like it was worth the wait! Nintendo Week has confirmed that 'Excitebike' is coming to WiiWare this time around! Nice to see the classic series making a return."
...haha. No screens yet, so no word if it's 2-D OR 3-D, I haven't checked the Nintendo Channel either. Will post screens as I find em!
More Nintendo racing games is always good... even though what we really need is F-Zero, given that there have been several 'Excite' games already. We need F-Zero too!
<object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/BdkwEipL9SI&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/BdkwEipL9SI&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object>
Looks excellent. I wonder what the price will be. Since the highest it can go is 15 dollars I suspect we're looking at a 15 dollar game. It's all new, using resources from Monster studios (Excitetruck/bots, in fact did monster make this one too?), and I know that because of the sound effects and art. The (!) icons, the boost meter, everything is the same. The visuals are stripped right from Excitebots. Ah, I stand corrected, the (!) icons are (?) now. But the sound effect is the same. Studios cant use eachother's sound effects like that unless that sound was purchased from a third party. In other words, if Monster MADE that sound effect, no one else can use it. If they ripped that sound off a sound effect library that someone else made, anyone can use it.
It also uses the same grading system. D, C, B, A and S, in the same font and it's gold, just like Bots. So while the game is borrowing its resources heavily we can also see the gameplay mechanics are all brand new. You dont actually turn in Excitebike, you shift lanes and the meat of the gameplay is in jumping and orienting yourself in the air to land properly. I wouldn't be surprised at ALL if Monster had a barebones version of this in their office since they started work on Trucks just as a way to express the Excitebike gameplay in 3-D to the other people working on the Trucks game. Also, in relation to the graphics assets, there are levels shown in that video using textures and props that are not found in either Trucks or Bots, so this will be a decent effort.
It also looks like this game is heavy in the MB department probably maxing Nintendo's cap, so all in all, I expect a 15 dollar game. Nintendo might surprise me with a 10 dollar pricetag, so we'll see.
$15 seems like it'd be a bit much for a small game like this... it shouldn't be over $10, really, I think. But yes, it does look fun.