Format: Advance
Genre: Arcade
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo

NES Excitebike.. on the GBA! Okay so here's the raw cut, I could not get this game to run. Legitimately, I tried 3 different times with 3 different "games" and I just could not get this one to run properly. It might have copyright protection or something, which would be extremely odd considering I can just pick up the original NES game EASIER than this version. A couple of things about this game, it plays exactly like the NES excitebike because it's literally just the same game but emulated on the GBA. This comes with it's own plethora of problems. For one, there's a constant blinking on the screen (which may have just been an emulation issue of it's own). Another problem is that the controls don't work. Again, this was my experience, that the in game controls just would not function. Despite that I had no problem accessing the secret L+R menu which ran flawlessly. That to me signifies that I probably got a bad game, which is why I tried in 3 other times, with 3 other "consoles"... and none of them ran the game properly. As a result, after 2 hours of trying to get it to work, I ended up just playing the NES version and watching someone else play through the GBA version to get a handle on the differences. For one, the GBA version is blurrier than the original. The original has much crisper graphics. The sound is also better on the original. The GBA version is basically a downgrade. Nothing new was added, aside from that menu I talked about who's only purpose was to reset or sleep mode. Let's talk about the game itself.. Excitebike is an wicked old NES game about dirtbikes. There are 2 modes. In mode A you race a track by yourself. In mode B you race a track with other bikers that get in your way. There are 5 total tracks in the game which makes this a very short game. While there's a definite time you can score to get 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place.. there's no actual "end" to the game. In other words, it's basically an arcade game. The A button is your basic "GO!" button. The B button is your nitro-boost button. Up and Down lets you change between the 4 lanes in the game. Holding left and right will allow you to change the angle of your bike. For example, if you're going over a bump you can hold left to pop a wheelie so that you don't crash. When you make a big jump you can hold right to angle it downward so you hit the ground without losing speed(or crashing). When you mess up the angles while riding, the result is always a crash, where you comically spin out of control then your guy gets thrown off your dirtbike. This is the punishment time where you have to wait until your stubby legged little guy runs all the way back to his bike to get back into the game. Each track has a target time of (at least) 3rd place or higher. There are also speed ramps, accelerator arrows, and dirt patches that will effect you in various ways. All of this is fine and dandy but like I said earlier, game don't run on the GBA!!! I assume that having an actual cartridge and gameboy advance for this one probably works, but all the same, don't try to emulate this. No Credits in this one.

All in All, This non-functioning game scored a 4.5 for it's denigrating remake. Blurry sprites, Worse sounds/music, non-functioning game, no QoL features, nothing "new".