One of the initial releases for the NES, Excitebike hasn't aged as well as some other games. There is something to be said about the timeless nature of platformers -- even with the NES's simple graphics, games like Super Mario Brothers are still a lot of fun.

Unfortunately (at least by this reviewer's opinion), it's really hard to go back to the old-school racing games after playing the stuff released on new consoles. Sure, the odd lap around this game is cool, but Excitebike doesn't reaaly have the charm or fast action of the better racing games from previous generations.

What really saves Excitebike from totally falling into the pits of mediocrity is its' track editor, which was the first of its' kind on a console. It's actually somewhat fun coming up with crazy track ideas, and the VC (unlike the original release) allows you to save your creations. Sadly, though, even after you create a perfect track, racing on it still gets boring fairly quickly.

If you're looking for a good racing game on the VC, spend your Wii Points on something else such as F-Zero X. Excitebike is a prime case of nostalgia only being able to carry a tired game so far before the player becomes disinterested.