Excite

The Excite series is a line of racing titles from Nintendo, which usually focus on mud-and dirt-based trick racing.

The first game in the series was Excitebike, with was a motocross racing game where the player raced around an obstacle-ridden dirt stadium against other players or NPC opponents. Acceleration caused the temperature to overheat, and tricks could be performed via ramps. It also offered a robust mode that let players design their own courses.

The second game in the series was Excitebike 2: BX Mario Excite Bike. It was a Mission Pack Sequel of the first game, and only available via Japanese-only download service. It replaced the generic riders with Mario characters and added coins and unlimited boosts.

The third game in the series is Excitebike 64, which was a more "extreme sports", 3D take on the game.

Excite Truck was the fourth game, being released on the Wii as a launch title. It switched the format from bikes to trucks, and made tricks more important - both placing first and performing tricks would earn points, and the one who had the most points won the race.

Excitebots: Trick Racing is the fifth game in the series. It is a sequel to Excite Truck. As the name implies, the trucks have been replaced with cute, animal-shaped robots on wheels such as frogs, beetles, and bats that each have special abilities. It also incorporates the leg and arm motions of each robot into the use of the Wii remote.

Excitebike World Rally is the latest game in the series, available for Wii Ware. It marks a return to the original NES play style and design, with a track editor and online play.

Tropes used in Excite include:

• Action Commands: Excitebots features these to earn extra points, like "Press to throw pie in clown's face."
• Alien Sky: The nebula tracks
• Animal Mecha: For lack of a better trope, the Excite Bots are all based on animals. We are not told whether they have artificial intelligence, remote controls or are driven.
• And Your Reward Is Clothes: Er, paint.
• Announcer Chatter: The more realistic variety was in Excite Bike 64, the other games go without it entirely.
• Beaming Grin: Background features attack you with this in Excite Bots Guatemala
• Double Unlock: Used often in Excitebots - usually of the "now available to buy" variety.
• Embedded Precursor: Excite Bike 64 lets you play the first NES game
• Fishing Minigame: A rare occurrence in Excite Bots. You fish while you race.
• Giant Hands of Doom: Enemies in Excite Bots.
• Invincibility Power-Up: Excite Truck and Excitebots have a bonus that makes you invincible and lets you plow through obstacles faster.
• Level Editor: Excitebike had one of the more thorough ones in the 8-bit era. 64 and World Rally also have custom tracks.
• Mini Game: A tradition in the 3D titles started by 64.
• Mirror World: In Excite Truck. All the tracks are reversed.
• Ninja Pirate Robot Zombie: Giant butterfly-catching, tambourine-playing, pie-throwing, spinning robot animals in rainbow-colored costumes.
• Nitro Boost: Called turbo boost and every game has it or a similar mechanic. Most of the games limit this by potentially Overheating your vehicle from overusing turbo but each vehicle type(Bike/Truck/Bot) has ways of cooling off without slowing down too much.
• No Antagonist: No protagonist may be the better choice of words.
• No Export for You: Excitebike 2 is Japan-exclusive (as Satellaview was only available in Japan) and Excitebots is North America-exclusive, unless you're part of Club Nintendo in Japan.
• Game Music: Excite Truck was the first Wii game to let you play music you had downloaded to an SD card. Endless Ocean did next.
• Ramp Jump: A staple of motocross, so it makes sense for the bike games and the bots can be excused as well. Most of the vehicles from the truck game are not made to do this however, they pull it off anyway.
• Rule of Cool: A requirement to win in Excitebots. And what Excite Truck set out to do to Excite Bike. Watch as you leap over what seems to be the freaking Great Wall of China.
• Spiritual Successor: The Excitebot designs are very reminiscent of Stunt Race FX, a 3D Nintendo racing title for the SNES that featured living cars with cartoony eyes.
• The Beautiful Game: Excite Bike 64's soccer mode. Excite bots also has knocking soccer balls into goals as one of its mini games.
• The Faceless: Excite Bike 2 is only games where the riders aren't faceless.
• The Unexpected: Bolder from Excite Truck is unlockable in Excite Bots
• Time Trial: From the very first game it was an alternative option to racing the CPU.
• Transforming Mecha: All the bots run to the track before turning into vehicle mode. A power up lets you race in legs mode and kick other racers you get close to, knock over trees, ignore most hazards and grind on rails. Jumping off a ramp in legs mode transforms the bot into a glider which can either fly for collectibles or dive for more speed.
• Up to Eleven: The Excite Bots official site says the turtle did this to its turbo boosters to make up for its weight.
• Video Game 3D Leap: Excite Bike 64 was a total overhaul. The cool down spots and stacking ramps gave way to fairly more realistic track designs, the lanes vanished, and perspective shifted to behind. Excite Bike has since moved closer to its traditional game play. Excite Truck and Excite Bots, resemble Excite Bike 64, but have different vehicle controls and add support items, stage hazards, collectibles and Scoring Points.
• Wacky Racing: Mainly Excite Truck and Excite Bots, the Bike games are more tame.