Original Release: BAM!, 2001, Game Boy Color
An Excitebike knockoff that doesn’t manage to cut the mustard
Xtreme Wheels (GBC, BAM!, 2001)
Where to Buy: eBay
How to Emulate: coming soon!
Review by: C. M0use
Right about the time Nintendo was trying to revive Excitebike in 3D, Spike decided to try their hand at a pretty blatant 2D clone. To put their own stamp on it, however, they gave it the twist of racing BMX cycles instead of dirt bikes.
The game even copies Excitebike’s central “engine heat” mechanic, though here it’s a “stamina” bar as your cyclist furiously pedals away. But while this only depleted when you used the Turbo button in Excitebike, it CONSTANTLY depletes here … you can’t move at all without running it down.
It left me baffled as to how the game intends you to properly manage it. The least time-consuming way seems to be to let it run all the way down, then let your character huff-n-puff for about three seconds while all the other racers pass him. It’s bad and you won’t win a race this way, but it’s actually less bad than trying to stop for shorter but more frequent breaks! There’s a “training” mode, but it provides no help whatsoever.
Anyway, I’m kinda surprised Nintendo greenlit such a blatant copy of their IP on one of their systems (seems to have copied the music style of the Nekketsu / River City Ransom games to boot). Guess they didn’t feel threatened by it at all.
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