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Ready for some insane racing action?

The Wii launched in November of 2006 with two first party games: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and Excite Truck. Naturally, most of the media's attention focused on the new Zelda game, leaving Excite Truck to go by mostly unnoticed. It didn't help that around the same time Motorstorm hit the PS3 with gorgeous graphics. However, as the months ticked by and more people played Excite Truck, word of mouth began to spread about how fun it was. Its unique blend of racing, tricks, and track morphing had created a cult-like following among racing fans. Almost out of nowhere, Monster Games and Nintendo announced Excitebots: Trick Racing would release and it looks like history is set to repeat itself. With little marketing and no time to build hype, initial sales of Excitebots have been dismal. Hopefully the positive reviews and the fact that it's a fantastic game will turn that around so we can enjoy more sequels in the years to come.

Excitebots isn't strictly about winning a race. Like its predecessor, the game revolves around collecting stars. The player is ranked at the end of the race by tallying up the stars earned and given a letter grade. There are many ways to earn stars, most of which revolve around stunts. Some of the stunts include: air spin, tree run, drift, air, and bot smash. Scattered throughout the tracks are special bars that your robot can latch onto. The red bar is worth the most stars, and requires you to push your remote forward and back in a circular motion to match the on-screen flipping of your robot. Complete ten rotations perfectly and you'll be propelled off the bar and earn some stars. Yet another, shall we say unique, way to earn stars is by triggering question mark boxes. Many things can happen ?" all of them crazy. Bizarre challenges can present themselves, like a soccer ball and net appearing. Get the ball in the net to score stars. Or a pie falls onto your bionic arm and you must try and hit a cutout face on the track. Sure, the game throws out some truly strange objectives, but it keeps the game fresh and unpredictable. Of course, the final way to earn stars depends on your place in the race. First place nets you a 50 star bonus, second place gets 25 points, third 15, fourth 10, fifth 5, and if you come in last you get 0.

As its name implies, Excitebots has ditched the trucks in favor of robots. These robots are bug and animal-based and most of the time will be in vehicle mode. There are different transformations, such as the glider and robot forms that temporarily boost your performance. As you progress through the various cups, more tracks open up and the stars you earn can be used to purchase new vehicles, customize your paint job, and more. Tracks can be replayed at any time if you want to try and better your score or net more stars. The tracks are designed in a way to allow multiple paths so it's often fun to play each one several times to see what you missed the first time around.

The game has several multiplayer modes. Up to two players can duke it out on one system via split-screen versus mode. Or, you can take the game online and race against five other friends or strangers. You can even bet stars on your race and if you're victorious you not only nab the stars you earned, but those that were bet. But, the outcome isn't as nice if you lose. Of course, the usual Friend Codes must be exchanged to play with your buddies.

The controls are identical to the prior game, but this time you can accurately use the steering wheel. If you're not using the wheel, simply hold the remote horizontally, like an NES pad. Tilt left or right to steer and use the d-pad for nitro and the 1 and 2 buttons for gas and brake. The game is packaged with the wheel for $50 or as a stand-alone game for only $40. One complaint I had with Excite Trucks was the generic rock music that played while racing. Luckily the game supported SD Card music (one of the only games to support that feature on the Wii) so I could listen to any music I wanted to. Excitebots nixed that feature and still features substandard music. I will say it's slightly better, but it lacks the memorable music tracks of games like F-Zero and Mario Kart.

Excitebots is intense and wacky racing rolled into one. The game throws conventional wisdom out the window and just focuses on the player having a good time. It's easily of the best racing games I've played and it's sure to put a smile on anyone who's fortunate enough to pick it up. The graphics have been slightly improved, the game moves at a blistering pace, the controls are spot-on, and the track designs are off the hook. Do yourself a favor and buy Excitebots immediately. You won't be disappointed, you'll be EXCITE!