Retro Odyssey ep.001 Review & Discussion of Excitebike (エキサイトバイク) for the Nintendo Entertainment System/Famicom. Let me know what you think below. Next up: Balloon Fight (バルーンファイト) Music: Same Old Sh*t by Outmind outmind.bandca...
Once upon a time, in the last century and even a millennium, on an ordinary summer day, a month before the collapse of the USSR and two before I went to the first grade of school, I went out as usual from our apartment building to play outside, but did not see any of my friends in the yard. It should be understood that we didn't have any special entertainment at that time. Therefore, all the children walked on the street and entertained themselves on their own. So each of us accumulated twenty friends, and few people could count acquaintances. And then suddenly - zero at all, no one.😕 Okay. I went to my first friend's house - he's not there. To the other - empty. By the third... Then suddenly I see one running, waving something with his hands, choking... I catch up with him and ask him what happened, where did everyone suddenly disappear to?? He excitedly: "Anton's"... "Is playing a cartoon..." "On TV.".. What kind of nonsense, I think, how can you play a cartoon on TV?.. In general, soon we went up to Anton on the sixth floor, we go to his apartment, and there... The whole living room, where there was a TV, is full of children and from hand to hand they take turns passing some strange thing with colorful buttons and wires. And they take turns playing a cartoon on the TV🤯. That's how I met Nintendo. More precisely, with one of her Taiwanese clone. At first it was the Olympic Games, and then they took out a gun and started shooting ducks on TV with it...🤯🤯🤯 How is it possible, in general, to shoot a toy gun at our Soviet TV and it reacts - I did not understand??? If aliens came down to me from the sky right now and gave me their blaster to shoot, then there would be much less surprise and delight than then. Then it was the turn of Contra, Darkwing Duck, the Best of the Best... There were several cartridges, all yellow-orange, and all of them had several games (thanks to the Taiwanese and Chinese comrades for such generosity😋). Usually, a cartridge from the "9999 in 1" series was supplied with the console for free (there could be more nines). In fact, there were 15-20 simple games on such a cartridge, the same age as Mario, which were repeated a hundred times in the list. But at the same time, there were minor differences in each. For example, in one Mario jumped much higher, in another he flew at all, and in the third the game started immediately from the fifth level. There was also an Excitebike at this multi-game. That day I didn't really play "cartoons", because I quickly lost everything and gave the gamepad to the next in turn. But the next day I came to Anton early and the first thing I turned on was just Excitebike. It was a fairly simple game to enter gaming. In the nomination for the best very first game, I give Excitebike my vote🏆🎉🍾. And now she will fulfill this mission perfectly. The only thing Excitebike can add now is multiplayer. To make it more fun to play with friends.
I genuinely love how you replicated the feel of the Famicom artwork onto the visuals of the entire video; it’s super immersive and I’m looking forward to more 👌🏽
i appreciate your point about the beautiful box art. the art on the black box games is a relic of the time. after the game crash, consumers were upset that they couldn't get the proper arcade experience at home. Nintendo wisely decided to make the box art representative of the gameplay so customers would have realistic expectations and not feel upset or ripped off by the graphics.
I grew up playing Excitebike on the original system back in the early 90's and it's still in my list of best games of all time. Definitely a game that reels you in with it's simple controls but takes a long time to master and learn it's quirks. If you grew to love the original game you will fall in love with the Famicom Disk System version because it's pretty much an enhanced edition of the game with 3 times as many levels, memorable background music that plays as you're racing and better presentation overall. That might make for a great follow-up video review since you have the original working FDS ready to go. 😎
Lol that cliffhanger. We will never know about that feature in the game. I think you were worrying too much at the start. Just like back in the day your videos feel so state of the art. It's ganna be a great series. I'll catch up on the next vid when I get a chance. Keep it up.
Chilling out and watching some of these videos again. My, this was the most misspelled game of our childhood... back when just a few of us were beginning to learn English and the rest trailed along with the most garbled pronunciation. Cheers!
So I know this is an old video. I stumbled on your channel on Sunday when I was listening to your Dragon Warrior II review while taking down Christmas lights. I really enjoyed that video and I went back and started watching your older videos, and I gotta say this one really impacted me emotionally. I totally get where you are coming from in not feeling like you are ever truly ready to just start making videos. I've been making podcasts for the last 7 years and I started making videos out of those podcasts in late November of this year, and it was validating seeing you visibly struggle with this one but still pressing on regardless. Even though I should be comfortable in front of the camera already, I feel the vibe of this video every time I get in front of a camera. Anway I guess its kind of a throwaway comment, but I really enjoy watching these videos in order and seeing you get better and better with each one. I skipped ahead to your latest videos and they are almost perfect. I love the vibe and your delivery and your ability to articulate how these games "feel" vs just cold hard technical anaylsis.
Thanks so much! I’m glad you got something out of it. It got to the point where I had sat on the footage for almost a year and just wanted to get the ball rolling. I made the video for me probably more-so than for viewers. I sort of figure it out by episode 7 with Zelda 1. Moving to sitting down helped my feel a lot more comfortable in ep.004. That, and a massive microphone purchase I felt nervous about investing in. But it all worked out for the best I think. I don’t regret any money I’ve spent on the channel. I watched one of your videos btw. Expect a comment on it when I have a moment!
Please, never do those heavy exhales again. It's physically painful for me to watch, makes it feel hard to breathe. I know I'm unusual, but there's nothing I can do about it (believe me, I've tried), and it makes the whole video a horrible experience.
No worries! Sorry to have bothered you lol. The first few videos in this series are rough around the edges. Episode 7 and on shouldn't have anything like that in them.
When the series started, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do exactly. I had shot this episode and sat on it for over a year before posting. It was unfinished but it was a big barrier for me, so I decided to just post it and move on to get the ball rolling. The first episode I posted that really figured out the basic formula for them was the Zelda 1 review. There are hints of it in the Bomberman video though.
Excitebike IS a good game. Fun mechanics, feels good to play once you get a feel for controlling the bike and landing your jumps. Not a ton of depth though, so maybe an hour or two before you've kinda gotten the full experience. Track builder was pretty unique for the time, though
