Nitrobike to be first third-party online game on Wii, might not suck.

By Stephen Munn | August 12, 2007

The Wii is already online at this point with recent release Super Mario Strikers, but the recent appearance of Nitrobike on the horizon looks set to steal the title of “first online third party Wii game” from… well, from whatever had it before. While Nitrobike might not sound like it’s of any significance, making people think of the long shadow cast by classics like Excitebike and even Hang On, it might be a little early to dismiss the game. The development team behind the game, it turns out, is the one that put together Excitebike 64 for Nintendo: Left Field.

Unfortunately, my memory of Excitebike 64 is limited. It was the first game I played and owned on the system, but my console was broken and it often wouldn’t get past the title screen before locking up. What little I did get to play was really great, and I enjoyed it. In fact, it’s pulled together an 88% average rating on Metacritic. Another of their games, MTX Mototrax, didn’t do quite as well. The idea of a polished motorcycle racer with online play and the ridiculous mechanics of rocket engines bolted to the bikes sounds a bit more appealing than I originally thought it would. Let’s just hope it turns out better than Heatseeker, which I really thought looked promising until it went splat.

IGN Wii: Left Field Productions is responsible for the amazing Excite Bike 64. How much of the original team is working on Nitrobike?

James Higgins: Excitebike 64 had a very small development team. Nintendo actually loaned us one of their game gurus to help with the track designs and gameplay. Later on he left Nintendo and joined us full-time, and he helped us create our award-winning MTX Mototrax. He is now our Lead Designer on Nitrobike, and he is making sure that we live up to the high expectations that Excitebike 64 fans have for our new game.

Nitrobike Interview at IGN.