I picked up Nintendo’s Excitebots partly because it has been getting fabulous reviews, and also because I had some Toys R Us coupons burning a hole in my wallet. As a vague sequel to Wii launch title Excite Truck, Excitebots arrived in stores last week, bargain priced at $40… or $50 bundled with a Wii Wheel accessory. Guess which version I bought.

Excitebots takes the physical mechanics of Excite Truck (deforming terrain, Wii Remote motion control) and recasts everything in extreme silliness. The blandness of Truck has morphed into a selection of robot animal karts, and the tracks have been littered with ridiculous bonus distractions like the SUPER SANDWICH shown above. It all seems like a much closer fit with Nintendo’s franchise marketing… I mean, who was the breakout star of Excite Truck? “Red Pickup”?

I don’t know that I’m going to supergush over Excitebots, but so far it definitely seems very competent, easy to play and full of character. The big question is whether it has anything to offer that could beat the Wii’s crowned racer champion, Mario Kart Wii. Because in the Nintendo realm, we pretty much have two types of driving games: Mario Kart, and Everything Else.

Excitebots kicks off with exactly one mode unlocked, a simple Kart-style four-track Cup race. This initial cup features some rather normal-looking tracks set in global locales like Canada and Mexico. Once you beat those four tracks, then you unlock online play, local versus multiplayer, and a suite of minigame challenges.

I find it sort of interesting that the basic tracks seem so banal. They’re certainly pretty, but they’re not silly in the way that Mario Kart Wii makes you race through a mall or castle or other nostalgia-leveraging zones. Unless you consider Canada inherently silly, I suppose. You’d think that the giant robot animal car vibe would permeate a little stronger into the track design, but I suppose it’s the Super Sandwich-type stuff that is meant to keep the game’s oddball meter going. Then again, I’ve only seen about six tracks, so maybe things get crazier later on.

Unlike Mario Kart, the tracks in Excitebots are far more open. You can go offroad in search of level shortcuts or hidden powerups. The lack of discrete track boundaries does mean you can skid out around a tight turn and find yourself in the middle of lake, so be warned.

The point of the game is to collect stars, which you receive as rewards for pulling off stunts as well as for winning each race. It is not uncommon on those initial tracks to finish with well over one hundred stars to your name. Which is good, because there are about a billion unlockables waiting to be bought on the backs of those stars (although truth be told, many of those unlockables are Who Cares elements like save file icons and robot color schemes.)

Excitebots allows you to send race replays to other ‘bots owners. You can just send the movie or you can assign stars to it and make it a challenge. If your friend meets the challenge, they’ll win your bonus stars.

The tracks are powerup mad. There’s the few that cause track-changing deformations (you make the ground rise to form a ramp… essentially making power jumps optional) and plenty that trigger mid-level challenges. For example, you’ll round a corner, collect a powerup icon, and then all of a sudden a set of bowling pins appears down the road and you have to try for a strike. It makes for a wild, anything-can-happen kind of race, and very obviously moves Excitebots out of the Serious Racer category.

One special mode has you collecting cards to form the best poker hand. I really like this one because it makes you use your action brain and your thinking brain simultaneously. Like regular 5 Card Draw, you have to select which cards in your hand will be replaced by the new ones coming down the track, all while driving! The better your hand rank, the more stars you win.

For me, the biggest drag is the damn floaty Remote controls. Excitebots would be so much better if it did not force you into a Remote (or Wii Wheel) control scheme. I know I’m not accustomed to the Wii Wheel, but I just can’t get the precision that I feel I need. And most unfortunately, the Remote scheme has lead to the inclusion of one very hinky motion control: rotating the Remote in midair to simulate your robot doing loops around a flying trapeze thing. These trapeze bars show up about once per level (boy, I hope it never gets more than that) and they are just plain not enjoyable. You’re made to rotate the Remote ten times before you can escape the bar, bringing the race to a screeching halt. You get a nice turbo on the dismount, but that doesn’t make up for the total gameplay stoppage in the first place.

I’m enjoying Excitebots. It’s fast and funny, and I dig how the nonsense intermingles with regular ol’ kart racing goodness. Just seems like having GameCube controller support – or at least Remote+Nunchuk support – would have been an easy option.