Excitebike

Excitebike
North American box art
Developer(s)
Publisher(s)
Director(s)Shigeru Miyamoto
Producer(s)Shigeru Miyamoto
Designer(s)Shigeru Miyamoto
Programmer(s)Toshihiko Nakago
Composer(s)Akito Nakatsuka
Soyo Oka (FDS)
SeriesExcite
Platform(s)Nintendo Entertainment System, Arcade, PC-88, X1, PC-8001mkIISR, MZ-2500, Famicom Disk System, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo 3DS
Release
  • Famicom/NES
    • JP: November 30, 1984
    • NA: October 18, 1985
    • EU: September 1, 1986
    Arcade
    • JP: December 1984
    • NA: March 1985
    NEC PC-8801
    • JP: October 1985
    Sharp X1
    Famicom Disk System
    • JP: December 9, 1988
    Game Boy Advance
    • JP: February 14, 2004
    • NA: June 2, 2004
    • EU: July 9, 2004
    Nintendo 3DS
    • WW: June 6, 2011
Genre(s)Racing
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer
Arcade systemNintendo VS. System

Excitebike is a 1984 racing video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was ported to arcades for the Nintendo VS. System later that year and Famicom Disk System in 1988. In North America, it became one of the best-selling games on the console. It is the first game in the Excite series.

Designed and directed by Shigeru Miyamoto, the smooth side-scrolling game engine his team developed for Excitebike was later used to develop Super Mario Bros. (1985), which had the effect of Mario smoothly accelerating from a walk to a run, rather than move at a constant speed.

Excitebike was a critical and commercial success. It spawned several sequels and has been re-released multiple times onto other Nintendo platforms, such the Wii and Wii U Virtual Consoles, and the Nintendo Classics service.