April 10th, 2007 | Feature
The Game Center CX Episode Guide
The front-to-back tribute to the Japanese TV show that flies in the face of Nintendo's epilepsy warnings.

 

Game Center CX Special – Back to Contents
Arino no Chousen 3D: "3D Classics: Excitebike"

Some months after his last appearance, Arino returns to the Wii’s Nintendo Channel for a new set of featurettes. Actually, he’s also debuting on the 3DS eShop! That’s because he’ll be playing Nintendo’s new 3D Classics games, beginning with Excitebike. This video was also shot in 3D, so owners of a Japanese 3DS could partake in the fun. Arino has a bowl of toys next to him that have a lot of "pop" to them, sort of, so the 3D effect is more pronounced. He starts with a bubble blower, and a jumping frog toy that’s not too effective, but funny nonetheless.

As for Excitebike, it’s been given a full remake that takes advantage of 3D depth. The game is unchanged as far as gameplay as features, but using the 3DS depth slider also adjusts the view of the camera.

Arino starts with "Selection A," the single-player time trial mode. There he’s harshly reminded of the game’s overheating mechanic, where smart players must know when to balance the more powerful accelerator with the normal one to stay in the lead. Arino overheats a couple of times, but eventually clears the first course.

He plays with the 3D slider, noticing that when the 3D is off, the game looks just the same as it aways did, but cranking up the 3D sends the view way back. After some more (admittedly unexciting) play, he finishes up with Selection A.

Selection B is the meat of the game — a race against computer opponents across five courses. Of course, once the starting horn blares on the first course, Arino crashes right into the first opponent. But after that, he does OK, staying out of danger and ending up placing first!

On the second track, Arino does some griefing by staying put on the course right ahead of a crashed opponent, then sliding up next to them to knock them over again. What a card! Unfortunately, his wasting time doesn’t win him the race.

On the next try he makes it to track 2, and again places first. At least his victory poses make for good 3D, huh? Track 3 is a little harder, though, with a layout of obstacles that make it hard to go fast. As such, he places 11th, and is forced to try again

Those little speed bumps on the track give him a devil of a time, but eventually he learns how to "hunch" over them… until he crashes again, right on one before the finish line. 6th place that time.

Arino climbs the rank each time, but not into any qualifying spots. On his 27th attempt, he finally seems to get the hang of navigating the track, and nearly makes it to the finish line unscatched — he crashes once by running into the back of an opponent, but once he clears the finish line, the suspense builds until he sees he placed first!

To cap things off, Arino is given an activity: make a course in the Design mode, and AD Watanabe will play through it. He jumps right into it, making a course that is downright hellish; pelted with mud puddles and speed bumps meant to throw off the poor AD.

Arino finishes, and Takahashi steps up to the plate. He crashes early, but soon levels out and begins to go through the course in a fairly expert manner. His time is 1:15:51.

Can Arino beat that? The master plays his own track, and doesn’t really crash at all! He did have more immediate practice, after all, and times in at 1:03. Not bad! Arino plays around with the depth slider a little more to close things out.

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