Publisher: Nintendo
Console: NES
Wii Points: 500 ($5.00 USD)
Ah, Excitebike. How much more I enjoyed thee than Excite Truck. In spite of the advances in gaming development that led Patrick Joynt to blurt out, "real bikes don't land like that," you are still fun. A whimsical ride down memory lane, we'd have to say that out of two weeks of very niche titles, Excitebike should elicit the most excitement for Wii owners and casual gamers. Like all NES games on VC, the remote will be more than sufficient to hop in and play.
There's not much else we can say about Excitebike. It's as simple as it looks. For the most part, it still feels like the same game that the world has been playing since 1986, and in this case, that's a good thing. Thumbs up.
Beyond Oasis
Publisher: Sega
Console: Genesis
Wii Points: 800 ($8.00 USD)
No, it has nothing to do with Blur, although that legendary feud was happening right around the time of this game's release. Here comes the inevitable "AND YOU CALL YOURSELVES GAME EDITORS?!?" response. I seem to have missed Beyond Oasis during my heyday of playing Genesis. Maybe it's because I was knee-deep in fatality and combo memorization like most American teens, but to this day, I'd never heard of this game. It seems that a lot of staff members hadn't either. Except our trusty copy editor, Ben Turner, who eats up classic games for breakfast.
"It's one of the best action RPGs of the 16-bit era," were roughly his words.
When we got a look at the game's visuals, we understood. Touting what would've arguably been some of the best graphics of the day circa late 1994, Beyond Oasis tells the story of Prince Ali, who gains a gold armlet that has the power to summon four elements. Somewhere else in the fantasy world, another person has gotten a hold of a silver armlet, which has the potential to be used for chaos and great evil. It will be up to players to go on an epic quest to stop the other person.
Even if I, hardly the RPG fan, considered giving it a thumbs down, I sense that Ben would grab my arm and violently twist it until I either gave Beyond Oasis a thumbs up, or my arm broke, at which point, he would manipulate my arm into a thumbs up between my screams. Still, there's no denying that Beyond Oasis is a great title to pick up for RPG fans, and it's a great thing that Sega dug this one out of the memory hole. Thumbs up.
[Editor's note: Sterling just missed out on an excellent opportunity to test his health insurance. But yeah, BO is rad... the game, not the aroma.]
