Nintendo has revealed its release line up for the second quarter of 09, and while Punch-Out!! in May sounds great, the really excite-ing part is the announcement of Excitebots, a spiritual sequel to Excite Truck.
Punch-Out!! will be released on May 18. Leaked info on the game revealed by the ESRB suggested that it’ll be a pretty spot-on replica of the classic NES title, and Nintendo’s description seems to support that idea: “Boxers battle as iconic hero Little Mac as they fight their way through a cast of new and familiar boxing opponents on their quest to win the coveted WVBA (World Video Boxing Association) Championship Belt.”
Meanwhile, fans of robots and excitement, your game will arrive soon. Excitebots, a spiritual successor to the Excitebike and Excite Truck games, will release on April 20. Featuring “elements that make it one of the more unique racing games on the market,” the game comes packaged with a Wii Steering Wheel plastic shell and has “fun minigames” and “crazy tricks.”
Sounds like it could be more Wii shovelware, but I’m hoping for the best. Anyone who enjoyed Excite Truck knows that the arcade racer was one of the best surprises to come out of the early life of the Wii. Sending monster trucks flying over huge canyons while doing 900 degree backward flips using the Wii Remote easily beat out fishing in Twilight Princess for pure fun back then, and hopefully Excitebots will live up to that legacy. I mean, it has robots, it sounds like. That’s a good start.
Nintendo also revealed its upcoming WiiWare lineup, which will exclusively feature Independent Games Festival awards contender Night Game, the latest creation of developer Nicklas Nygren, best known as the guy behind indie favorite Knytt Stories. Also on tap for WiiWare is something called Eduardo the Samurai Toaster, which has you playing as the titular toaster as he teams up with other toasters to “fire an assortment of pastries at all kinds of dastardly food products.” How wacky.
