Faced with a crowded field of contenders, Excitebike 64 soars over the competition to firmly establish itself as the best motorcycle racing game for Nintendo 64. Excitebike 64 may not feature the real-world riders and tracks found in other Supercross titles, but its authentic play control and gorgeous graphics make it the most realistic of the bunch.

The code pros at Left Field have accomplished an amazing feat with Excitebike 64: they've successfully recreated the realism of Supercross and Motocross racing, without making the game too difficult to play. Extremely wide tracks, a responsive drift feature and spot-on control while you're in the air make this game a pleasure to ride. In the original Excitebike for the Nintendo Entertainment System, the main challenge was to line your tyres up with various jumps and bumps to maintain a smooth ride. Now, 15 years later, the premise remains the same. To succeed in Excitebike 64, your bike has to hit jumps in the proper position, then land smoothly. If your timing isn't perfect, you'll lose major speed. Whether you're racing in the 80, 125 or 250cc classes, all bikes have a turbo feature, which plays a crucial role in the gameplay. Before every jump, riders have to use a burst of turbo to ensure that their bikes clear the gap and land smoothly on the other side. If you get too turbo-happy, though, your bike will overheat. Mastering the use of turbo is the secret to landing a first-place finish.

Excitebike 64 is teeming with different ways to play, but at the heart of the game is a joint-jarring Season Mode. Your career begins at the Novice level, where you'll compete in three rounds of five races each before progressing to Amateur and Pro competitions. The one-player Season Mode features 20 high-flyin' tracks, including realistic indoor courses and outrageously extreme outdoor circuits. In addition to Season Mode, Excitebike 64 delivers awesome replay value with a wide variety of ways to play. In Soccer, two or four players can compete simultaneously, using their bikes to kick around a massive soccer ball. The technically demanding Hill Climb Mode sees riders powering their way up near-vertical slopes in a fight against gravity. And it's also possible to unlock the great granddaddy of motorcycle racing games, NES Excitebike itself - and an updated, fully 3D version featuring speed boosts and big jumps. Best of all, even if you master all 20 of Excitebike 64's pre-packaged tracks, a user-friendly track editor ensures that you'll never run out of new challenges.