Excitebots is controlled with the Wii Remote horizontally, optionally with the Wii Wheel. Most of the games are played on courses large in size with many opportunities to take meandering paths. The 25 different courses offered are modeled after real locations on Earth. Because of the size of each course, most races are two laps long and offer opportunities to gain massive altitude, perform various maneuvers, and obtain various items.
Each race is scored on a grading system from "D" (lowest) to "S" (highest). In order to obtain a higher score, players must perform various tricks, stunts, complete minigames, and finish the race before the other bots. Each of these tricks yields stars, which are used to determine how well the player did during the race. The more stars collected before crossing the finish line, the higher the final score will be. Examples of some of the methods to obtain stars are: gaining extreme altitude from jumping off inclined terrain, smashing into other bots during high speed, altering the terrain ahead and sending leading bots skyward, ramming into bowling pins, getting various offensive items and using them strategically i.e. bombs, hammers, and swinging on bars including a mandatory "red bar" in each course.
Multiplayer[edit]
Excitebots features six-player online multiplayer via the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection as well as local, split-screen 2-player racing. Online gameplay modes include six-player "Excite" races as well as "Poker" races which can be played anonymously or with friends using Nintendo's Friend Code system.[6] During online play, players are able to place bets on themselves with in-game tokens which can be exchanged for unlockable items.[7] Unlike its predecessor, Excitebots does not support the ability to play custom music from an SD card.[8]