You remember those racing titles? Like Street Racing Syndicate, Midnight Club, Juiced, and so on? Like, around the time NFS Underground was a smash hit. Almost every single of these games carved their own niche, especially games like Tokyo Xtreme Racer.
I can tell you this much, I scored so many points in NFSU2 drifting, I was the literal king in that spot as a kid. Then I find out some point in my life that a Japanese drifting game exists. Actually, there were a lot of those, but nothing personified as this cult classic series. Now making a return, harkening to the old days while providing a lot of modern touches.
Running in early access, even at that stage, it comes with such a breadth of content, you only need to be patient to try them all out. But soon as I tried it out, the game felt like nothing I've ever played. Though, as I've said, patience, because there's a bit of tedium involved, and all.
Now, the real important question to ask is, what are you looking for in a game like this? Because when it comes to just speedracing, all you have to do is flash the headlights, and start a race off. It's simple, you follow where the lead goes till you pass them.
After that, it's a battle of the opponent trying to stay close enough while dealing with tight corners, and traffic. The daunting part of all this, it takes place in real life freeways of Tokyo from the KK route, Aqua-Line, Shuto Expressway, and more. It is very close to an authentic street racing experience, yet there's much more to it than that.
It isn't an entirely original game. It's a modernized rehash of the older TXR titles, you can't even drift the cars right since they are based on power steering with the vehicles always centering themselves without going full tilt. I do hope drifting becomes possible separately.
So you have this entire map of the freeway, you pick a route, and all you have to do is discover opponent cars of certain teams, and make them to race you. Problem is, there's just a freaking ton of these guys, right after the warming period is over. You'd think you would be a maestro at bypassing, and avoiding collisions, but never underestimate the braindead A.I.
They have a level displayed, which gives an idea of just how fast and difficult of an opponent they are. Battling each team means going against their members right before their leaders, which pays off in fat stacks. And if you want to earn money, and battle points, this is mainly how. There's another big issue, the map is stupidly big, and you have to circle around the freeway to discover, then challenge them. You're given goals to progress story, and unlock newer stuff.
Which means you are progression locked from getting higher end parts for the car. Hence, tedium. You need battle points for new skills, perks for earning more cash, unlocking new cars, and also upgrading them. Oh right, the boss battles are what drives the story forward as well. I'm guessing the map even gets bigger with more routes unlocked later on.
These kind of does sound like a deal-breaker, and for me at first it sort of was, but I guess in a way, I was discovering a number of things, while appreciating stuff like the gorgeous detailing of the city setting. It's 90% replicated from the real thing. Oh, also you need a powerful rig to run this, this could work wonders if it had FSR, but no, just DLSS with FG at the moment.
Now, you ever played a racing game for the plot? Like come on, be honest, if this was an Initial D game, you'd be invested. Even the early NFS games like Most Wanted, Carbon, and Undercover had interesting plot lines to follow despite their B-movie cheese. This one rather pays homage.
To the early days, while also not being too rough with an edgy tone. Each team boss battle has these sick philosophical text entries, like Haikus and such. You're about to realize just how serious your undertaking is, and becoming humble in the process. Plus, a lot of the NPCs I'll talk to through text dialogues are understandably friendly. Yeah, street racing ain't what it used it to be.
There's plenty more to do, you're running through speed traps, breaking time records on certain parts of the expressway, and finding these parking spots to hang out and challenge other racers. Some of these guys won't even race you till you've beaten like 10 guys consecutively. Racing game? More like a car-RPG(carPG), if you get my meaning. Also, notice that I am driving the same Suzuki Swift. I did earn enough, but not further, to unlock the fast ones yet.
What also drives me to do the story and finish the races is the goal of finally upgrading my cars to stage 3. This also means driving furiously past 250km/h, tighter turns, and using nitrous oxide. There are limitations as well, like tire wearing, limited nitrous. Returning to garage resets it all.
I actually spent quite the amount of time, 6hrs at most and at first it did feel like it wasn't living up to it. Of course, this is early access, and since it does drastically improve later on, one could wonder if the final product will be far better to try out.
Don't expect this to change standards of racing games, it's more like a return to form with a number of contemporary changes. Upgrading the car is important, you even have robust options to tweak it afterward. Heck, you can even choose tire types before heading out. While the game is arcade like, it's closer to a refined experience missing these days.
