Retro|Spective 046: Tokyo Xtreme Racer

[dvdx2]

It’s really hard to get a decent pic with poor lighting an iPad and a crt, but I managed to get some decent shots tonight of shutokou 2 on the dc, running on my Sony F520 crt monitor via vga. Although the car models are a bit basic, the fine detail is fantastic - with lit dash, 3D alloys (as opposed the the first games flat wheel hubs) and you can actually read the tiny stickers on the car, depending on frame. Fantastic!

https://ibb.co/jZNGs8

https://ibb.co/h1pJ5T

https://ibb.co/eGTBQT

https://ibb.co/h4z7zo

[QualityChimp]

I've been on this all night! I really need to go to bed!

[nakamura]

The first DC was released in Japan when I was in hospital back in 1999. My friend who owned a game shop, brought a copy in to hospital for me and my DC along with it and he didn't even charge me.
It's quite mad timing that this topic comes up as I am in hospital again.

[Neon Ignition]

No mention of the Wangan Midnight games, Supes?

This was one of those awkward ones to thread out as the series history spans multiple series and developers so I ended up thinking it was best to zero in on one particular arm of it. According to wiki the full list would be:

1994

• 05/27: Shutokō Battle '94 Keichii Tsuchiya Drift King (Bullet-Proof Software, Super Famicom)

1995

• 02/24: Shutokō Battle 2: Drift King Keiichi Tsuchiya & Masaaki Bandoh (Bullet-Proof Software, Super Famicom)
• 12/15: Wangan Dead Heat (JVC/Pack-In-Video, Sega Saturn) CERO+18
  • 1996/08/06: Highway 2000 (Natsume)
  • 1996/XX/XX: Highway 2000 (JVC)

1996

• 03/22: Tōge Densetsu: Saisoku Battle (Bullet-Proof Software, Super Famicom)
• 05/03: Shutokō Battle: Drift King Keichii Tsuchiya & Masaaki Bandoh (Bullet-Proof Software/Genki, PlayStation)
  • 1996/07/16: Tokyo Highway Battle (Jaleco)
  • 1996/09/30: Tokyo Highway Battle (Jaleco/THQ International)
  
  
• 08/30: Wangan Dead Heat Plus Real Arrange (JVC/Pack-In-Video, Sega Saturn) CERO+18
• 12/20: Shutokō Battle Gaiden: Super Technic Challenge - Road To Drift King (Media Quest, PlayStation)

1997

• 02/28: Shutokō Battle '97: Drift King Keichii Tsuchiya & Masaaki Bandoh - New Limited Ver.97 (Imagineer SPD2/Genki, Sega Saturn)
• 04/25: Shutokō Battle R (Genki, PlayStation)

1998

• 04/23: Kattobi Tune (Genki, PlayStation)

1999

• 06/24: Shutokō Battle (Genki, Dreamcast)
  • 1999/09/09: Tokyo Xtreme Racer (Crave Entertainment)
  • 1999/10/14: Tokyo Highway Challenge (Crave Entertainment, Ubi Soft)

2000

• 06/22: Shutokō Battle 2 (Genki, Dreamcast)
  • 2000/09/27: Tokyo Xtreme Racer 2 (Crave Entertainment)
  • 2000/12/14: Tokyo Highway Challenge 2 (Crave Entertainment, Ubi Soft)
  
  
• 12/21: Daytona USA 2001 (Amusement Vision/Genki, Dreamcast)
  • 2001/03/12: Daytona USA (Sega)
  • 2001/05/11: Daytona USA 2001 (Hasbro Interactive)

2001

• 03/15: Shutokō Battle 0 (Genki, PlayStation 2)
  • 2001/06/09: Tokyo Xtreme Racer Zero (Crave Entertainment)
  • 2001/05/28: Tokyo Xtreme Racer (Crave Entertainment, Ubi Soft)
  
  
• XX/XX: Shutokō Battle H" (Genki Mobile, Feel H" Mobile)

2002

• 02/XX: Shutokō Battle I (Genki Mobile, i-mode Mobile)
• 02/XX: Shutokō Battle EZ (Genki Mobile, EZweb Mobile)
• XX/XX: Shutokō Battle (Genki Mobile, Vodavone Live! Mobile)
• 03/28: Wangan Midnight (Genki, PlayStation 2)

2003

• 01/09: Shutokō Battle Online (Genki Racing Project, Windows)
• 02/27: Kaidō Battle: Nikko, Haruna, Rokko, Hakone (Genki Racing Project, PlayStation 2)
  • 2006/04/18: Tokyo Xtreme Racer Drift (Crave Entertainment)
  
  
• 07/24: Shutokō Battle 01 (Genki Racing Project, PlayStation 2)
  • 2003/11/19: Tokyo Xtreme Racer 3 (Crave Entertainment)
  
  
• 08/06: Shutokō Battle Online Special Pack "SpeedMaster" (DigiCube/Genki Racing Project, Windows)

2004

• 02/26: Kaidō Battle 2: Chain Reaction (Genki Racing Project, PlayStation 2)
  • 2005/11/16: Kaido Racer (Konami)

2005

• 04/04: Shutokō Battle Evolution (Genki Mobile, i-mode Mobile)
• 04/20: Tokyo Xtreme Racer Advance, was not designed, nor produced by Genki but by "David A. Palmer Productions" in UK for Crave Entertainment (Game Boy Advance)
• 04/21: Shutokō Battle (Genki Racing Project, PSP) CERO+12
  • 2006/02/28: Street Supremacy (Konami)^[2]
  • 2006/09/29: Street Supremacy (Konami)^[2]
  
  
• 05/26: Racing Battle: C1 Grand Prix (Genki Racing Project, PlayStation 2)
• 07/28: Kaidō Battle: Mountain Legend (Genki Racing Project, PlayStation 2)
  • 2006/12/01: Kaido Racer 2 (Konami)
  • 2007/04/17: Tokyo Xtreme Racer: Drift 2 (Crave Entertainment)
  
  
• 09/06: Shutokō Battle Evolution Plus (Genki Mobile, i-mode Mobile)

2006

• 01/26: Shutokō Battle Evolution (Genki Mobile, EZweb Mobile)
• 07/27: Shutokō Battle Ten (or Shutokou Battle X) (Genki Racing Project, Xbox 360)
  • 2006/09/27: Import Tuner Challenge (Ubisoft)
  • 2006/10/06: Import Tuner Challenge (Ubisoft)

2007

• 07/26:Wangan Midnight (Genki, PlayStation 3)
• 09/27:Wangan Midnight Portable (Genki, PSP) CERO+12

2011

• 11/01:Shutokō Battle (Genki, Mobage)^[3] (shut down as of June 29, 2012)

2017

• 01/26:Shutokō Battle Xtreme (Genki, Android & iOS, Japan only, shut down as of November 29, 2017)

I know I've tried one of them and I'm pretty sure it was one of the Dreamcast versions but I couldn't say which one

[QualityChimp]

The first DC was released in Japan when I was in hospital back in 1999. My friend who owned a game shop, brought a copy in to hospital for me and my DC along with it and he didn't even charge me.
It's quite mad timing that this topic comes up as I am in hospital again.

Sorry to hear you're not well again, Naka.
I hope your hospital visit is brief mate.
That was really thoughtful of your friend, back in 1999.

So, thanks to [MENTION=345]Superman Falls[/MENTION], for the thread and the original PS2 tat one that lead me to Import Tuner Challenge and nudging me to replay it and play out some Initial D fantasies!



I'd forgotten most of what I'd done and needed a "crash" course on how to play it.
Basically, you cruise around a Tokyo roadway at night, looking for other racers to challenge.
When you see one, you flash your headlights and battle commences.
Each battle sees you racing to outperform your competitor and deplete their health bar. This is done by gaining a lead on them or by them hitting obstacles.

Once you've raced and beaten all of the members of a team, you take on their leader, who is hella tough!
Whilst cruising, you can go to the car park and chat with other racers who'll give you trash talk or snippets of info on your competition ("He only races fully modified cars") or you can compete with some other racers there.
These are either battles or time trials and can be against more than one racer.

You can end your days racing and spend your well-earned winnings on upgrading your car, of which there are looooads of options.

You're going to need it because competition is tough. Even the shrimps take a lot of skill to beat.
I was starting races as you reached a hairpin bend, so they'd break before you and you'd get the lead. Once you have it, you're having to block them trying to overtake and guiding them to trying to overtake on the side where traffic is so they hit that, lose momentum and some health. The health bar is genius because you can't just ram people off the road, it's all about skill...



Most of the races saw me watching a car accelerate like a rocket and reach top speeds higher than mine, so no matter how skillful you are, you're never going to beat them without a faster car. So you race the minnows and start to upgrade. I added a nitrous boost, which was vital in most boss races. They also seem to catch you really quick if you make a mistake, so I'm not sure if there's elastic banding or they're just ludicrously fast!

After a night's racing, I'd managed to beat a fair few racers and a handful of bosses and I added their stickers to my car like trophies.
The battle idea is brilliant because it's really tense. You can see their headlights in the mirror and know you have to stay ahead, block their progress and not hit anything! It can get genuinely tense too. A couple of races saw me in the red on my health with a warning beep going on for miles, but NEVER GIVE UP because sometimes you can fight through to victory. Likewise, a competitor held on for ages and the slightest mistake could see them snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. My first big win was against Rolling Guy:


I upgraded my car to a GTR and things became slightly easier, but I'm currently saving up for a better engine.

So yeah, this was great and I was up until after 1am racing chumps on the Tokyo highway.

The setting is cool and all, but if it wasn't for the Tokyo Tower in the distance, you could easily think you're racing around the Coventry Ring Road!

[nakamura]

I enjoyed my time standing on Tokyo Tower, watching the night time traffic on the C1 ring back in 2008.

[QualityChimp]

I enjoyed my time standing on Tokyo Tower, watching the night time traffic on the C1 ring back in 2008.

I think I spent most of my time up there watching some sort of Godzilla gachapon machine, rather than the view!

Every city I visited in Japan had some sort of tower or ferris wheel.
One even had two big wheels of slightly different heights right next to each other.
Why would you go on the smaller one?! Baffling!



The traffic was nuts though! There's no way you'd be drifting around Tokyo in real life!

[nakamura]

Japan gets dark quite early though and Shuto Racing is a 3-4 am thing when it was quieter. Though I don't think you see as much of it as you used to.

[QualityChimp]

I guess "Wangan Midnight" is a snappier title than "Wangan 3-4 am thing".

I spent most of last night being chased by your car in ITC, by the way!
It made me think of you when a car like yours popped up.

[nakamura]

My car isn't in the game, hardly any of the cars are. Coupled with the jarring drop to 30fps and mediocre visuals, you see why I don't really get on with it. It's the most disappointing version and undid all the strides Genki took with their racing games.

[Asura]

I guess "Wangan Midnight" is a snappier title than "Wangan 3-4 am thing".

Japan gets dark quite early though and Shuto Racing is a 3-4 am thing when it was quieter. Though I don't think you see as much of it as you used to.

Yeah; Tokyo isn't like London or New York; at night, the city gets surprisingly quiet. I remember walking through Jimbocho at 5am once, at dawn, and it was honestly like 28 Days Later. People look at night-time pictures of Akiba or Shinjuku, but those are mostly taken in the early evening. Sure, there are districts with clubs and bars, but outside of those it becomes a real ghost town.

[vanpeebles]

No offence but this is a rubbish thread. Why have you mixed up Kaido Battle and Shotokou all together? Two different series, ignore the confusing us/uk names!

[Neon Ignition]

For most it's the TXR name that's the known one, hence the focus. But it's Wednesday which means the clue for R047

Clue - By Asura's Request

[dvdx2]

It beggars belief why there are no new entries of the series on modern hardware. With The popularity of online gaming, surely makes a perfect platform form 1-1 racing of more though a 4k mapped tokyo!

[QualityChimp]

I played some more of this last night and oh, how the tables have turned!
I bought the best engine available and upgraded the nitro and I've started smokin' fools on the Aston Expressway Tokyo Highway!

Took out each and every challenger I came across on one section, even the bosses that appear when you trounce their team mates.

I got some more cash for my efforts (the multiplier goes up with each successive win) and tinkered a bit more with upgrades before bed (late again).

I thought [MENTION=13193]nakamura[/MENTION]'s car was in this, but it's not. You have a Celica, but that's not in the game. I thought you had a Supra.

Speaking of which, in the gym car park, I spotted this bad boy: