Well I haven\'t had the game too long, however due to the nature of the game, how you basically do the same thing throughout, and the fact that I played it loads yestaday and this morning, here is the review.
Well this game is definatly going to be overshadowed by GT3, also it seems to be really hard to find in the UK. Shame really because it doesn\'t deserve low sales as its a pretty good game.
You race around modelled Tokyo Highway, in a car you purchased and can buy parts far, searching for wannabe racers. Once you have found one a flash of the headlights start the race. This is where the game is different to other racers. Both players get an energy bar which depletes depending on how far behind their opposition they are and visa versa. Once a players energy has been used up the other player wins. You gain money for winning racers which is used to upgrade or buy new cars.
So it works by getting a car, racing, upgrading the car to make it faster, racing faster enermies, upgrading the car etc. A forumlar which stays throughout the game.
This understandably would get boring fast if it wasn\'t for the amazing structure of the track. The track is huge, modelled on Tokyo Highway. With all the turn offs, corners, landmarks that you would see on the real thing. So if you come to a turn off you can choose the route you want to go, providing it has been unlocked. This helps keep the game refreshing, as like a good spots sim each time you play its different. You start with one piece of the track, although unfortunatly it is the best bit. From here you elimiate all the oppersition to unlock the next bit of the track and so on.
This is a big game. Fortunatly Genki has added some nice touches to stop this game getting anonying. The first of many is that once you beat an enermy the colour changes so its easy to spot which enermies you haven\'t raced, which enermies you lost againest, and which enermies you have beat. Also a nice roster type thing exists in the game profiling all 400 enermies. With both there cars and driving habbits. So this has purposesly been created so you can see how far into the game you are and monitor your progress. Thank you Genki, as without it the game would be spoiled. Other nice touches like placing you near an unraced enermy or allowing you to change gear ratios within the track for ease of testing also exist. Top stuff!
The handling of the cars isn\'t superbly realistic. This can be forgiven, it is an arcade racer afterall. Equally you get used to handling the cars meaning the gameplay isn\'t spoiled.
Many cars and part upgrades exist. Not being a car buff myself I won\'t go into them too much but theres a fair few and further upgrades can be unlocked. Also you do find that you either beat an enermy easy or have a hard time, I haven\'t had many close racers. Probably because im not into cars so not 100% sure how to upgrade it properly.
Ok so thats the gameplay covered now onto the other less important things.
The sound is pretty rotten. Ok the music isn\'t as bad as some of the reviews i\'ve read make out. It isn\'t anything good either.
The graphics are pretty decent. They tend to flicker a lot which is very commen on games which look as chrisp as this. Ok there not GT3 style but at the same time they are nice. They show the Toyko Highway like it should be seen in a game. I\'ve also expirenced no slowdown so far, so I can\'t see there being any.
PAL conversion ain\'t great, with no 50/60Hz, no screencentering and fairly big boarders. Also (although you dont notice this without looking) sometimes like black spots just appear on the road (very tiny), could be texture tearing from VSync who knows? The only thing which stops this game being a really poor PAL conversion is that the frame rate is perfectly fine, which means the game is perfectly playable.
Other nice points to note is that you get a trailer for "The Fast and The Furious", a upcoming street racing film and you get a documentary about street racing. The trailer is a little choppy (PAL conversion methinks?). The documentary is fine but nothing special. Worth a watch once.
Ok onto the bad points. There are some.
1) The manual. Ok who reads these things anyway? In this game though you just might want to. Questions I wanted answered as how to unlock track sections, who are the wanderers and how the hell do you sort out gear ratios. Did the manual help? Did it heck!
2) The track. Although I love the track to pieces theres two things which bug me about it. The first being that theres sections where you can turn off and you really want to. Maybe a road is flying up really high. Unfortunatly not all turn offs can be unlocked. The highway is massive and is certainly big enough for this game but I wanted more. Me being greedy and because the idea of turnoffs in the road are class. So I suppose that isn\'t a downfall. The highway can also become repetitive. It would have been nice if you could have done some daytime racing just for a change in graphics if nothing else. For the most the game is exciting but sometimes your driving and just feeling a little bit bored.
So Genki did a great job with this title. Its fun, it will last a while and one of the main aspects of this game is that its original. Other than the other Tokyo Xtreme Racer titles on the Dreamcast no other game offers this type of energy bar racing (which can make races last quick or long keeping the game refreshing). In a sense you could almost call this a new genre. I mean we have simulation racers, arcade racers, rally racers so why can\'t we have street racing. So yep if your wondering is it worth having this and GT3, go for it. Due to the nature of the game it may not appeal to everyone but I think most people will like this game alot. It does have its odd downfall stopping it from being amazing, definatly good though.
8 / 10 (I was tempted to give it 9, so consider this a high 8).
Topic: RichG\'s Tokyo Xtreme Racer (UK PAL) Review (Read 667 times)