Tokyo Xtreme Racer

by Crave Entertainment

Product Details

• ASIN: B00001ZWPM
• Media: Video Game
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,210 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

Editorial Review

Curious about those individuals who drive tricked-out Japanese cars? You know, the lowered Hondas with tires so wide they extend beyond the fenders, the souped-up Toyotas with super-sized exhaust pipes, and the custom-painted Nissans with tinted windows and back windshields adorned with a adjectives such as "wicked"?

Wonder no more. Tokyo Xtreme Racer delves into the world of highway racing featuring customized Japanese autos. The basic premise: cruise the Tokyo highway until you find someone who looks a bit too cocky, flash your lights to signal your racing intentions, and commence speeding. The racing physics in the game aren't perfect and the graphics may not bowl you over, but TXR is a lot of fun and it can be a very deep game for dedicated players.

There are hundreds of prospective opponents, and plenty of ways to upgrade your car, but the one element that will no doubt turn off American racing gamers is that there's only one track for the entire game. If you can handle that, and the lack of any apparent damage from collisions, then TXR is good fun. --Jeff Young

Pros:

• High replayability
• Impressive replays
• Unique concept and design

Cons:

• Only one track
• Graphics are nice, but don't push the Dreamcast's capabilities

GameSpot Review

Just as Genki furnished Tokyo Highway Battle for the debut of the Sony PlayStation, it's prepped a sequel for the launch of the Sega Dreamcast. In it, you cruise along the Tokyo freeway looking for cars to compete with. Once you spot a possible contender, you flash your lights to issue a challenge, and the race is on. And that's the point where Tokyo Xtreme Racer diverges from most other racing games out there.

Instead of driving on a number of courses against a volley of different cars at the same time, you compete in a series of short one-on-one races on two different stretches of the same turnpike. Your goal is to keep ahead of your rival on a stretch of road for longer than he leads you. Each driver has a meter that counts down whenever he's in second place; if it runs out, he loses. The farther one car is ahead of the other, the faster the trailing vehicle's meter counts down. Beyond that, TXR is similar to other racing games where you earn money by beating your opponents, which you then spend to beef up your ride or buy new cars, or in this case, so you can compete against faster and tougher members of the city's racing gangs.

Tokyo Xtreme Racer's break from the norm could be compelling, perhaps, if you were driving through the city streets instead of the highway, or if the game took a break from reality to invent additional and more interesting courses. As it stands, the game has only two monotonous loops to race on, and driving on them gets quite dull, even in two-player mode.

The graphics are the best thing about TXR, and even those are a bit of a mixed bag. The frame rate is fast, there's virtually no pop-up to speak of, and the trailer effect caused by the cars' taillights is nice, but the car models leave something to be desired, and the two courses are plain, have repeating features, and don't even offer up the mirrored, backward, or different weather variations that we've come to expect from driving games of all styles. The soundtrack is only average; it doesn't detract from the experience of playing, but it doesn't add to it either.

TXR's physics are unrealistic even by arcade racing-game standards. If you hit a divider head-on at 90 miles an hour, you bounce back a few feet like a large unbreakable box that always lands right side up, and you start back up with no discernable damage to the car. Sliding up against a wall will cough your speed back a bit and knock you towards the center again, but more like a plastic toy car than a real vehicle. Besides its arcade-style features, TXR provides a racing-sim aspect by letting you fiddle with your car's stats to change its performance, but there's far too little there to appeal to simulation aficionados, causing the game to fail on both sides. Fans of arcade-style racing games are advised to hold off for Ubi Soft's Speed Devils and Sega's own Sega Rally 2. This is not a must-have Dreamcast launch game. --Joe Fielder
--Copyright ©1999 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of GameSpot is prohibited. GameSpot and the GameSpot logo are trademarks of GameSpot Inc.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Finally, a REAL "racing" game!, January 11, 2000

By A Customer

= Durability:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Tokyo Xtreme Racer (Video Game)

One thing I dislike about most other racing games is the fact that you usually blow your opponents away and you don't actually "race" them. Tokyo Xtreme Racer changes all that, and I love it.

Race on the Tokyo Highway at night, searching for rival car gang members to race. This is the real deal...I'm in love with the adrenaline pumping, neck-to-neck races. No way you're going to lap your opponent here! The "battles" are often truly fights to the finish, with you and your opponent nudging ahead only to be knocked back.

Use the prize money you gain from racing your opponents to upgrade and purchase different import cars and then tune them up to your liking. You can even customize the color, bumpers, headlights, hood, grill, etc. to your liking.

Graphically, TXR is near pefect. Great detail on the cars and the environment, great light sourcing. There's some slowdown once in a while, but it passes. Sound is about what you'd expect from a racing game, and the music ranges from memorable to bland. Unfortunately, control scheme setup is limited, but it's not a big deal.

Some will debate that the game isn't deep, since there is only one track (two if you count driving on the second circuit), but it's not easily mastered. Others might not like the gameplay's basic setup (drive around, find the next car, race).

To sum up, if you want a racing game with hundreds of cars and tracks, there are other games out there. If you want to try a little one-on-one racing, this is the game for you. It's pretty much hit or miss...I love it.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly underrated, December 13, 1999

By A Customer

= Durability:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Tokyo Xtreme Racer (Video Game)

While most racing games seem to try to appeal to racing game fans, Tokyo Xtreme Racer appeals to real *drivers*. I don't think I've ever played a racing game that gave me this realistic a *feeling* of driving - the physics may not be 100% accurate, there is no car damage - but the game just feels like being out at 2 AM on a Saturday night driving around the highway. It's street racing, not rally or league racing, and that's a style of racing not often simulated in video games. Ignore the criticism of there being only one track (there are actually two - the "mirrored" track is really a totally different track, as the highway is not always connected in each direction); it is so large that in my 40+ hours of play I still have not fully memorized both the inner and outer tracks. Opponent AI is tough - you really need to *race* these guys (and girls). These are no Ridge Racer style place-holder opponents. In short, this game feels like real street racing and is a blast to play - anybody who loves real driving and is looking for something different in a racing game should buy this title.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars one of the best!, December 17, 1999

By A Customer

= Durability:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Tokyo Xtreme Racer (Video Game)

I bought Tokyo Extreme Racer about a week after i bought dreamcast (in october) and have not stoped playing it. I forgot about the other two games i had and just played this. The details of the car and course are great. the cars look as realistic as you can get. This is one of the best racing games yet. Once you get used to the handling the game gets fun. You race around a tokyo highway looking for other souped up cars to race. its not like other racing games were you race to first place. this game its one on one. The only bad thing is it has only one track. The best part is tweaking up your car with realistic upgrades. The game is relitivly easy to beat but once you do you just keep on racing to buy more cars. Right now i have 15 of them and stil going. I you love cars as much as me then you this game is a must to buy!