5/26/2020 Tokyo Xtreme Racer Zero Car List
English Version ImpressionsDammit, it's calling me 'Simple Stalker' now. That isn't nearly as cool.We picked up the American version of today, and the English translation reveals a good deal more fun than you might think. The graphics still look just as good, and the bite-sized chunks of arcade racing are equally entertaining, but now, in addition to the core of the game, we can enjoy the rival catalogue and the B.A.D-NAME system (no, I don't know what it means), both inspired little frills that couldn't be appreciated in another language.TXR Zero includes 400 different opponents to race, and they're all tallied up in the Rivals section of the Quest mode, where you can flip through the array of racers and gangs to check out all the opponents that you've beaten or have yet to face. So, in the early stretches, you can have a look at Truman Corwin, 'Mr. Thanks' of the Little Gang, who is evidently not quite at the team leader's level, or Ed Louis, 'Rolling 5,' whose wimpy old-model Toyota mountain racer doesn't have the top speed to seriously compete.
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Later on, you encounter enemies like 'Iceman,' AKA Alan Nguyen, described as 'a retired super hero,' and if you manage to race your way to the top, you'll encounter the final enemy, 'Speed King' Ripp Griffon. According to his profile, the Speed King is '40 years old and smells bad.' I love Japan so.In one of the game's nifty improvements from TXR 2, the Dreamcast game that serves as the base for Zero, you can actually pick up a nickname and reputation of your own as you race, by way of the B.A.D-NAME system. You begin with a boring name, determined seemingly by lot (although your default car is perhaps a factor), and gradually pick up new handles based on your performance and racing tendencies. I began, in my white Lancer Evo GSR (dubbed 'Nakatomi-sempai'), with the nickname 'Usually Rich Guy.'
This was not particularly cool. After a while, I became 'Spiritless Rich Guy' - this was also not cool. Then I got to be 'Spiritless Stalker,' which I deemed very cool indeed, and I stuck with that name for a good long while. And then the darned thing called me 'Simple Stalker.' Oh, well, it's an excuse to go burn a couple more gangs.Which is of course always worth the effort in this game. Tokyo Xtreme Racer grows quite addictive once you master its relatively simple rules.
Each race is short, lasting 90 seconds at the outside, and there's always a new opponent to move on to or a new little widget to upgrade your car with. New graphical improvements are showing up, too, the more we compare this to the Dreamcast's TXR 2. Better lighting effects seem to be coming from streetlights and headlamps, and reflections on chromed rims are more impressive (or maybe it's just because the five-spoke Alfa Romeo wheels I fitted on my Lancer look so stylish).We'll have the proper review of TXR Zero once it arrives later in the month (we're told it will hit shelves before E3), but at this point it's looking very solid. We've encountered only one instance of slowdown/res drop in many hours of gameplay, when about three cars and a truck managed to appear on screen, and the 'known issues' list includes only bugs like 'when played for 60+ hours consecutively, road textures may drop out briefly.' Doesn't sound like much of a problem, unless you're really annoyed by the possibility of memory leaks getting in the way of your week-long racing marathons.- David Smith. First Impressions Tokyo Xtreme Racer remains Tokyo Xtreme Racer.
Or Shutokou Battle, depending on which side of the ocean you view the situation from. One way or the other, Genki's signature racer looks like it's as good a game on the PlayStation 2 as it was on the Dreamcast, which is pretty darn good if you develop a taste for its particular style of competition.
It doesn't have the breadth of appeal of a Gran Turismo or Ridge Racer, but the cheerfully macho attitude and massive customization options will certainly attract those who dream of, or perhaps even possess, their own chopped and channeled Japanese beast. It's not that bad a looker, either.The visuals are certainly not weaker than they were on the Dreamcast, and there are a few additions like a Bouncer-esque filter in some of the replay sequences. Players of the DC version won't be shocked by any new features, but the PS2 engine has been tuned to perfection. There is no slowdown, the scenery whipping by at 60fps without exception. Only very small spots of draw-in mar the backgrounds, which are full of tall buildings and other landmarks, and the crisp, shiny TXR look remains in effect, with flashy lighting and reflections all over every car.And boy, is there a lot of cars to admire here. This is still Fire Pro Racing, as it were, with no official licenses, but you can probably find something that looks very much like your favorite Japanese sportscar here, and go on to kit it out in style. The models are mostly quite smooth, albeit with some sharp angles here and there, and there are some cool extra bits of modeling like 3D vents and rims.
The usual array of performance and cosmetic modifications is available in Quest mode, as well as four different body kits for each car in Quick Race. Some of those kits are hilarious, speaking of which - if you look through the screens, you might be able to find a wonderfully overdone Toyota MR2 clone with a towering rear wing, lowered skirts, and little fins attached to the inner edges of the headlights.It's easier to admire that sort of thing in the replay mode, where there are plenty of different views to choose from.
The default mode is a rotating series of cinematic camera angles, but if you prefer, you can switch to a fixed in-car or over-the-shoulder view, or Race Analyze mode. That last one is a lot of fun, a set of angles designed to help you study and improve your performance. It generally takes a very long view of your car, showing all or nearly all of the road, occasionally even switching to an overhead view that looks exactly like Spy Hunter.
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Included with the big picture is a set of graphs detailing how much acceleration, braking force, and steering effort you were applying at any given point, so you can see how you succeeded or failed at particular moments.This will be handy for new players, because TXR still requires a little getting used to. It is not a simulation racer, but it does have rules you must learn. While it's certainly not as bad as the infernally persnickety Type-S, the cars still feel a little like they're driving on tiptoes. You can find a little more solidity if you go for front-wheel or four-wheel drive (there's definitely a difference in performance between drivetrains), but even then you may feel a little trepidation on your way into a sharper corner.The course doesn't feature a whole lot of those, though - most of your maneuvering will involve dodging the oncoming traffic (taxis, econoboxes, buses, maintenance vans, etc.) and skipping the odd wrong turn. The game warns you well in advance about which exit you have to take, and incorrect routes are covered by blinking transparent guide signs, but you can still drive through them if you aren't careful.
Some obstacles are less obviously marked, too - on one occasion, I crashed smack into a road-maintenance vehicle that seemed to appear out of nowhere. It took me a second to realize that those little red tiddlywinks I'd seen flickering along the white line were actually road flares, telling me to get the hell out of the lane.Details like that add a lot to the feeling of actually racing along the freeway, though.
There's a good balance of oncoming traffic, enough to give the track life without slowing you down to bad, and the variation in environments is great. You can pick from five or six starting points on the 180+ kilometer track, and each of those sections in turn has a lot of different backgrounds, ranging from closed two-lane tunnels to broad four-lane expressways surrounded by skyscrapers and the Tokyo Tower. Depending on the vagaries of your race route, it looks like you'll be able to take multiple paths through different sections, by following certain exits or staying on the main drag.One aspect of the game that needs a little help is the music, which seems to consist of a rather limited selection of generic guitar-accented techno tracks. They aren't bad tunes, exactly, but they don't really get your blood moving either. One of these days, some developer or another needs to take the plunge and give their racer the full Initial D treatment, with plenty of music from the Avex Super Eurobeat series.
As for TXR, though, the situation may improve later on - it seems as if the version we have right now might not have a complete selection of music, and it will eventually have a jukebox system that lets you arrange the playlist how you like.Which suits the series quite well, since having it your way has always been its standout quality - drive where you like, race who you like, in a car that looks how you like it. Tokyo Xtreme Racer Zero should deliver exactly that to PS2 fans, and it should be a very sharp presentation at that. When future versions arrive, we'll hopefully be able to bring you further good news about the game.- David Smith. Preview Information Crave, publishers of the two Tokyo Xtreme Racers for the Sega Dreamcast (known in Japan as the Genki-developed Shutokou Battle series) has just announced the American release of, released in Japan late last year. Though hopped-up import racing on the streets of Tokyo was once solely the province of Sega owners, the unique Shutokou style of drag competition will become available on Sony's console when the PS2 market breaks open this March.The Tokyo Xtreme Racer games are built around a one-on-one racing system, with brief drag encounters that are decided when one racer or the other maintains a lead for a certain amount of time. You hop in your car and cruise around the highways, looking for other racers to challenge. When you find somebody to race against, two energy bars appear up at the top of the screen, and you tear off down the road trying to pull ahead and stay there.
When one racer falls behind, his energy starts to drain - slowly if he's only a little bit behind, but the rate of loss increases as the leader pulls farther ahead. The race is over when one driver's energy is gone. If you win, you score points, and continue driving around looking for competition.There are Quick, Free Run, and Time Attack for relatively short-term, unfocused races, but the meat of the game is the Quest mode, where you work your way up the hierarchy of outlaw racers. As you win races in Shutokou's quest mode, you progress in different ways. First, as you build up a stock of points, you can spend those on new cars and new parts to customize them - reflecting the street-racing subculture that inspired the games, modifying your car is the key to beating more advanced opponents.It's just plain fun, too, since while many of the add-ons go under the hood, there's also the Dress Up mode, with plenty of cosmetic modifications.
You can add new paint jobs, Le Mans stripes and other detailing, decals, body effects, aftermarket rims, big silly spoilers, and your own custom license plate. Personalization pops up in gameplay as well: as your rep develops along with your car, the new 'Battle Naming System' assigns you a nickname based on your best times, top speeds, collision avoidance, and other factors.In addition to the shop full of upgrades (more than 200 different optional parts are available), Tokyo Xtreme Racer: Zero in particular has 60 basic types of cars, with more than 130 total variants - all of them patterned after well-known Japanese sports models. A preliminary list of their model numbers is as follows, some of which you may recognize from the Dreamcast version (the first three, for example, are a Toyota Mark II Tourer and a pair of Nissan Skylines). 100MV. R34RVM. R34GTM.
EKC. NB8RSM. S161VM. CL1. CHA.
CFA. D32AGS.
ECGT. BB6S. NCP35. UCF30B. A70GTA.
A70TTR. TAGDA. TASTI.
CBAEPThe game's recreation of the Tokyo highways totals more than 180 kilometers in length (100+ miles in more familar parlance), including multiple different highways and bypasses connected by onramps, offramps. The multi-level roads are faithfully recreated, with all their turns, forks, slopes, junctions, overpasses, and underpasses.Here's a preliminary map of the course areas.The main controller for the game will obviously be Sony's Dual Shock 2, which has proven itself to be a great pad for racing games, but you'll also be able to use two USB steering wheels: either the Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback wheel, or the Logitech GT Force wheel (also, coincidentally, the wheel being used with Gran Turismo 3).
TXR will support the force feedback features in both wheels. It looks like it'll be worth playing with any controller, though - like the previous Shutokou Battles, the car models are very smooth (even if they don't bear official licenses), and their bodies sport excellent highlighting and environment-mapping effects.Tokyo Xtreme Racer: Zero's Japanese counterpart looked quite good at the fall Tokyo Game Show, and not just because it was accompanied by Genki's highly attractive booth hostesses. It's not quite as much of a looker as some of PS2's higher-profile racers, but its unique gameplay should help make up for that - the series has always offered a unique style of racing. We await further news of the game, which should arrive in the coming month.- David Smith.
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