No wonder Godzilla destroyed the city . . . Review

No wonder Godzilla destroyed the city . . .

Taking the turn at over 100 mph, I drop gears, hoping to explode out of the curve

with a surge of acceleration. Unbeknownst to me, there’s a cement divider in the

middle of the road that spells my certain death. I try to steer out of the way,

but the car turns like it’s stuck in mud on top of a layer of ice. I hit the divider

at full speed, seeing my life flash before my eyes. Then, I bounce…

Ever since Pole Position, I’ve been a fan of racing games. Ranging from

arcade wackiness to realistic simulations, racing games are an integral part

of any video game collection. Some games, like Gran

Turismo
, redefine the genre and bring it to new heights. Others, like Tokyo

Xtreme Racer
, show you just how bad the genre can be.

Being one of the first racing games on the Dreamcast, you have to take its graphics with a grain of salt. Sure, the cars are crisp and the light sourcing is well done, but how much of that is the machine and how much is the game? From a graphics standpoint, Tokyo Xtreme Racer looks like a decent tech demo for the Sega Dreamcast.

Unfortunately, it also plays like one. Gameplay is just plain boring. There

is only one track. That’s right – only one. You can pick the direction

you drive on the highway, but that’s it. No tracks to open. No secret levels.

Just one, big, circular highway.

The normal mode of play is called Quest mode. In it, you drive along the highway

until you see one of your “rivals” (conveniently labeled with a red arrow).

To start a race, you have to flash your high beams at the car and away you go.

You don’t have a particular start or finish line. Instead, each of you have

health meters. The person in second place constantly loses life at a rate based

on their distance from the other car. The further behind you get, the quicker

your life goes down, and vice-versa. While this is a new take on the old racing

formula, it’s the only shining point of the game.

Tokyo Xtreme Racer has one of the worst physics models in a video game,

ever. Taking a cue from Gran Turismo, there is no damage modeling in

the game. While annoying, that doesn’t necessarily drive the game to the garbage

heap. The problem arrives when you hit a wall . . . and bounce. You can be going

150 mph, and hitting a wall dead-on will cause you to bounce back about 10 feet

and stop. No flipping, no spinning, just one big bounce. Physics like this have

never existed outside of Wackyland.



However, if the consequences were worse, the game would be unplayable. That

sad fact is due to the horrible control. Ever driven on a surface made entirely

of peanut butter? It’s sticky one minute, then slippery the next. Novice players

will constantly hit the wall on every turn (not that that’s a big problem) and

eventually throw the controller away in disgust.

While the physics model is even more unrealistic than the one found in SF

Rush
, the designers got it in their heads that they were designing some

sort of sim, so they added a ton of upgrades to your car. There are over 100

different accessories to add to your car, but they all suffer from the same

Wackyland physics model. To quote from the manual: “Raising the car height increases

the force with which your tires press against the ground.” Wow, I wonder if

Newton knew that!

There is a Versus mode in the game which uses the tried-and-true split screen

setup. Giving kudos where they’re due, I’d like to congratulate the makers of

the Dreamcast for having a machine that can handle a split-screen without too

much framerate loss. Other than that, it’s still the same game, only now you’re

inflicting it on one of your friends.

In the end, Tokyo Xtreme Racer is the worst Dreamcast title to date.

With Flag to Flag already out and more racing games coming in the near

future, Tokyo Xtreme Racer should be left on the shelves. End of story.





  • New "Battle-racing" System
  • Wacky Physics
  • No Damage Modeling
  • Horrible Controls

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