DAY 30 / GAME 30 Tokyo Xtreme Racer

DAY 30 / GAME 30

Tokyo Xtreme Racer

             Back when I got my Dreamcast, I got all kinds of oddball games.  I can't quite remember where I heard about Tokyo Xtreme Racer, but I'm certainly glad I did.  TXR was a racing game where you perpetually roam a looping stretch of highway in Japan, searching out other 'gang' members to race.  The cool thing is you don't ever stop.  When you find someone to race, you flash your high-beams at them and a race starts from a rolling start.  You each have 'life meters' at the top of the screen and whoever stays in front of the other car until the life meter drops to zero, wins.  Then, you keep rolling to the next race.  Or just keep driving in circles around the highway, forever.

            I remember when I first got it, I was pretty disappointed upon discovering there was only one track.  Albeit, as you progress, you can unlock a little more of the track, but the location was all the same.  My disappointment lasted about as long as it took to circle the track once or twice; because by the time I had, I realised I had purchased one of the most zen racing games ever.  Turns out, there's something so very relaxing about simply driving around on the highway in your choice of tuned import at night as the lights of the streetlamps and buildings around you wiz by.  I could seriously just play this game all night long and not even bother racing.  I absolutely loved it.  TXR had a great selection of cars, all Japanese I think and all with fake names so they didn't need to purchase licenses.  But you could tell exactly what they were from the models.  You could upgrade them for performance, but also for style, adding better looking hoods, bumpers, side skirts, etc.  Even in this screen, your car is on the highway, rolling as the camera rotates around it.  

             Sure, the controls were stiff as hell and there was only really one track, but this was one of my favorite racing games ever.  Someone needs to build a up-to-date sequel on a current platform.  Maybe I'm the only one who would buy it, but they did make 3 other sequels to this game in the past.  So it must appeal to someone other than myself.  I'm actually a little surprised that they didn't merge this game with the Fast and the Furious property.  The two would go together quite well and I would love to see some American muscle cars added to the list.