Did you ever spend your childhood in Timezone using your allowance to upgrade your car in Wangan Midnight? If that game is familiar, well, we have the perfect game for you. Tokyo Xtreme Racer (Shutoko Battle in Japan) is not a new franchise. A classic on Dreamcast and PlayStation 2, this unique highway racer, with a focus on Japanese car culture, first came out in 1999, with the last installment coming out in 2006 as Import Tuner Challenge on the Xbox 360.
Since then, publisher Genki has remained silent, leading most of us to believe the franchise was dead. That is, until 2025, when, to our surprise, they released Tokyo Xtreme Racer 2025 on Steam Early Access. Spoiler alert: it’s a JDM fan’s dream. Read on to find out why.
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Gameplay
The game focuses entirely on midnight street racing on the Shuto Expressway in Japan. For those that have never tried this kind of game before, you drive in a semi-open world, then pull up behind a car you want to challenge, and flash your lights to initiate a race.
Once the race starts, you and your opponent then get into a ‘Spirit Battle’ race for Spirit Points (SP), where an SP gauge appears on the top of the screen similar to health bars in a fighting game.
As you (or your opponent) take the lead and extend it, you start to drain the trailing car’s SP, until it’s empty and the race is won (or lost). This is unique system of SPbattles is whatmakes the game unique, as races can be won in seconds or minutes as you and your opponent use nitrous, take curves at speed, and generally outmaneuver each other through traffic.
Ah yes, traffic. While driving on what is the equivalent of our Skyway may not have the excitement of taking corners on a racetrack, traffic plays a big role when it comes to racing and strategy. Get a car in front of your opponent, force him to brake, and suddenly you will have an amazing advantage. Of course this also applies to you, so don’t get too greedy.
What sets this game apart is that once you finish a race, there is no need to go back to the menu. You can just keep driving and find another rival to challenge, or even challenge random traffic cars to a race for credits. This allows you to have the absurd opportunity to outrun a Suzuki Carry in your fully kitted-out Nissan Sylvia. It’s the small things that make this game special.
Speaking of credits, the other huge part of the game is buying and upgrading cars. You start with the choice of a few starter vehicles, including a Suzuki Swift Sport (although we started, as we know you also will, with the Toyota AE86), and you progress from there to purchase a good selection of JDM classics. From Skylines to Chasers to STIs, the car selectionin this game, while not comprehensive,offers a solid taste of JDM flavors to whet your appetite.
Once you have your car, you have a somewhat generic upgrade system, with a decent tuning model to set your car up the way you want to. There are even accessories likefully licensed wheels from Rays (yes, we had a black Sylvia with 18-inch Bronze TE37s), and a decent livery editor.
Tokyo Xtreme Racer can best be described as a chill-while-watching-Netflix game. There is a prevalence of laid-back racing that makes cruising around Tokyo’s expressways a zen-like experience. It is fun, but being ‘Early Access,’ it’s limited to the first two or so chapters of the story, which left us craving more. Although it did mean that we got a solid 12 hours of gameplayfrom what’s available, which isimpressive for a gamestill in active development.
That being said, there are some balancing issues that we hope would be ironed out in the coming months, including an absurd boss battle against a car that has so much acceleration, there is no legitimate way of beating it unless you ‘cheese’ your win by making sureit gets trapped by some of the NPC traffic (be warned).
Driving Model
The driving in this game definitely leans on the ‘arcade-y’ side. Cars handle well and have a solid sense of weight. Darting between cars and downshifting to engine brake through a tightening highway curve is incredibly satisfying.
The carsfeel quiteplanted though, which can be detrimental depending on what you want your car to do. If you want to drift through Tokyo streets, forget about it as the cars are sticky to the point that drifting is almost impossible without pulling the handbrake, which, we feel, can be improved in a future update.
Overall, the cars drive well, upgrades have evident effects on how a car handles, and it is one of the more satisfying handling models in an arcade racer today.
Production
The graphics look great, with impressive lighting effects showcasing the nighttime Tokyo skyline on your, well, Skyline. There’s a strong motion blur effect at high speeds, which might not be to everyone’s taste, but it does make you feel like your Toyota AE86 is blasting down the highway—even if the speedometer only shows an indicated 120 kph. The game runs well, even on modest hardware. On a first-generation Steam Deck, itcan run at around 50-60 fps on low settings, so any rig stronger than that should have no trouble maintaining smooth framerates.
The sound design is dominated by Eurobeat common in the Japanese tuner scene. Anyone who has watched any episode of Initial D would know exactly the kind of awesome tunes to expect. This is great, as the sounds of the engines aren’t very good. Sure, you can tell the difference between a Nissan V6, a Subaru boxer, or a Mazda rotary, but they aren’t the best quality. Thankfully,they’re easily drowned out by the music.
Controls are great. We used the built-in controller support but noted that there are a lot of options to remap controls to work with racing rigs, including manual gated shifter support. The controls were generally responsive, and held up well after hours of racing.
Conclusion
The game is a work in progress and has some balancing issues that need to be addressed before full release. However, if you have that Midnight Wangan itch, or you’ve driven the Shuto Expressway in real life and want tofeel likea member ofthe legendary Mid Night Racing Team, this is one of the best experiences—and one of the best arcade racers—to come out of nowhere this year.
We honestly cannot wait for updates, and we cannot wait for the full release to see exactly where the franchise can go in 2025. Now if you’ll excuse us, we just upgraded from a Sylvia to an R34 Skyline, so we are off to challenge that rival that gave us such a headache. Maybe this time, we can teachit a lesson.
Verdict
Score: 8.5/10
Availability:P1,299.00 (Steam - Early Access Game)
(The game is currently on Steam Early Access. This means that the game is currently not complete and is subject to change. Early Access allows fans to purchase the game during development and play what is currently on offer. Game was tested on Steam Deck)
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