''Tokyo Xtreme Racer: Drift'' (known as ''Kaidō Battle: Nikko, Haruna, Rokko, Hakone'' in Japan) is the third racing game published by

Crave Entertainment Crave Entertainment (aka Crave Games) was an American video game publisher founded in 1997 by Nima Taghavi. Its headquarters was in Newport Beach, California. It was acquired by Handleman Company in 2005 in a deal valued up to $95,000,000 but w ...

for the

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. It is the fourth main installment in ''

Shutokō Battle ''Tokyo Xtreme Racer'' (東京エクストリームレーサー, ''Tōkyō Ekusutorīmu Rēsā''), also known as in Japan, is an arcade-style racing video game series created by Genki, inspired by street racing on the Shuto Expressway in Tokyo. ...

'' series. The game allows racing at both day and night. Daytime offers the opportunity to enter competitions and gain money, while night time is where the player can race against rivals to gain respect.

Gameplay

Story

The player controls Hiroki Koukami, a Wanderer driver. He is able to defeat every rival and challenges every leader, called a "Slasher", from Hakone, Haruna, Nikko, Omote Rokko and Irohazaka. After he beats "Speed King", Iroha's Uphill's Slasher, he challenges Hamagaki, aka Kaido President, who drives a yellow Pantera GTS (a black Acura NSX in the US version) and holds the title of "Drift King". After Koukami defeats him, he takes his title, becoming the new Drift King, while Hamagaki loses it and is demoted to Trickster. The game is set between

Zero 0 (zero) is a number representing an empty quantity. Adding (or subtracting) 0 to any number leaves that number unchanged; in mathematical terminology, 0 is the additive identity of the integers, rational numbers, real numbers, and compl ...

and 3, according to the Japanese series timeline.

Cars

The game includes Japanese and imported foreign cars. The foreign cars included are Alfa Romeo, Mini, Lotus, DeTomaso, and Volkswagen, depending on the version. Honda was licensed in this game (with some cars localized as Acura models in the US version) but was not available in ''

Tokyo Xtreme Racer 3 ''Tokyo Xtreme Racer 3'' (known in Japan as ''Shutokou Battle 01'') is a racing game for the PlayStation 2 and the follow-up to the 2001 game '' Tokyo Xtreme Racer: Zero''. The game was released in North America but, unlike previous entries in th ...

'' due to licensing issues. Ford, Lotus, and DeTomaso were removed in the 2006 US release, and Alfa Romeo and Audi from ''Kaido Battle 2: Chain Reaction'' were added in, even though ''Kaido Battle 2'' never had a North American release.

Development

The game was originally conceived as "Touge Battle" and was planned to be released on the

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. Sammy Studios was the initial US publisher for the game, under the title of ''Drift Racer: Kaido Battle'' and slated for 2004 release, before it was moved to Crave Entertainment.

Reception

The game was met with mixed reception upon release. Its

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score was 62%, while its

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score is 59 out of 100.

References

External links

* {{Tokyo Xtreme Racer series 2003 video games Crave Entertainment games Genki (company) games Multiplayer and single-player video games PlayStation 2 games PlayStation 2-only games Tokyo Xtreme Racer Video games developed in Japan