Tokyo Xtreme Racer 3

"Best $20 dollars you will ever spend"

Tokyo Xtreme Racer(TXR3) is back and only $20 bucks
Story
Well for most racing games there is no story, but for TXR3 the one they have is interesting. It seem with the defeat of the bosses in the last game everything is in chaos and old and new bosses are fighting to be on top.

Graphics
IMO the game has jump up a few steps in this department. The cars and surrounding areas look great. I noticed very little in differance between TXR2(DC) and TXR0(PS2), but this game looks great.

Controls
This is probably were you will find the biggest improvement, not that I had a problem with them in the first game. The controls seem less twitchy more responsive, and this is one of the only games where if you adjusted the sensitivity of the steering you notice the difference. The controls feel more realistic and less like arcade controls.

Gameplay
Great, fantastic, sweet, what else can I say. Everything in this game looks great, even the tracks. Now Even though the lay out of the tracks are the same as Zero, there are some differences. IMO the tracks flow better, not only that there are two more cities to run on top of the huge one from zero. The computer seems more tuff this time around and doesn't seem to have that fear of turns like in zero. Add in another factor of rain and the computer can be pretty tuff. In a race you can hit select and that will turn up your cars boost for some extra added power, but doing this will increase your oil and water temp and degrade you performance. With your car running poor in Zero you just went back to your garage then went back out again, well you can still do that, but now they have pit areas that you can use and do the same thing, but keep your win combo intact. Win combos is a multiplier of money, beat enough people and your combo slowly goes up. So instead of just $800 bucks you get $1200 bucks because you have a win combo of 1.5. I use these pit areas all the time and the are located all over the map, mostly in unused off ramps from Zero. Tuning options is great with support of real world after market wheel makers like 5Zigen, Enkei, and Work's. Speaking of real, now the cars are real. Toyota, Nissan, even GM they are hear. The only company missing is Honda, which in real life are not a popular choice for this kind of racing. Tuning your car has more of an effect this time around on the over all feel of the game. When I first started the game my car was all over the place, then after some quick tuning the car felt great. You really notice the improvements and you can tell it was not just an after thought. All aero parts are available at the start of the game, with a new twist. Say you want a hood for your car and buy the one you like. Then it gives you the option to pick and choose the material the part is made out of. Choose fiberglass, urethane, or carbine fiber. The price goes up in material cost and you get this option for all the parts you buy. If you go for the carbine fiber bumper, but don't like the dark gray color you have the option to color match it. They even have rice boy stuff, but I wont get into that. Draw your own sticker, change you cars color, paint flames it's all here. Yes you can paint your own graphics if you want. Even thought this stuff is available at the beginning you still need to unlock engine up grades, exhaust, and other stuff that have more of an effect on the performance of the car. Even though I haven't gotten it yet there are motor swaps if you would like. The navigation screens are nice as well easy to get to were you are going.

Pros and Cons
Pros
Only $20 bucks
Better Graphics
More tracks
Real world cars
No more scared of turns computer

Cons
A little on the dark side(lighting)
Computer tend to hit the center divides(problem on the DC version of TXR2)
At this moment this title is hard to find.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/06/03