Tokyo Xtreme Racer 3

"All of TXR0 and more. Much more. And only $20."

Ah yes, we all know and loved TXR0, one of the first highway battle racing games for the PS2. Or maybe the only. The creator of the Tokyo Extreme Racer series, Genki, is obviously not the most profitable gaming company (especially compared to the likes of Polyphony Digital, creators of the Gran Turismo series), so TXR3 was done on a tight budget. But who can tell? There are only a few signs of rushed work, and some parts of the game aren't as extensive as they could be. But anyways, on to the review. This is my first one, so cut some slack, will ya.

Summary
The quick part first, for you lazy people out there.

Gameplay: 9.6
Car Selection/Customization: 9.6
Controls: 9.4
Graphics: 8.3
Sound/Music: 8.9
Replay Value: 9.8
Overall: 9.3

Gameplay: 9.6
Yes, the most important part about any game, the gameplay. TXR3 is a highway racing game, simply put. You start off with a small amount of credits and buy a weak car, race rivals to win money, and buy new cars or upgrade the one you've got. There are over 600 rivals in all, and three different cities to race on- meaning over 200 miles of highway. That's a lot. All of it is modeled after real-life places in Japan. Anyways, so you've got your car. You're placed on a highway with yellow busses and other rivals. To race someone, you get behind a rival, and flash your highbeams. A countdown takes place, and you're off. Unique to the TXR series is the Spirit Meter. You start with a full white bar at the top of the screen. The farther you get ahead of your opponent, the faster his bar decreases (and vie versa). Your bar is also depleted by hitting walls or other cars. The first one to have their bar fully depleted loses- generally, a race lasts anywhere from 40 seconds to 2 minutes, depending on how close it is. So these racers formed to make gangs (around 5-10 cars per gang, driving similar cars). Once you beat all the ordinary racers in a gang, you face the gang leader/s. Beat so many leaders and there is a city leader or three. And the game, for the most part, advances like that. There are also Wanderers, who belong to no gang, and require certain requirements to race (certain mods, time of day, etc). After you've beaten a certain amount of racers, parts are unlocked.

Car Selection & Customization: 9.6
For the first time in TXR history, licensed cars are in, and chassis codes are out. No more trying to guess what that Type-AZ17X4 is. Overall car selection has broadened. There's all your Japenese favorites, like Nissan and Mazda (sorry, no Honda- they didn't agree with the engine swap terms, apparently), some American representation by Ford, Chevy, and Dodge, as well as European cars manufacturers such as Gamballa (they tune Porsches), Mercedes-Benz, and Lotus. There are around 80 cars in all, and that's not including the 30+ custom cars. Yeah, some of them don't even deserve to be counted as cars (Daihatsu Copen? Isuzu...anything?), but there are some damned respectable cars. Lotus Esprit, Detomaso Pantera, Gamballa GTR750, and all of your JDM favorites; Skylines, Zs, Supras, Evos, yeah yeah yeah.

Customization is also better than ever. The aerodynamic section remains similar to TXR0; you choose (separately) from 5 front/rear bumpers, spoilers, and hoods, and from 2 skirts, fenders, and mirrors. But now you can choose what material they are made out of also, so you can save weight. To dress your car up, you can change the color and shape of your headlights, taillights and blinkers, the gauges displayed on the HUD, your license plates, and even your horn. You can change the color of your car and windows, too, at anytime. Even better is the ability to COMPLETELY customize the exterior paint of your car. You can basically draw whatever you want to on your car's exterior. It's fun. There are no decals or vinyls asides from the ones you win from defeating gangs, but who needs them when you can just paint them on yourself? You can choose from over nearly 10 different rim manufacturers and 40 rims, and two different tire compounds.

The customization has even improved in the performance section. You can buy engine, muffler, and cooling upgrades for power. Clutch, suspension, transmission, and brakes make up the drivetrain section, and weight down and reinforce make up the body section. Just like in the Gran Turismo series, you can tune each part of your car, including camber, ride height, downforce, and others. New for TXR3 is the turbo boost (well, not new, but modified). If you set this to max and hit select during a race, your turbo PSI will increase, thus making you accelerate faster at the expense of your oil and water temperatures rising. That's also new for TXR3; if they get too high, performance will decrease greatly. Just adds to the extensitivity (?) of this game.

Wait, there is even more new stuff. After obtaining a certain amount of miles on your car, you can do an engine swap. You can choose from 7 different configurations of each turbo and non-turbo engines, from I4s to V8s to boxers to rotaries. Each engine of course has it's pros and cons- ex, the V8 is best for top-end speed, but the I6 is better for all-around performance. Spiffen.

Controls: 9.4
The controls in TXR3 are simple and great. X is go, square is stop, triangle changes view, O is reverse, and the shoulder buttons control gears, high-beams, and look-back (which is new to TXR3 as well). Can't get much better than that. Response has improved from TXR0 as well; it seems like there is more of a connection between you and the car. But if you don't like that, the car's acceleration, braking, and handling responses can all be adjusted. There's something for everyone, isn't there? My only complaints are the location of the turbo boost button (Select shouldn't be a button commonly used in a game), and the lack of an e-brake.

Graphics: 8.3
If you've played TXR0, then you'll know what TXR3 looks like. Not much has changed, which I suppose is a good thing. The highways look smoother, as do the cars. The highways are more detailed than before, with more buildings along the sides and traffic going the other direction. However, what disappointed me is that there is only ONE car on the highways (apart from your rivals, that is), and it's an annoying yellow bus. Yeah, a car is a car, they all block you. But still. Some variety would be nice. Different weather is new, with rain, fog, and thunder. The rain effects look pretty good- when you go to the ''bumper cam'', you can see specks of water on your screen. The greatest graphical improvement I've seen, however, is the out-of-car view. They looked horrible in TXR0; the cars look very elongated and flat. Well, they look good now.

Sound/Music: 8.9
Finally, some better engine noises. Most TXR0 players could agree that the engine sounds were downright terrible. They were quiet, and hardly varied from car to car. Well, that's no more. The engines sound great, and shifting sounds more realistic. The in-game music is catchy and exciting, but could use some more variety. Tires screeching around corners, cars smashing into walls, thunder in the background, it all sounds pretty good.

Replay Value: 9.8
One of my favorite parts about the TXR series is the replay value. There are so many different approaches you can take to the game. Starting with different cars, different racing tactics, different upgrade orders, different second and third cars to buy from, engine swaps to experiment with, everything. I'm only halfway through what I would like to be on TXR0, and I've had the game for nearly two years. And this game is longer. The only thing that ticks me off is the fact that there is a Wanderer that requires you to have an insane amount of money to race- an amount that is only obtainable by Gameshark. Too bad for that racer.

Rent/Buy: BUY
At only $20, this game is a steal. If you rent it, you'll want to rent it again and again, so after like 4 rents you've already paid for the game. It will last you longer than any other racing game out there, I guarantee it. And you'll have fun, too. So...go buy it.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/31/03