Kaido Racer

"Forget Initial D, this is the game you want"

Genki has been known for making quite a few racing games, with mechanics usually different from other traditional racers.

Enter Kaido battle 2: Chain reaction, a game that like it's predecessor: Drift racer: Kaido battle, puts you on the world of illegal street racing... But this is not just street racing like Genki's tokyo xtreme racer or EA's Need for speed: Underground, it's about racing the mountain passes on different locations in Japan, drift or grip your way to be the fastest on the touge, there are many opponents waiting for you.

Graphics:

This has to be Genki's best looking game so far. Although not as good as GT3's graphics (which seem to be the benchmark for racing games) they're very good, each pass is modeled after it's real location and it really gives you the impression you're really on a mountain pass, although sometimes the scenery looks kind of... devoid of life, or cold, lacking a better word to describe it, still, it's very impressive, from the fallen leaves of Iroha slopes which will fly when you drive over them, to the reflection of lights on wet roads when it rains, and the smoke of your tires when you burn rubber.

The car's models are very good, Genki brought licensed vehicles again from a variety of brands, all of which are modelled just like their real life counterparts, from the Evo VIII to the always famous 'hachiroku.'

Sound:

Probably this is the weak point of the game, and this is usual with Genki. The music in this game is not very good, of course, there are some good tracks, but some others are just average 'techno' tracks that don't really add much to the game, but they are not annoying either, you can turn the music volume down anyway.

The sound effects are not spectacular, but serve their purpose. You'll find, for example that the 'hachiroku' and some other similar L4 engines sound the same, and that the rotary engines of the RX series make a different sound, but that's it, they are enough to give you the idea, but they're not real car sounds. The sounds from the turbo wastegate are generic too, it doesn't matter what car you're using, it will always sound the same. Tire sounds are what you'd expect from any other racing games, same goes for crashing sounds and the like.

One thing that I personally like from this game are the ambient sounds, yeah, turn the music off and listen, you can hear the rain, wind, thunder and other ambient sounds during the day, it's a nice realistic touch.

One last thing that should be noted about sound: This game comes with a new gimmick Genki decided to add... The sound editor. With this, you can create your own music tracks using the selection of rhythms and other sounds available, and you'll unlock more defeating rivals in the game, the problem is that the editor is hard to use, but hey, you get a racing game and you can make your own music.

Gameplay:

The gameplay can be summed up in just one word: AWESOME. This is like as if you took the steering and pedals away from your car and somehow plugged a PS2 controller in there, it's just THAT good, it'll take about half an hour to get used to the feeling of the car and then you'll be tearing up the mountain roads like the drift king himself. Whether you're grip driving or drifting, you'll feel you really have feedback from your car... you'll love it.

The idea is to defeat all opponents, and you'll do this in different styles of races: SP (spirit point) battles, which are taken from the TXR series, you and your opponent have an SP meter, this meter decreases by running behind or crashing, whoever is left with zero SP loses. There are also LF-FL battles (start behind and overtake your opponent and vice-versa), CA (cornering artist) in which you have to show off your drift skills to make more points than your opponent, TA (time attack), CATA mode and a lot more.

Bottomline: If you like driving, if you like watching Keiichi Tsuchiya's insane drift or if you watched Initial D and want to give a try at drift, or if you just love racing games, this is defenetly a game for you. You'll be spending hours and hours trying to perfect your technique and tuning your cars to your style. So to answer the eternal videogamer question: 'should I buy this game?' I give thee the answer: Buy it! You won't regret it.

(A quick note: although the game is Japanese, 90% of the game text is in English, so the game is completely playable for Gamers around the world, provided that they know English of course.)

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/04/04