My style of game, but definitely lacking compared to previous entries.
Most of the old teams, rivals, and bosses are back along with a bunch of new ones. But to my dismay, they're all crammed onto a very cut down length of highway compared to the previous games, with the exception of the first one on the DC, of course, which only gave you C1 Inner and Outer. This game offers you C1, Shinkanjou, and a couple new offshoots from the C1 loop. Disappointingly enough though, the Wangan and Yokohane lines are gone, and the new offshoots just don't match up to those in comparison. Even so, the graphics are in my opinion, a little underrated on this game, as the highways look pretty incredible, and to be able to see all the buildings around you for once and to be able to see the entire Rainbow Bridge coming up on the right of the screen while traveling around the clockwise Shinkanjou loop is something I've been waiting for since Zero. Although, the draw distance still isn't what I was expecting for an X360 game, as the second half of the bridge pops up suddenly once you get a little closer to it. There's also a little too much bloom, so things kind of end up blending into each other and it can sometimes be difficult to tell where you're going. Since I know the roads with the exception of the new lines, it didn't cause much of a problem for me, but for someone new to the series, it might be a little frustrating for awhile until you get used to the layout of the highways since you'll be a bit blinded by pretty much everything. ("Then for the final touch, some bloom. Not real yet? More bloom! Oh we're not done yet. More! More! More! Shazam!" -Aeris) There's a quite intense sense of speed with the game also, even with the slower cars, but only from the outside of the car view. Because of the way the cars move when you steer, this is really the only drivable view in the game anyway. The other views will disorient you and make you feel a little sick.
Another big letdown is the tiny roster of cars, which comes in at around 20, plus a bunch of already customized, but non-upgradeable boss cars. It's sad when you think about how many cars were in some of the previous games like TXR2 for the DC and Zero for the PS2, but a lot of the big names are there, Skylines, RX-7s, Supras, and the like, so it's somewhat tolerable, though depleted.
The sound is okay at best. The different types of engines sound different, and they change as you install different engine and exhaust upgrades on your car, but none of them are really all that mean sounding. The crashing sounds, the special effect sounds such as running over breaks in the road, and the car backfiring are the same, not good but not bad either. The only sound effect that bugs me is the sound of the misfiring systems that get installed on the turbocharged cars with the later engine upgrades, which sound like those plastic toy machine guns that we all used to play with when we were younger. I thought the music sucked at first, it's even more repetitive than it was in TXR3, but after awhile, like the music in TXR3, it grew on me until I liked it.
The control is iffy, but tolerable once you figure out what makes it tick. Unlike in the previous games where I would like to set my car up for a bit of oversteer and less stability, I find it easier to drive on this one if you set the car for a little understeer and high stability, which means dropping the suspension as low as it can go, because the cars like to randomly start sliding through the corners. You can't play the game like you would with most racers though where you're constantly all the way on something. It works better to steer gradually and brake half way so the car doesn't lock up or spaz out on you, and only hit any given control all the way down/in a direction when you absolutely need to. If you can train yourself to stay calm while driving you shouldn't have too much trouble with the controls.
The style of gameplay is pretty old school, and hasn't changed much at all since the beginning of the series. There are some new types of battles like point to point races, but since the AI is so slow, the PtP races just feel dragged out. The difficulty is far too easy, there's no challenge to the game at all when it comes to winning races. I only lost twice in my playthrough, both times because I zoned out and crashed into something and got stuck, then had to wait 15 seconds to get past 25 mph because my turbo wouldn't spool up from a low engine speed. Even in the second to final boss race, (I say second to final because there's an unknown boss after you beat all the Wanderers in addition to all the teams and bosses, but everyone who's cleared 1, 2, or Zero should know what boss that is) I cruised to victory in a dragged out PtP race, finishing literally a mile and a half ahead of him.
A nice addition to the game though is the ability to enter the pit areas and talk to your rivals to initiate races, get tips, or just to listen to them (read: read) babble about something weird, yet strangely interesting.
Most people will probably get bored to death of the game quickly because of how dated the style is, but for the old school players and long time fans of the series it's the same idea as always so it will probably keep you busy. Personally I like the game despite its vast list of shortcomings, but for all you darn kids these days that need 50 modes of play and brand new never before seen innovative elements in every new game, this probably isn't the one for you. (I'm way too young to feel old...)