If you're a Initial D fan or just a fan of the arcade Initial D Arcade Stage 4...this game is for you!
For those who don't know what Initial D is....Initial D is a big hit manga and anime. It's a story about a boy who's taught how to drift since teen ager by his dad....a legendary drift and.....Tofu maker. If you know what drift is: Basically, Drift is a driving art of making a car slide sideways on curves. The races are ilegal and raced in mountain rodas in Japan called Touge. The story goes on and he starts to enjoy drift racing and cars, facing lots of opponents in many parts of japan. The game's core is all about drift with japanese cars on touges. It has most of the characters/drivers in the series. You race with each one of them in different touges. All you gotta do to win the race is to finish it in front. Easy to say, hard to do! Each driver has a difficulty. The hard ones need some practice before you beat it.
The modes included are: Story, Time Attack and Network. The Story more is basically about beating everyone. Before and After each race, you're presented with a 3D cell shadded animation with the charcters speaking to you with a nice voice acting from the real voice actors from the anime. When you win a race, you gain points to tune your car and also unblocks costumizable items for your avatar character. Yes, you create a avatar of yourself right at the beginning of the game. Different from it's predecessor, Initial D ES has a nive variety of tunning parts. It's not like NFS and stuff, but it's fair enough. Wheels, body kits, spoilers and engine parts are avaiable.
The time attack mode is simple. Get the best time you can AND upload it over the net. :)
The On line plays smooth. One vs One race. First you choose between a ranked or a free online mode. In the free mode, you enter a lobby (which actually is one of the tracks). Each lobby has lots of rooms. You can only race in that track. The Rank is based on raising your status rank bar. When you reach the top, your rank goes up. You start as D3....and the top rank is SS. The ranked mode is just like the arcade game online mode. You search for a player near your rank and then you or the other player chose the track and everything else. The best of all, NO LAG. Or just a lil bit sometimes.
The sound is good enough. Is not like every car has a different noise or something like that. But the game does it's job fair enough. The music is all about japanese dance beat songs.
If you know what Initial D is and also what the arcade version has to offer....just buy the game! You'll have almost the same fun as you were playing the arcade one. If you have a steering wheel....CONGRATS! :)