Was it worth the wait? Read on...
HELL YES!
There are however, some annoying quirks which i'll bring up throughout the course of this review, but rest assured - none are so devastating that they ruin the experience. In fact, you'll just learn to ignore any short comings whatsoever, and take the game for what it is; a fantastic version of a top game, itself based on one of the most popular Anime/Manga's around.
Taken as a conversion of the Arcade game, it's a fantastic port. Initial D: Street Stage looks stellar on the PSP's beautiful screen. The graphics are a dead on representation of the Arcade originals visuals. The texture maps can sometimes be a little off and pixellated, and there's a fair amount of jaggy edges on display, but overall, there's no mistaking this for anything other than an accurate representation of the arcade game. The frame rate is awesome, with no slowdown. However, sometimes the game freezes during a race for a split second... just like Tokyo Xtreme Racer 2 does on the DC. It doesn't happen often, but when it does, it's extremely frustrating, as more often than not, it results in you slamming into a wall. That said, it doesn't occur regularely enough to be a major problem.
The sound is mostly excellent. All your favourite Euro-Beat tracks are in there (well, maybe not ALL... it's missing a few of my faves)... but there's a problem with this. The music, while racing, will only play the intro, verse, chorus, then repeat at the verse and chorus again, then loop forever. The same verse and chorus loop for the entire race... this pissed me off to no end, as I'm a big fan of Euro-Beat, and of the tracks contained in the game. Whether this was done because of limitations of the UMD format or whatever, I'd rather have had a smaller selection of music, with more of each song. The arcade version definetely looped tracks, but the PSP version has seriously small looping points, which makes the music seem more repetetive than it otherwise should. Yet, the strange thing is, if you listen to the music in the media gallery area, you can listen to the full radio edit of the track... whether I'm missing something in the options, I don't know, but this strikes me as very odd. Other than that, the cars sound as they should, the quality of the music is great, and the voice samples are excellent.
Now onto the Gameplay - this is where the game comes into it's own. Before I begin on that thought, a word of warning... I had to reduce the steering sensitivity to the lowest setting and give up on using the Analog nub and revert to the D-pad in order to even keep the car on the road- the analog nub controls are absolutely horrid. There's no dead zone, and the steering goes from 0 to full turn in less than a micro-millimeter. There's no excuse for this oversight... Ridge Racer PSP proved that the analog nub could be utilised perfectly for arcade racers. Another point, the 3rd person/behind car view is next to unplayable. The vehice seems too large for the track, and it's incredibly difficult to corner with any precision, even whilst using the D-pad.
Once you revert to the D-pad, and enter the 1st person view (and not forgetting to turn the steering sensitivity all the way down), however, any control issues disappear. The vehicles react to your every movement, and it truly becomes a pleasure to fang these beasts around like nobody's business. The course design is excellent and faithful to the series. In fact. the track design is some of the best seen since the original Sega Rally; which this game shares more than a few similarities (and developers) with, which is a compliment of the highest order. There's an abundance of gameplay modes. There all in here... Story Mode, Time Attack, Multiplayer, and the gruelling Bunta's Challenge mode. You can also save your replays for playback any time you wish to do so. All in all. There's plenty here to keep you occupied for ages.
The Card Collecting system, while initially sounding strange on paper, works much better in practice. At the end of each race, whether it be Story Mode through to Time Attack, you are presented with 3 cards, all face down. You choose one, and the card flips around. These unlock many, many different things... such as car upgrades, character information, music tracks, movies... the list goes on. It's a great way to extend the shelf-life of this title, and collecting the cards can become extremely addictive... you'll find yourself repkaying many races over and over just to try an snag some new cards. Awesome.
As this is the *** import version I'm reviewing, I must mention almost every bit of text in the game is entirely Japanese. This adds immensly to the learning curve... just finding your way around can initially be frustrating. That is, until you realise the manual that comes with the game is completely in English. That means you'll be doing a fair amount of reading, but the payoff is most definetly worth it. You'll soon learn the menu's off by heart, and coupled with the relatively short loading times the game exhibits, the process quickly becomes second nature and hassle free.
This of course means that unless you know the storylines of the Anime or Manga well (and at that, the original *** versions of the Anime, not the piss-poor butchered American dub), you'll miss out on much of the plot in the Story Mode. Though, I imagine that anybody considering importing Initial D: Street Stage is most likely already a fan and has has been exposed to either the animation or the Arcade game, and will be pretty much in the loop from the word go.
Overall, Initial D: Street Stage isn't without it's problems. However, with the right amount of tweaking (and by ignoring the music issues, the analog nub and the 3rd person camera), the game really comes to life, and literally smokes pretty much the entire competition, leaving all choking on its exhaust fumes.
Well worth the import, and well worth the wait. A fantastic conversion, and THE game Initial D fans have been waiting for.