Tokyo Extreme Racer 3 is the game Need For Speed Underground was trying to be, minus the Sim style driving. In Tokyo 3 you get to cruise around in three real city highways from Japan racing with anyone you see, if you so wish. The basic premise of the game is to earn money in races and upgrade your car, or buy a new one, and win more races. Where Tokyo 3 differs from games like NFSU is that it offers a very realistic experience. This means your going to have to learn to control a car at 120mph on a highway offramp at night - and trust me, its not easy. With the realistic experience also comes the best under the hood experience a video game has ever given me. You can tune just about everything in your car; gear ratios, suspension, camber angles, etc. etc. Not to mention all the standard things you would expect in a tuner based game. You can even drop in a totally new engine to your car, once you unlock the feature. Tokyo offers several dozen licensed cars, most of which are Japanese, but with a few refreshing muscle cars thrown in as well. Each car has several brances of upgrade options, in general, your are given the standard fare performance upgrades, like engines and exhausts, and external aerodynamic modifications including many unique body kits and spoilers, and hoods. (Yes, each car has unique body kits, unlike NFSUs standard ones. And most of the cars have 5 front bumpers, 5 skirts, 5 rear bumpers, 5 spoilers, and 5 hoods to choose from) Tokyo is also the only car tuning game that lets you draw on the car. Instead of applying one of a set number of pre-made designs, your given all the tools you need to make your own - and the possibilities are thus literally infinite for customization options. And thats where the real fun is found in Tokyo - tuning and modifing your hot car. Once your out of the garage, you can pick from a number of points to begin driving about Tokyo from. You then cruise around looking for cars interested in races, when you find them, you just flash your brights and its on. During the race, if you slam into walls or other cars, your going to pay for it, as you are not only charged cash for the repairs, but you are also penalized in your distance meter. Your distance meter is what shows you whos winning - since theres no set end point to highway races, it determines who wins by who was in the lead the most and by how much. As you win more races, you are given a unique racer name, which seems to be derived from your driving style, wins, and the speed of your cars. Usually the name they give you is pretty cool, and it changes every few dozen races to keep things fresh. In the game world, that name is what other racers refer to you as. Besides changing your name, winning races also unlocks new cars and upgrade options. Once you beat a car you've never beaten before, generally, you unlock it. Some cars are obtained by defeating hidden Wanderer cars, which can only be challenged at certain times, based on what your driving or what time it is in the real world. The wanderers add challenge and spice up the rather streamlined gameplay. Generally, you also unlock performance upgrades based on how many miles you've raced - after you've played for a long time you'll get to swap out engines between cars. (Ever wanted to replace that pitifull 4 cylinder engine in your Civic with an 8 cylinder dual turbo bad boy? well now you can!) Adding a little extra flash into the game, there are also occasional weather effects of snow, rain, and meteor showers. The rain and snow also effect driving conditions, thus adding to the simulation feel. The only bad thing i can say about Tokyo is that its graphics are a bit dull. Since the game takes place mostly on highway roads, there really isnt much flash like you see in other games. You generally get the same mundane greys over and over again, with a few exceptions. No really exciting textures or signs are to be found in Tokyo, but then again, its a highway - theres usually not much to look at on a highway other than other cars. Speaking of cars, thats one thing you dont see on the roads of Tokyo, besides the ones you can race. In Tokyo Zero, there were many different cars to get in your way. In Tokyo 3, they opted out of filling up the roads with non raceable cars, and left only the ones you can race and some generic yellow bus with a genki logo on it. Luckily, there are so many raceable cars to find on the road, you really never feel lonely out there. And keep in mind that each opponent car is totally unique, with different color schemes and designs, and body kits and performance upgrades too. In the end, Tokyo comes down to a lot of the same thing - and that same thing is generally tons of fun. If your into really tuning cars and more realistic racing, you'll love tokyo 3. Otherwise, it admittedly might be rather dissapointing, as it really is just race and customize over and over again. And with a price tag of $20 brand new, you can't go wrong adding this worthy title to your racing collection.
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By far the best tokyo extreme racer to date. The graphics smooth the gameplay is just right. The sights and sounds all take me to tokyo without physically being there. I love the Tokyo Extreme Racer series but this game ... Read Full Review
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