The Tokyo Xtreme series had a small following of hardcore Japanese players when the first two incarnations appeared on the Sega Dreamcast last year. Basically the series has followed the same premise, street racing in and around greater metropolitan Tokyo during the wee hours of the morning. The idea of racing through the streets of Tokyo at up to 200 miles and hour and challenging other drivers sounds exhilarating. But how does it actually translate into the third game of the series and the first time on the Playstation 2?

Graphics/Sound
I have had the privilege of living in Tokyo for three years and therefore have a good sense of what the streets are like in terms of layout and design. For the most part, the developers at Genki have done an admirable job of recreating the highways of Tokyo. My problem with the design has to do with what is a claustrophobic feeling to many of the roads. Yes, in Tokyo things are tight but for a racing game to have greater playability to it, the roads have to be wide enough to make quick and dangerous maneuvers frequently. As a result of this closed in design, things just never really get off the ground in terms of excitement. You just do not feel the adrenaline pumping as it should in such a game. This is even made stranger by the fact that the game zips along at a constant 60 frames per second refresh rate. It is the pace of the game that Genki needs to drastically tweak if there is to be future editions of the franchise. The car designs are impeccable although a bit on the shiny side. Each car is extremely detailed thanks to the just more than 4000 polygons per vehicle. In addition to the cars you will race with and against, on the highways you will also find a huge variety of drone cars such as crane trucks, tanker trucks and hazard trucks. The soundtrack is superb as over 30 cool new music tracks have been included. The genres range from rock tracks to trance and progressive house tracks. Each is loud and actually assists to bringing the on screen action to life. Perhaps this where the problem becomes more apparent, the music is faster than the game. Standard cars sounds and effects round out the aural experience.

Gameplay
Unlike conventional racing games on the market, Tokyo Xtreme Racer Zero is a street racing game where you speed through the highways of Tokyo one-on-one against the best street racers. Each opponent that you defeat awards you cash so you can upgrade your car or purchase a better car. The ultimate goal is to build up the best car and beat all 400 rivals in order to be crowned the King of the Streets. The control mechanism is easy enough to use. Steering is a bit on the loose side of things and at times acceleration is much slower than it should be. The system takes advantage of the Dual Shock 2's pressure sensitive features which aids in braking and accelerating out of turns. At the heart of the game is the Quest mode whereby you drive the streets of Tokyo looking for opponents to race. Once you catch up to a worth opponent, simply flash the high beams in order to signal a challenge. Then it is off to the races. In order to defeat your opponent, you must speed away from him. As you pull farther and farther away, his Speed Points will begin to decrease. Bring them down to zero and you win. If your rival pulls away, you must catch up to him before your SP points run out, otherwise you will be back in the garage. TXR excels in the department of garage tune-ups and upgrades. In setting up and maintaining your cars you can finely adjust the response, brake balance, ride height, gear ratio, spring rate, damper and turbo boost. In the parts shop you can adjust the following: Power Tune Up, Drive Train Tune, Body Tune, Aero Tune, Dress Up Tune, Colour Change and Stickers. In the Car Shop you can also buy new cars as well as sell old ones. To sell a car, you must have already purchased a new one.

Value
There is some value to TXR if you are willing to go through the entire game and beat all 400 drivers. I suspect many will tire way before coming anywhere close to that many races. Regardless, TXR has 5 modes of play: Quest Mode, Quick Race, Time Attack, Free Run and Versus. The 2 player versus mode is a half decent split screen game. The trouble is the environments tire quickly even in this mode. For some extra fun, Crave decided to throw on the movie trailer for The Fast and the Furious in addition to a nice little documentary about street racing in Tokyo called Night Warrior. Even after watching the documentary, I was a little surprised that this much racing goes on in Tokyo due to the crowded streets, tightly police enforced highways, and numerous toll booths littered through Tokyo. If these guys are truly racing, it is nothing like the kind of insanity racing found in North America and Europe.

Final Word
Yet another great premise that has not successfully translated into a final product. The groundwork is there but Genki needs to increase the intensity level of the game and even add some visual flare to the mix as well. TXR is a fun outing that only lasts momentarily. A rental will suffice any curiosity one has about this title.