![]() It’s no Forza, and the bolt-on upgrade packages (Suspension 1, Suspension 2 etc etc etc) do have a bit of a “babies first tuning garage” feel, but they at least allow some noticeable power gains. These parts are purely cosmetic and wont add to the handling in any way, but fear not – there is also a section for tuning your weapon-of-choice. Good job, then, that you’ll earn credits with every win, and each car can be extensively modified with real-life off-the-shelf aero parts, mufflers (exhausts to us brits) and wheels. Before long you’ll be dropping a gear into the corner and pulling a 90mph drift around a downhill hairpin like it was nothing. You’ll find yourself weaving about on the racing line for the entire race and bullying the opponent until they crash, but naturally the more you tune your vehicle, and the more you become used to the frantic handling and controls, the easier these races become. Opponents in an evenly-matched or slightly better car can be completely ruthless, forcing you off at the earliest opportunity, and winning can be a dirty art to begin with. Needless to say you’ll really be kept on your toes, and the slightest wrong move can and will cost you the race, especially in later levels (damn you, Bunta…). ![]() Other than Akina Lake these are all uphill/downhill (depending on which version you choose) point-to-point races, and you’re expected to beat your opponent through the final checkpoint by blocking on the straights and drifting to defend your line in the corners. Seven doesn’t seem like many at first, until you realise that there are forward and reverse versions of each in rain, sunshine and at night – that’s 6 versions of each track, for a total of 42 track variants – not bad for a budget title. The racing itself takes place on one of the games seven tracks Akina Lake, Usui, Akagi, Akina, Irohazaka, Tsukuba and Happogahara. The cutscenes in ID:ES blend the manga/anime look with the 3D models of the rest of the game, and the manga-style speech bubbles are actually really helpful if you're learning to read the written language! You’ll need a basic grasp of hiragana and katakana, but it’s surprisingly helpful (though clearly not SEGA’s intention when designing the game!). Races are all book-ended with (slightly shakey) cutscenes depicting the characters from the series waving their arms about and talking smack at you – these are actually pretty cool if, like me, you’re learning the language, as all of the conversations are subtitled in manga-esque speech bubbles allowing you to follow along. You’ll start with only the one race available, and in true arcade style every race you win will unlock another, gradually opening up other tracks and races against opponents from the Initial D universe. ![]() Once you’re kitted-out with a car (there was no Civic EP3, so I settled for the EK9 instead) you’ll get to the course selection screen. Don’t expect a great deal of customization options straight off the bat – you’ll unlock these as you go, although whether you’ll ever feel the need to come back and adjust this avatar is another matter! Next you’ll pick a car, and create your own license plate by picking a region/prefecture and personalizing the numbers/lettering – this is actually a pretty cool feature, and something I’ve wanted to see in the big-budget racers for a while – there’s nothing better than racing your own car after all! Firing this mode up for the first time will see you visit the “My Chara” screen – basically a 2D driver avatar creator. Legends of the Street mode is the main “story” mode, and where you’ll probably spend 99% of your time. This lack of masses of content makes sense really, as ID:ES is a budget title in Japan, and you’ve also got to remember it’s a home-console release of an arcade game – hardly the most feature rich games in the world. You’re presented with only two options to choose from: Legends of the Street and Time Attack – unless of course you bought the Japan-only version which also has Network Mode for online play. The intro is pretty darn slick – although when you hit the first proper menu you’ll notice that game modes appear to be a bit thin-on-the-ground. "X" will take you back, whilst "O" will select things. Look at the detail in the hand, the gearknob and steering wheel!Īnd here how much detail there is in the dash! It is just about the same as I had in my Trueno (mine was LHD, so mirrored dash) and it iluminates just a tiny bit more than on full illumination.Īnd here you can see how much detail there is in the drift scenes!Īs you can see it is much more detailed than the previous games (they show them to compare), especially the road and inboard graphics.Remember - whilst navigating menus the buttons are reversed from the standard UK/Western setup. You can see the trailer in more detail here: ![]() posted that a new Initial D game called Extreme Stage is coming soon.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |