Homepage
About Blog

The new Tokyo Xtreme Racer is so good

I was going to write elaborate thoughts and opinions on my thoughts on the game. But here’s a better review. It released on January 23 at 8AM and at 11PM on Sunday 26, 45 hours of gameplay later, I finished it.

If you have any interest in TXR, buy it now.

Here’s a vague collection of thoughts.

Goods:

  • TXR is back!
  • Easy starting nights, finding rivals, making progress. Far reduced busywork. Favourite Highway TXR game loop.
  • Difficulty is brutal in places, pushovers in others. Non-linear and immersive
  • Perk unlock system keeps unlocks and personal progression spread out instead of front loaded or way too slow as in other TXRs
  • WANDERER INFO IS STORED! NO MORE GUIDES OR NOTE TAKING!
  • PA Conversations, writing, interactions, are entertaining and good world building
  • Rival profiles are entertaining, strong characterisation and a lot of rivals reference other rivals
  • my headcannon is Bloodhound is still driving an Aristo with a bodykit.
  • Gear ratio settings are based on power limited top speed
  • No three-spoke wheels
  • ADJUSTABLE BRAKE CALLIPER ANGLE
  • Sweet Surrender is best girl:tm:
  • the limited and upgradeable wallet size is a great encouragement to buy wanderer cars earlier and experiment with different cars. Plus it's a soft cap so isn't really impeding on the major money points

Mehs:

  • good looking even on minimum, but displeased that I needed a short draw distance and lowered resolution scale to run smooth
  • Livery limited to 50 slots (40 on body, 10 on wing). Retired my starter car after it was filled with rival stickers.
  • handholdy onboarding tutorial
  • very limited starter car selection
  • very narrow car list, wish there was more weirdness, base models, other oddities
  • wanderer notes are perhaps too blatant and easy to find
  • gear ratio settings for some reason make random big jumps in value. The fact they’re based on power limited top speed means their simulations are somewhat inconsistent, fuzzy, and usually wrong. In turn makes it difficult to actually gear a car for top speed
  • cursor first menu navigation is irritating when bashing the d-pad would be faster and more accurate.
  • No MR cars
  • choice of tyre compound seems useless, and ending nights early is typically the best since rivals are spaced out more than old games
  • the single active perk choice softens how useful a lot of the perks are.

Caveats:

  • car list isn’t truly an issue. Has most of the big hitter JDMs, and TXR has never been about car collecting, although I would like greater rival variety
  • this is early access
  • the final game is 12GB and the early access is only 6GB, meaning either there's a lot of content remaining (on the scale of a huge amount of new cars, possibly TXR3s other maps?), or something weird's gone down there
  • my enjoyment of the frankly bullshit difficulty is predicated on old TXR games, where I want more TXR exactly as they were
  • handholdy tutorial shuts up quickly and basically introduces the bare minimum.
  • TXR is back broadly how it was, enjoy it because it's as good as it's always been

So far I think this'll be the least longstanding TXR game, but it's also the most casually playable. Zero feels like you really need to strap in and prepare, for example. And I'd actually say this has improved my enjoyment of other TXR games because progression is blatantly spelled out to you. I don't want the older games to be like this, nor any potential future instalments, but it's really ignited my love for TXR.


Grinding money:

You get some long run bonus at intervals, I believe at 10km, 25km, 50km, and 100km. On auto drive (press down on the D-Pad), that’s 1 hour 40. But blasting between the Hakozaki Parking Area and the Daikofuto at the end of the Wangan, you can get it done in under 25 minutes in a fast enough car. That’s 1,760,000 CP if you equip the perk that increases your long run bonus to 60%, plus near miss bonuses. It’s probably not the quickest method, but requires no active thought. Starting at Hakozaki, go to the Daikoku, turn around and drive back, then turn around once more. You’ll get the final long run bonus less than a minute away from the Daikoku PA entrance.