Trivia / Tokyo Xtreme Racer

• Bad Export for You:
  • Starting from Tokyo Xtreme Racer 2 all the way until Tokyo Xtreme Racer 3, every single character had their names, street names and bios changed in international releases: changes ranged from unnoticeable to total, causing big parts of the lore to end up Lost in Translation. Despite 3 making the definitive switch to a more loyal translation to the source material, however, all subsequent games would be plagued with major issues: nuance, wordplay, puns and metaphors were lost between languages, whilst grammar errors, synthax errors, accidental nonsequiturs and unnecessary cultural translations grew enormously: these last ones wound up being the cause of the very infamous Game-Breaking Bug that made 3 impossible to complete.
  • All games suffer from varying degrees of changes between Japanese and international releases, often spurred by licensing issues: DeTomaso, Lotus and Gemballa cars, alongside Sparco and Speedline rims, regularly got the axe because of them.
  • Special decals, in particular boss decals, were somehow accidentally made inaccessible in the international release of Touge Legends. They are still in the game's data, and can still be applied to the player's cars by modifying HEX values.
• Descended Creator: Hiroshi Hamagaki, founder of Genki, is the final boss of the first Drift game and the Big Bad of the Drift saga as a whole, in a bit of spectacular Self-Deprecation.
• Dummied Out:
  • It was very likely that Tokyo Xtreme Racer 2 was going to feature the Ferrari Testarossa, codenamed "TYPE-TR", as part of its car roster. However, the car itself cannot be accessed through normal means, whilst its aftermarket parts are only obtainable in the game's demo version. Alongside the Testarossa, there are several other cars hidden in Tokyo Xtreme Racer 2's data that are unplayable, either with complete models or what were meant to be temporary placeholders: amongst them, the Mazda Lantis, the Toyota Crown, the Suzuki Wagon R, the Daihatsu Move, and over a dozen variants of other cars.
  • The car data for Zero also contains several cars that are normally inaccessible to the player and unusable regardless. Amongst them is a 1969 Dodge Charger R/T, which doesn't appear anywhere in the game. It's likely that the Charger was planned to be included as part of the The Fast and the Furious cross-promotion, but not included in the final roster for unknown reasons.
  • Hidden deep in the files of Tokyo Xtreme Racer 3 is leftover data for cars that went well past the planning stage, as they're fully usable upon being restored, albeit with low-polygon models. This includes a Ruf RCT, which was likely supposed to be Z.E.R.O's car, and two Peugeots, the 206 S16 and the 406 Sedan, with the latter having a Taxi-inspired bodykit. Interestingly, RUF cars still appear in the game, driven by various opponents, whilst a Peugeot appeared in 2 and Zero driven by Knife and Forks member Table Manner. See here.
  • There were also concrete plans for 3 to give players the option of installing a nitrous oxyde injection system on their cars. Despite being axed right before release, N 2 O injection is still mentioned in Harisen Chop's bio as a key part of the team's identity, and part of it survived as the overboost button on turbo cars. The upgrade itself, however, still exists in the game's code, and can be restored to working condition through modding.
  • Further data mining reveals 3's final boss to have its' own bio hidden in the game's code. It's a very detailed bio at that, which helps shed some light on the boss' true nature, and was even translated in English for international releases:
  FIRST BIO: There is a legend like this on the streets: in the middle of the night, there is a mysterious figure that only those who have reached the top can encounter. The figure is demonically fast.
  SECOND BIO: It is a form that can change depending on whom it meets, appearing strong to those who seek strength and appearing beautiful for those who seek beauty. The answer can only be attained by those who fight.
  • Hidden in 3's data are incomplete versions of cars belonging to some bosses that the player was meant to be able to buy in the shop after defeating them. This data also hints at Midnight Cinderella and Death Driver being considered as bosses once again during development, something that wouldn't happen until Import Tuner Challenge for the former.
  • UNKNOWN was originally planned to be 3's final boss, as shown in this datamining video: a recreation of his introductory cutscene from Zero is present, but never used in the game. Instead, 3 ended up being the only mainline game where he doesn't appear, instead being replaced by a Mirror Boss.
  • In a truly bizarre case, Touge Legends features the Toyota Verossa VR25. The car is fully modeled, completely tunable, and is used by several rivals to boot, including Bloodhound. Despite that, it's the only car in the game that players cannot buy from any showroom. The only way for players to drive the car is to befriend rivals driving it and taking it out on laon from them.
  • Data in Import Tuner Challenge shows that there were plans to feature both the RX-7 FC3S alongside the FD3S, on top of a dozen more drivable cars and traffic cars. In the release version, only data indicating they were planned but ultimately scrapped remains.
• Executive Meddling:
  • Genki were on the receiving end of this from Honda after Zero, as they did not want their cars to be featured in street racing games. As a result, many opponents switched cars when 3 was released, whilst all-Honda teams and some notable bosses and Wanderers did not return. Honda's ban, however, did not cover the Drift sub-series and Racing Battle: C1 Grand Prix, as those exclusively feature sanctioned races; as such, Honda cars kept appearing in those titles.
• Fandom Life Cycle: As all Cult Classics, it has been stuck in Stage 2 ever since its' release in both its' native Japan and across the world. A dedicated fandom continues to exist and succesfully replenishes its' numbers year after year.
• Franchise Killer: Import Tuner Challenge's lukewarm-to-mixed reception, combined with Genki's budget problems, caused it to be the last main entry of the franchise to this day. Genki didn't give up on the series just yet, however, as years down the line they'd announce the mobile-exclusive Shutokou Battle Extreme... which, upon release, proceeded to be both a critical and commercial flop. Extreme was promptly shut down a mere ten months after launch, with that seemingly being the final nail in the series' coffin.
• Late Export for You: As one can tell by merely glancing at the main page, exports begun to be delayed around the time the Drift games were released. This was in part caused by a variety of factors, and definitely not helped by the localizations being handled by multiple publishers at one point, but there was no apparent reason as to why Street Supremacy was delayed that much. This also had the unfortunate effect of causing some major confusion over release order and timeline amongst Western fans. To wit:
  • The first Drift game was released exclusively in the States for the PlayStation 2 a whole three years after Japan.
  • Chain Reaction and Street Supremacy were both released one year after Japan, the former exclusively in Europe.
  • Touge Legends was released one year after Japan in Europe and two years after Japan in the Americas: by then, the PlayStation 3 had been out for a whole year.
• Lost Media: Shutokou Racer Xtreme, the mobile-exclusive entry, had its' servers shut down and was pulled from app stores a bit over a year after its' release. As of now, no one has put the game's data up for download; however, even if someone had access to it, the game would be unplayable due to its' "always-online" nature.
• No Export for You:
  • Shutokou Battle DRIFT KING Tsuchiya Keiichi & Bandō Masaaki, Shutokou Battle R and Kattobi Tune, the three games developed before Tokyo Xtreme Racer by Genki, were never released outside Japan and remain downright obscure to even the most die-hard fans of the series.
  • TXR: Drift and Tokyo Xtreme Racer 3 were never released in Europe. On the flipside, what should have been the second Drift game in the West, Chain Reaction, was released only in Europe under the unassuming title of Kaido Racer, causing confusion when what's officially the third Drift game, Touge Legends, was released worldwide as Tokyo Xtreme Racer: Drift 2.
  • Racing Battle: C1 Grand Prix, set in an Alternate Universe sometime after the events of 3, was only released in Japan. It is playable on PAL and NTSC-U consoles, and some fan translations exist on the web, however.
  • The same applies for the short-lived Shutokou Racer Xtreme, a 3D game similar to Need For Speed No Limits released for mobile phones.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Crave wasn't going to publish the Drift series in the US at first: Sammy were the first ones to show some interest, but for reasons unknown, the deal between them and Genki never materialized. Instead, it was Crave who once again translated and published the games for the American market.