Tokyo Xtreme Racer is coming back after 18 years.
The first Tokyo Xtreme Racerwas released in 1999 for the Sega Dreamcast. The game was originally known in its native Japan as Shutokō Battle, because players were racing rivals across the Shuto Expressway, a real life toll expressway network located in the heart of Tokyo.
When Crave Entertainment published the game for the US and Europe, they came up with the game’s iconic title. This game was successful enough that it survived the Dreamcast, and went on to get five sequels, four of which were on the PlayStation 2.
As some fans will be quick to point out, the Shutokō Battle series actually dates back to much earlier, with the first game, Shutokō Battle Keiichi Tsuchiya Drift King, releasing on the Super Famicom all the way back in 1994. But that doesn’t really account for the particulars of what developer Genki were able to accomplish with the technology available to them when the Dreamcast arrived.
As this Jalopnik article explains, Genki created an experience in Tokyo Xtreme Racerwas that wasn’t available in video games before. Driving throughout Japan’s highways, you look for other racers and flash your lights at them to start a challenge.
The races in Tokyo Xtreme Racerwas don’t have clear start and finish lines. Winning races is about fighting over health bars, but the mechanics would allow you to race a rival for an hour, or theoretically, even forever.
These games were really about introducing gamers to underground street racing and tuner culture. Genki themselves were inspired by a manga called Wangan Midnight, and went on to make Wangan racing games themselves. For the West, The Fast and the Furious film franchise is the face of underground racing, but Western racing games would also appear in this genre, such as Need for Speed and Midnight Club games.
As reported by Gematsu, Genki has resurfaced to announce a new Tokyo Xtreme Racer, coming in 2025. The game is already available to wishlist on Steam. The Steam page also indicates it will have Xbox controller support and a 3rd party EULA.
That EULA may imply that Tokyo Xtreme Racer won’t be playable on SteamOS and the Steam Deck, but we will have to wait and see on that end. Hopefully, Genki will also make this title compatible with racing wheels as well, whether they have force feedback or not.
What’s really exciting about this announcement is that Genki is a tried and true arcade racing game developer, coming back at a time when sim racing has overwhelmingly taken over the industry. While some indies have made popular new arcade racing games, could Genki bring the genre back to prominence? We certainly hope so, and we’re looking forward to seeing this release next year.
In the meantime, you can watch Genki’s teaser trailer below.
