Tokyo Xtreme Racer assessment
My rival disappears into the evening with a burst of nitro, and I’ve no selection however to place my foot to the ground and weave by means of heavy site visitors, holding my breath as I chase after them, squeezing between vehicles and scraping roadside boundaries to maintain up. After some shunting, shoving, and a little bit of luck I pull forward and eventually depart them behind—however there isn’t any end line to cross right here.
Have to know
What’s it? Cool vehicles battle by means of Tokyo’s streets
Launch date: Sept 25, 2025
Anticipate to pay: $50/£42
Developer: Genki Co., Ltd.
Writer: Genki Co., Ltd.
Reviewed on: Intel i9-13900HX, RTX 4090 (laptop computer), 32GB RAM
Steam Deck: Playable
Hyperlink: Official website
I simply have to show I am higher than them.
Combat evening
Catch-up assessment
There have been just a few video games final 12 months that we did not have time to assessment, so we’re kicking off 2026 by rectifying a few of these omissions. Sorry we’re late!
Such intensely private rivalries are solely plausible if there’s somebody price combating on Tokyo’s lamp-lit streets, and fortunately for me Tokyo Xtreme Racer’s comfortable to ship an intensive and various roster of potential adversaries. There are themed groups to go up towards, skilled outdated racers hanging round parking areas, and peculiar customized vehicles I hear about in rumours from racing followers. I’d run into demanding drivers who will solely comply with a battle if I am driving a selected car, and others who solely present up on sure days of the week.
It is these personalities that make Tokyo Xtreme Racer completely different from Forza, or Ridge Racer, or actually every other racing sport I’ve ever performed.
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Each single rival in ready owns a singular car, has their very own pleasantly ridiculous deal with (how can anybody not get pleasure from battling “Love’s Ace Shooter” or “Aki With The Over-The-Prime Nails”?), and even their very own backstory, the character glimpsed inside mirrored of their driving type. It is simply sufficient to make every loss really feel like a private insult, whereas nonetheless leaving them summary sufficient for the sport to take care of its barely dreamy nocturnal aura.
As a substitute of funneling me right into a prolonged tournament-like system with these 100+ drivers I am as a substitute proven a map revealing everybody’s location earlier than leaving my storage for the evening. Clear icons and organised lists make it straightforward to rapidly choose one particular group or explicit rival to trace down this night, and in only a few button presses I am dropped off on the closest unlocked ramp to my chosen goal and left to get on with it. Once I do meet up with them I flash my headlights and, assuming they’re open to race, our battle begins proper there after which. Midway spherical a good bend. Simply earlier than a protracted bridge. Caught in the midst of site visitors.
Born to drive
This seeming lack of construction is definitely one of many sport’s core strengths, the liberty on supply introducing new techniques and contemporary difficulties based mostly on an ever-changing mixture of location, automotive, rival, and my very own most popular driving type. Each space I uncover has its personal visible flourish and distinctive driving quirks, one thing particular to see or do. The New Round Route, with its towering suspension bridge and virtually starry white lights feels one million miles away from the tight curves bathed in heat yellows of Ginza, or the lengthy, lengthy straight present in Higashi Ogishima.
I look ahead to battles on what I really feel is my dwelling turf, acquainted turns able to be taken at pace, and groan inwardly when a rival heads off someplace my expertise do not shine fairly so brightly. It is by no means simply highway: It is not a good suggestion to problem somebody I’ve bother overtaking in an space with excessive partitions and slender roads, or to tackle a automotive with highly effective acceleration on a protracted straight. I need to, as a lot as doable, bide my time and battle in locations that swimsuit me and my present machine.
However that is not the one strategy to acquire a bonus. I might be the one who dares to squeeze by means of a slender hole between them and a concrete pillar. The one who refuses to brake first as we plough headlong into site visitors. The one who nudges them right into a crash barrier after which depends on fast acceleration to get away earlier than they will get better. There’s all the time one thing I can do to rework what at first seems to make sure defeat right into a memorable victory, even when my automotive is hopelessly outclassed.
Xtreme Racer is so generously freeform even not racing towards named rivals comes with its personal rewards. There’s nothing to cease me flashing my headlights at any automotive on the highway, as virtually everybody round—even anonymous “filler” vehicles which are in any other case nothing greater than obstacles—is comfortable to have interaction. These nobodies are encouragingly straightforward opponents when beginning out, and in a while assist to silently set the temper: I do know they’d nonetheless put their foot down for a fast battle if requested, as if there’s one thing in regards to the evening air that will get everybody within the temper to race.
Aimlessly driving round additionally brings up enjoyable methods to check my approach. Your complete map’s suffering from pace traps and timed segments, the UI quietly letting me know if there’s one arising after which leaving me to determine whether or not I will ground it and take a look at my automotive’s prime pace/enhance my quickest time on a selected portion of the course. There are (small) extra financial awards for any close to misses, drifting, and clear corners I occur to expertise too.
Simply current on this house is encouraging, the sport wanting to reward the slightest effort of any type and giving me the pliability to be as critical about my driving session as I need to be. I typically begin an evening with a selected objective in thoughts after which rapidly neglect all about it after I hit the asphalt, comfortable to meander round and simply get pleasure from drifting by means of the evening, going wherever I need to race purely for the enjoyable of it.
In tune
This relaxed perspective extends to the vehicles themselves. Do I need to dig deep, turning an off-the-cuff spin into one thing extra sim-like the place tyre put on is fixed and I am anticipated to maintain oil and water temperatures in thoughts? I can—however there isn’t any penalty if I do not. I also can choose a automotive simply because I like the form and spend the following hour including customized stickers and distinctive hubcaps to it.
In truth the visible customisation choices in listed here are so in depth I may simply lose a whole day dressing up my ever-expanding storage’s choice. Whether or not I am driving one thing that appears prefer it got here straight out of Preliminary D or a grocery store automotive park, I can fuss over a clutch of caliper choices and marvel which facet skirt goes greatest with the spoiler I’ve simply fallen in love with.
Bettering the efficiency beneath their freshly waxed bonnets does not need to be a chore because of a perk tree cut up right into a small number of simply understood tabs. These cowl every thing from inside upgrades and new autos to equippable driver expertise and reductions on new components. A few of these are locked till I’ve discovered and defeated a selected “boss” driver—simply one other factor so as to add to my record of enjoyable issues to do whereas I am out and about.
On the finish of a spending spree I am going to in all probability have some new and utterly generic automotive components (Brake lv.2, for instance) obtainable to buy for my vehicles, their advantages all the time simply understood because of the sport utilizing a easy “inexperienced numbers are good, crimson numbers are unhealthy” system. And I can depart the technical facet of it there if I like, swapping out Transmission lv.1 for Transmission lv.2 as quickly as I am ready earlier than driving off into the evening.
However, identical to every thing else in Xtreme Racer, how critically I take this side of the sport is as much as me. The automotive setting menu’s prepared every time I’m, enabling me to fiddle round with suspension damper steadiness, trip peak, gear ratios, and a variety of different issues that to be trustworthy I’m usually comfortable to depart properly alone, even when I do respect their inclusion.
All these tweaks, whether or not they’re massive, small, or purely aesthetic, remodel my vehicles and the races I’ve in them into one thing really private. If I lose a battle I do not rush off to the supplier to purchase one thing extra stereotypically sporty; I need to win in my automotive. So I knuckle down, delight on the road, and take a look at once more (and once more, typically), and turn out to be a greater driver virtually accidentally.
Victory lap
Unintentional enchancment comes typically and effortlessly on this sport, each driver I encounter by likelihood after which handle to defeat in an impromptu race leaving me one step nearer to clearing a whole group, each nook I handle to float round flawlessly offering me with a bit of further money to spend on upgrades and different enhancements. It captures the enjoyment of road racing in all its varieties, easily switching gears from motion so intense I am leaning forwards in my seat to informal drives purely for the sake of having fun with being in my automotive within the flash of a headlight.
This informal adaptability, mixed with a seemingly limitless provide of typically seconds-long challenges in a formidable variety of varieties, means the sport’s by no means straightforward or onerous, it simply is. Each drive is exclusive—and each race I select to take part in is as intense, stunning, and fulfilling as the primary one.