Obtaining all those nasty licenses in order to use real cars in video games can be more hassle than it’s actually worth. Because of this, Genki has instead taken real-life cars and changed their names and certain other details around enough so that they resemble their former selves, but won’t be involved in a legal battle over copyright issues. You might not find the actual names of your favorite vehicles in Tokyo Xtreme Racer 2’s lengthy list, but chances are if you watch close enough, there might be something awfully similar.

Tokyo Xtreme Racer 2 falls into the category of games where you basically either love it or hate it. There is actually little middle ground. Instead of racing on a normal track, Tokyo Xtreme Racer 2 throws the player onto a group of interconnected highways, and races are not initiated until flashing the headlights of the car against a rival racing along the highway. The rivals are divided up into different gangs, and certain gangs can only be found on certain parts of the highway (for example, the innerloop), and then there are head members of the gangs who won’t appear anywhere at all until the rest of the gang has been defeated. Flashing the headlights doesn’t mean that a race actually starts, however; the other person can reject the offer.

Races are done in the fashion that an “auto pilot” will engage, putting both cars into alignment and at a set speed limit so there’s no unfair cheating. Once that’s completed, a set of life bars will appear at the top of the screen. In order to win, one of the life bars has to be entirely depleted, and this is done through the distance between the two cars racing. The more distance between the two cars, the faster life will be continually depleted off the losing vehicle. Eventually, one of the life bars will become completely empty, and the winner is declared. The victor receives cash that can then be used for upgrading the current car with new parts, changing the look and style or purchasing a new car entirely. Changing and upgrading the parts is usually the more viable option, though; you really do not earn too much per race no matter how well you do, and new vehicles are pretty expensive.

As mentioned, the auto pilot mode is initiated when a battle starts, putting the two vehicles at their correct speeds and distances. Unfortunately, Genki didn’t test this feature too well; there were numerous times (mostly in areas where there were large pillars splitting the middle) where the auto pilot would slam me into a wall or pillar, slow me down to zero speed and the race would then start while I was still attempting to gain control of my car. You have no control over the auto pilot, so you're basically screwed. Like I said, it doesn’t happen too often on the open highway, but when it does happen, it’s incredibly frustrating and usually results in an automatic loss; the other vehicle is able to increase their distance enough that it becomes virtually impossible to catch up.

Tokyo Xtreme Racer was a nice piece of work visually, but the sequel shows how well Genki has matured along with the Dreamcast hardware and has no problem ripping it apart in nearly every possible category, because Tokyo Xtreme Racer 2 is an amazing sight to behold. The most impressive aspect is easily the car models; there is simply an incredible amount of detail that has been pumped into each individual car model. The first time you start up the game and begin cruising on the endless highway, it’s hard to concentrate on driving while still paying attention to all the graphical details littered throughout, including seemingly minute but cool details such as tail lights leaving a slight blurry trail when the car jerks around.

There are over three hundred rivals that are prowling the road waiting to race against you, but the simple fact is that Tokyo Xtreme Racer 2 does take place on a long stretch of highway the entire time. When you are on the search for a rival, there can be lapses of time where nothing at all happens, and nothing is there to really keep you at all busy. There’s never a change in the time of day – it’s always pitch black and there is hardly anything going on outside of the highway. No buildings or airplanes flying overhead, just miles and miles of repetitive highway. For some, this is no problem; the game is pretty fun regardless, but as much fun as I had at times, within an hour I found myself become slightly bored and would have to take a short break before finding the motivation to start up again.

For whatever reasons, the multiplayer mode that was found in the original Tokyo Xtreme Racer has been taken out of the sequel, which means the game is now strictly for one person. Honestly, I’m not sure of the reasoning behind the removal other than that Genki was unable to get the split screen running at a decent frame rate. It's very unfortunate; multiplayer would make quite a bit of sense considering the way that races work Tokyo Xtreme Racer 2.

Genki has improved considerably with the sequel to their premiere racing series on the Dreamcast, and as time moves on things are only bound to become even better. The graphics are some of the most impressive available on the console, it’s certainly darn addictive and while there are a few nuisances here and there, Tokyo Xtreme Racer 2 is a worthy purchase for racer fans.