But seriously, I didn't know what to expect from the Dreamcast incarnation of Genki's Tokyo Highway Battle. At the E3, the game looked fantastic, but suffered from some horribly slippery control. Thankfully, since then, the control has tightened up considerably, and TXR has evolved into a very playable game.

When TXR is first loaded up, the most obvious stand out feature is the graphics. Running at 60 fps in high resolution, TXR looks quite incredible, especially when seeing it for the first time on your television. One comment that everyone makes is how similar TXR looks to the Playstation 2 Gran Turismo demo, and you know what, they are right. It's just as smooth, just as high resolution, and actually features many cars on the tracks (PS2 demo had none) and less 2D roadside sprites. The car models are relatively detailed, and feature plenty of that shiny specular highlighting that everyone has grown to love. Street lamps cast impressive realtime colored light onto the road surface as well as the shiny vehicle surfaces. The result is probably among the most realistic lighting effects I have seen thus far. The only gripe I have with the visuals are the headlights. For some reason, Genki decided to use a flat 2D flickering headlight effect. The headlights produce very realistic realtime light sources onto the other vehicles, yet a cheesy looking effect on the road. Just a minor annoyance, but something that is instantly noticable.

The music tracks consist of some soft techno beats, with a bit of electric guitar mixed in. While nothing memorable, it is still not all that bad on the ears. The sound effects are crisp, though the engine noise sounds more like an electric car, than a modified gasoline one.

If you look past the impressive visuals, you will find the real core of Tokyo Xtreme Racing to be the Quest Mode. You begin with a set amount of credits in which to purchase one of many vehicles, all of which are based on real life Japanese imports. From there, your vehicle of choice can be modified and tweaked either by purchasing new components, or by adjusting the setting of those you already have. The whole method is handled in a very "Gran Turismo" fashion.

The next step is to choose a hub (inner or outer) on the highway. Now this is where many people begin to lose interest in TXR. Yes, the game only has one single track. But it is certainly not a track in the tradtional sense; It is an extremely long highway that contains many entrances, exits and detours as well as two different hubs of traffic. Races do not begin or end in any particular area, it all depends on where you meet up with a rival gang member and how quickly you defeat them (or are defeated). After jumping on a highway with your newly tuned machine, you pretty much just cruise around, enjoying the scenery and avoiding those slower drivers who clog up the roadway.

As you cruise the highway, you will eventually come across one of many rival gang members. There are approximately 20 gangs of differing abilities, each with 4 to 8 members. As you approcah a rival, your screen will display the name and gang symbol of that particular individual. If you choose to challenge that rival, just pull up behind him or her, and flash your high beams. In real life, this may cause the driver in front of you to explode into a violent fit of road rage, but thankfully this is not real life. A small fighting game style energy meter will then appear at the top of the screen, though it does not represent the amount of physical energy or damage that your vehicle currently has. As you keep ahead of your rival, their energy bar will slowly tick down depending on how far ahead you are, and vice versa. When the rivalŐs (or your own) bar is depleted, the race ends, and you earn credits based on race length, the amount of your own energy bar left, etc. If you lose, you still earn some credit, albeit a very small amount.

Along with the addictive Quest Mode, Tokyo Xtreme Racer also features some more of your standard racing game modes. Practice, Quick Race, and a 2-player Versus Mode are all included.

As I said earlier, control has improved dramitically since last June. The cars feel perfectly arcade like, with not a bit of simulation physics included. Cars bounce off walls and other cars as if they were built of some unbreakable molded plastic. Frequently, finding a good angle to skim off of another vehicle or a wall can help you take the lead.