I recently wrote about a game that aimed to recreate the old magic of Tokyo Xtreme Racer, a series of urban nighttime racing games that hadn't had a new (non-mobile) installment in 18 years. Oh, what a neglected niche these indie developers were filling!
Yep, a new Tokyo Xtreme Racer has just been announced by original developers Genki, and it's targeting a Steam release next year.
Here's a teaser trailer that's actually just a set of logos for previous games:
The new entry is simply called Tokyo Xtreme Racer, and there's not much else to discover via its Steam page.
“Tokyo Xtreme Racer is a racing game set in a closed future in Tokyo, where you must race your customized cars to reach the top on the highways that crisscross the city,” the description says. “Drive real cars on meticulously recreated tracks, face off against powerful rivals, slide between other cars and participate in grueling battles. This is a series with unmatched charm.”
It’s interesting, because Tokyo Xtreme Racer was all about atmosphere, and at least some of that atmosphere came from the PS2-era graphics. Mimicking that aesthetic in its jagged-edged polygons and drunken, bassy soundtrack is part of what makes Night-Runners Prologue so powerful. Once modernized, with a less definable style but still limited in budget, I wonder if Tokyo Xtreme Racer will seem comparatively dull.
Still, the Steam page says to look forward to more information being released, and that's what I'm doing. Can someone restart Racing Lagoon next?