Tokyo Highway Battle

One player.
Supports Memory card
Customize car features: Exhausts, intakes, brakes, turbo
charges,transmissions, etc.
12 sleek world-class sportscars
No interlink
No analog support.

If ya been waiting for a street racer set in tokyo look no more. The
highways look just like the one's in Japan, complete with very athentic
vehicles. What's great about this game is the cool, crisp sceneries
surrounding every track. THB delivers exotic sky-lines that duplicate
the commerce and culture of Tokyo as ya pass commercial truck rigs
through a highway charted by drift curves and twisting highways.
Incorporated amidst large highways, buildings and billboards fill the
screen with essential detail, all lighted in the day-light with varying
light sources. Ya will enter colourful tunnels as ya travel up bridges
running parallel with others up-close and move downward through an
intricate labyrinth spiraling with wide roads and sometimes congested
with vehicles.

   Everything looks very sleek, and amazingly, there's no slow down.
The wide roads are beautifully rendered in 3D, comprising with bright
colours that renders the game with eye-catching graphics. The art in
detail is very impressive. Even the lay-out outside the track shares
the same effort of strong polygon graphics, and gives the game a
natural feel in the surroundings. This reference is due part to the
solid state of everything developed in good circulation. They are no
grainy testures like Need For Speed, or Pop ups occuring far out into
the screen, and seemingly only the street shadows by the curbs, pop up
with little or hardly any notice.

  The vehicles are finely detailed. Even the large trucks from afar
appear whole, rendering smoothly into the foreground with little
effort. The automobiles are detailed and Large looking, fortified with
no polygon break ups. The cars alone merits special attention to great
art work.

 Game Features:

 The start up screen will employ four modes, 

 SCENARIO: This mode has two levels. Each level offers a battle with
three drivers. Upon defeating six drivers, be given the honor of
battling jap. racing professional, Keiichi Tsuchiya, better known as
the legendary "Drift King". Win points that can be used toward the
purchase of upgrade parts.

 Vs.CPU: A one-on-one battle on an open, traffic-free circuit. Modify
and race twelve different cars.

 PRACTICE: Improve your lap times at wach venue by learning the course.
In this mode, you;ll be able to use full modified race cars.

 OPTION: BGM, Menu music, output stereo, or mono, SE volume, BGM
Volume, key assign, car name.

 The controls are tight. The one move ya have to learn and practice is
the Drift. When ya near a tight corner, the game requires ya drift by
holding on to L2 as ya steer the corner through. If ya press the
accelerator too early before finishing the corner your vehicle will
slightly skid and loose control, so practising this move will determine
the outcome of the game. The vehicles are easy to handle and quite
adept to handle the roads. Vehicles of course offer different handling,
RPM speeds, horsepower, and torque. Ya can also determine Manual
Transmission, or automatic.
 
 Sound/Fx: The music is excellent. Before going into battle, in the
option screen, ya can select the BGM sound track of your liking. The
Rhythmical City song track for example has the flavor of techno, with
hard hitting drums and human voices manipulated with effects that are
fast and rumble with speed. The base lines are deep and the melodies of
various forms of music styles generate great sounds that correspond
well with the game. There's enough music styles to satisfied the genre.
Over all, great music...The FX is a mix bag. The engine sounds
duplicate their real life counter part, and reach a level that
sometimes is drown by the music. When changing gears the high-pitch
changes are more noticeable, and recesses the feel of racing. However,
the sound of smacking vehicles is very unrealistic. Ya don't hear that
metallic screech scrapping off the side vehicles, instead ya hear a
disappointing fx that bears no resemblanse of the actual contact.
Still, everything else emphasizes the natural atmosphere of street
noise. When ya pass an over-pass and tunnels the noise echos, producing
that fade into the background.

 Gameplay: Here's what separates this game from many racers out there.
The racing is not convetional, and uses an element of added speed as ya
progress through the tracks in Scenario Mode. Thus the game starts
slow. During a race you're given a time limit between points, the
faster ya travel between points the more points ya collect for later to
use and upgrade your vehicle. Performance modification takes place
between races and ya can increase the speed of the vehicle by
purshasing items in the speed shop. I counted about 63 items to
purchase and install in your vehicle. Right after installation, ya can
turn on the new features. Some items are aoutomatically turned off when
choosing another, so make your selection count. The faster the vehicle
runs, the more difficult the sharp turns become with the drift at work.
I notice a good challenge, even in my second track in SCENARIO mode
became increasingly difficult, and your opponent always seems to over
take your vehicle when your drift fails to succeed and looses speed, or
when your vehicle hits the side walls. The impact of the vehicles is
not as realistic as Need For Speed, the feel of impact is jerky at
best, and the vehicles seemed to repell their impact without that heavy
feeling as ya push your weight of your vehicle into another. Nor does
the phisical interraction allows ya to ram your vehicle and cause your
opponent to slow down considerably. Another note, the vehicles don't
overturn. 

 Aside from the lack of realism, this title is worth checking out. It
may not be as fast as Need For Speed, but the challenge is all there.
The overall package is a very impressive effort from Jaleco.

- Leo Rodriguez