We’ve got a lot of love for SEGA’s Initial D games. Yes, we know that they’re never released over here, and granted, most of us aren't particularly interested in the anime/comic series they revolve around. But nevertheless, news of a new Initial D title is usually met with enthusiasm here at GAMER towers.
With its perfect blend of tail-happy arcade handling, some beefy cars, a wonderfully cheesy J-pop soundtrack and those winding Japanese mountain roads, we find ourselves powerless to resist its cliched charms. Indeed, no trip to London is complete without burning a few quid in one of the various arcade versions, having put in some practice laps on the PSP game, Street Stage, on the way up.
So as you can imagine, we were rather thrilled when SEGA announced that it would be releasing Initial D: Extreme Stage on the PS3. With all of the PS3’s power to play with, an established baseline in Initial D: Arcade Stage 4 and the obvious potential for online play and downloadable content via the PlayStation Network, what could possibly go wrong?
Well, quite a bit it would seem. To call Extreme Stage a terrible game would be harsh – but thanks to a catalogue of flaws and shortcomings, it’s hardly brilliant either. That’s not to say it isn’t without its plus points, though. Despite not having the broadest selection of courses ever, those that are there offer their own unique feel and challenge.
Although you have the token closed circuit course to ease yourself into the game, the vast majority of your time will be spent tearing up and down mountains along point-to-point courses. With these lasting several kilometres, each track manages to offer an impressive amount of variety – be that in the types of corners it throws your way or such things as the width of the track – so learning how best to maintain momentum and where you can overtake will last you a while. And thanks to the traditional Initial D gameplay structure, you’ll have plenty of opportunity to do this. Rather than blitzing through the game one mountain after another, each location has a selection of drivers you have to beat in a series of one-on-one races – each one being a little harder to see off than the last.
Success on the road means you can then afford to upgrade your cars as well. You hold up to three cars at any one time – and as with the circuits, the selection of machines may not be the biggest, but it does manage to include some of the most iconic Japanese performance cars of the last two or three decades. But it’s only once you start to tune your cars that they start to come alive. There’s a whole host of custom parts and performance upgrades that can be added to your vehicle, and these have quite a significant effect on both its handling and appearance.
And then there’s the soundtrack. Sure, it might not have favourites such as Speed Boy, Space Boy or Dogfight, but the usual blend of chirpy Japanese techno beats are present and correct, complete with fantastically cheesy ‘Engrish’ lyrics.
While this may all sound fine though, Extreme Stage manages to fall short in several key areas. Firstly, there are the graphics. Despite not having anything hugely wrong with them – the odd warping shadow or quirky sky texture aside, anyway – the rather basic levels of detail, flat textures and lack of any notable special effects is hardly likely to cut the mustard with those who have seen the likes of GRID, SEGA Rally or GT5:P in action.
And then there’s the import friendliness of it, or lack thereof. Although there are no compatability woes thanks to the PlayStation 3 being region free, the language barrier is rather high. Menus are entirely in Japanese, meaning that there’s a lot of trial and error involved for non-linguists – something that’s not ideal once you get into the tuning aspects of the game. Nor is it advisable to buy the Asian version. Although this does come with an English manual – which doesn’t quite manage to translate every last option, but does give you a clue as to where you are and what you’re doing – it doesn’t feature online play. Something which, given the meagre selection of offline modes, you’ll want.
But it’s the gameplay that proves to be the biggest culprit, blighted as it is by two sizeable problems. The first of these is how weightless the cars feel. With Extreme Stage’s coin-op heritage, we obviously weren’t expecting a full-on simulation experience. And to a certain extent, it’s fallen in line with our predictions, boasting a suitably slick sensation of speed and flamboyant powerslides aplenty. But yet, so effortless is the way the cars dance through corners, that it feels neither convincing, nor satisfying.
Irrespective of what you do, you never run out of grip – in fact, the only time you really need to think about braking is when you see a corner coming up that you know you won’t be able to steer around at full pelt. As a result of this, you don’t feel connected with the surface beneath you; rather than ragging a high-performance sports car around a mountain road, it feels more like you’re floating an inch above it.
And then there are the controls. With the cars already feeling skittish and twitchy, being able to make delicate, tiny corrections when entering and exiting corners is essential. And sadly, it’s here than the controls let things down. As anyone who’s used the various analogue PlayStation controllers down the years will know, there’s always been a slightly heavy feel to the control sticks. Usually, this has given Sony’s controllers a reassuringly weighty feel. In this instance though, it makes those essential small inputs nigh impossible to do with the regular controller.
That’s not to say Extreme Stage doesn’t feel fast, or that you can’t enjoy a certain sense of control over your car. Tinkering with the responsiveness of the controls – or better still, using a decent steering wheel, which will measure small control inputs more accurately – can help, as can beefing your car up with various upgrades. But even though these steps improves things, it never feels as instinctive as you’d like it to be.
And it’s this that really lets Extreme Stage down. While still something of an acquired taste, both Special Stage and Street Stage have amply demonstrated that SEGA’s Initial D games can work just as well on a console as they do in the arcades. In this instance though, Extreme Stage fails to hit the same highs as its predecessors.
If you’re a fan of the series, then there’s still just about enough Initial D goodness to make this a worthwhile purchase – even if it is unlikely to blow you away. But if you’re just after a spot of classic SEGA arcade racing action, our advice would be to look at something like SEGA Rally instead – while it may have been conceived as a console game, the modern revamp of SEGA’s off-road classic will deliver everything you need, at a fraction of the price.
