Sleeper Hits: Initial D Review

Ever wondered what it would be like to deliver tofu? Doesn't sound exciting at first, however what if you’re in a car that can drift up or down a mountain at high speeds up to 195 mph? I bet you would love delivering tofu all the time now. Welcome to the world of Initial D where you have the chance to take on the most exotic and dangerous corners of Japan in this drift racing installment for the PSP. Mind you it is called a sleeper hit because it came out in early winter 2006 and hardly received real applause through the year. Initial D started off as a manga back in 1995 with a new volume every five months. It than later on spawned a anime series in 1998 starting with Initial D First stage that had 26 episodes. Many games followed the series all the way up to the PS2 and now the PSP has a taste of the action. Read on for more information.

The main basis of this story is around an eighteen year old boy named Takumi Fujiwara who helps his father deliver tofu to a local hotel on Akina every morning before school. With the use of his fathers Toyota AE86 Sprinter Trueno he sprints up the mountain at high speeds not realizing that he is training to be a great drift racer. In this game you battle all of the characters in the story all the way up to the third stage. The list of vehicles and the characters that drive them are below.

• Takumi Fujiwara – Trueno AE86
• Bunta Fujiwara – Impreza WRX Type R STi ver. V
• Itsuki Takeuchi – Levin SR [AE85]
• Kouichirou Iketani – Silvia K’s [S13]
• Kenji - 180SX Type X
• Ryosuke Takahashi – RX-7 inf. III [FC3S]
• Keisuke Takahashi – RX-7 Type R [FD3S]
• Kyoko Iwase – RX-7 Type R
• Kenta Nakamura – Silvia Q’s [S14]
• Mako Sato & Sayuki – SILEIGHTY
• Takeshi Nakazato – Skyline GT-R V-spec II
• Shingo Shoji – Civic SiR II
• Kyoichi Sudo – lancer GSR Evolution III [CE9A]
• Seiji Iwaki – Lancer RS Evolution IV
• Watru Akiyama – Levin GT – Apex [AE86]
• Kai Kogashiwa – MR2 G-Limited [SW20]
• Toru Suetsugu – Roadster S Special [NA6CE]
• Atsuo Kawai – Skyline 25GT Turbo
• Daiki Ninomiya – Civic Type R
• Tomoyuki Tachi – Civic Type R
• Smiley Sakai – Integra Type R
• Sakamoto – Cappuccino [EA11R]
• Nobuhike Akiyama – Altezza RS-200 [SXE10]
• Two guys from Tokyo – Silvia spec-R [S15]
• The Man – Lancer RS Evolution V [CP9A]
• The partner of The Man – Lancer GSR Evolution VI T.M. Edition

You have 24 characters to choose from and over 30 vehicles to customize. Each make and model has a specific way to tune them up. Manufactures include Nissan, Toyota, Honda, Mitsubishi, Subaru and Mazda. You have four different driving methods FF (Front Engine/ Front Wheel Drive), FR (Front Engine/Rear Wheel Drive), MR (Midship engine/Rear Wheel drive), and 4WD (Four Wheel Drive). You can basically choose what driving style feels comfortable to you, which brings a lot to a portable racing title. To tune up the cars you will win racing cards that will have different body or custom tuning parts, however some cards you win will not fit for that particular car you have. Good thing is that you can save that card for another car models or trade them via ad hoc.

Let us review the game modes. You have the fastest street racer legend (story mode), Time Attack, Garage (tune or change your car), Card Collection (View and/or manage Cards you collected), Project D Home Page (view Illustrations, movie screens, advice on attacking courses, and listen to BGM.) and Options. Now there is another mode that will pop up during time called "Challenge Bunta". Takumi's father is one of the best racers in the series and this mode opens up after a certain amount of time during gameplay. He is the Legendary street racer of Initial D so be aware of what you're up against.

One thing that annoys me is the card collecting feature. Every race you win you gets to choose from three cards that are face down. Now good news is that the cards hold parts to tune up your car, bad news is you might not get the right card you are hoping for.

Before you start each race you have to choose from Automatic or Manual transmission, BGM (background music), Course you want to race on, Select the route/weather/time day or night. Once you begin you race off like a bat out of hell. Drifting and learning the courses is the key to win. Anything can determine your victory especially slick tactics to win. One tactic I learned during the night races if turning off headlights while behind an opponent. They will not know what side you're trying to pass them on and will leave an opening for you to take the lead. Strategies like that are worth racing for.

To sum it all up if there were any racing game you should look into, this would be it. You have great licensed vehicles, interesting race modes, great vehicle control with a technical aspect, background scenes are amazing, and finally you have a great soundtrack backing it up to make the racing more fluid just like the anime series. So finally I say thanks to Sega for bringing this out for the PSP and I hope the genre gets more popular so an American release will happen. I give 4 drifts out of 5. Thanks for reading.