18m 13s: Lenght

Sooo... we have some good news for fans of our channel. On our ever-changing quest to improve the quality of our videos, we finally got a progressive scan / VGA box for our Sega Dreamcast (The "Hanzo" to be specific), a VGA-to-HDMI convertor box, multiple HDMI cables, and the proper connectors to output the signal through our Hauppauge 2 to reach our greatest DC video quality yet! This means that in addition to cranking out new DC videos from original hardware from our (slightly larger since) DC collection, we'll be re-doing some of our old videos to catch up with the times (primarily some of our favorites like Power Stone 1 /2, Project Justice, Maken X, Illbleed, Time Stalkers, etc.). It's still a little experimental right now, so we're testing out different games (and I couldn't get "TrickStyle" to boot up by default, so... yah.) Tokyo Xtreme Racer 2 is the sequel to "Tokyo Xtreme Racer", the last TXR game released for DC, and one game in the long line of semi-celebrated "Shutokou Battle" series. TXR has a modest but very loyal fanbase who rates the series near the very top of the tuner/customization ladder for its deep tuning aspects (being capable of replicating many licensed cars), "Quest" features such as building a huge empire of cars in your garage and driving around seeking many rivals / opponents to beat and earn money from, and no-nonsense approach to racing with its various sim aspects and driving mechanics (some aspects from this game were transplanted into Dreamcast's own "Daytona USA / Daytona USA 2001). Sadly, the "Tokyo Xtreme Racer" line ended with TXR3 (which saw release only in Japan and a limited release in the U.S.), an adaptation of the games on PSP (known outside Japan as "Street Supremacy") and the final "Shutokou Battle X" for Xbox 360 (known outside Japan as "Import Tuner Challenge"). Some games by Genki parallel TXR such as "TXR: Drift" and "Wangan Midnight" (which is based on the award-winning Japanese comic of the same name created by Michiharu Kusunoki). In this TXR title, players can cruise over 100 miles of Tokyo highway, customize cars with hundreds of parts, add logos to cars and even create your own, and offers over 350 opponents to fight against (each with brief descriptions and places that they haunt) for hours of entertainment value. In addition, if you're fortunate enough to have a cheat device sitting around, you can hack the game further to get cars that are seemingly unobtainable in any other way (licensed GTOs in a lot of cases, though normal cars in the game are not officially licensed) to add an extra "mysterious" quality to the game. The graphics are pretty good by Dreamcast standards: cars are sleek and the game usually runs at 60FPS, though more background details would've been nice (some stars, maybe the moon, etc.) and the framerate occasionally dips. The sound is also serviceable -- it is primarily light Techno of sorts that blairs throughout, but there is enough variety where it won't get old too quickly. The car customization was virtually unparalleled at the time of the game's release, but the controls, minor pet peeves, and overall polish is what ultimately kept the game from reaching the top spot of Dreamcast racers (reserved for the likes of MSR, F355 Challenge, and Test Drive Le Mans), though TXR2 is unique and enjoyable in its own right. The main gameplay facet is to find rivals and flash your high beams at them to challenge them to a race. This works except when quirks of merit rear their ugly head, such as being lured into cars / dividers at the start of a race depending on where you challenge them, losing right out the gate. The controls also don't help; while they lean towards "realistic" versus "arcadey", they never feel quite accurate (though they don't detract horribly from the fun) and even cars with "superior" handling feel more slippery than they should. Overall, the game is fun if you're into tuner racers and is worth adding to the ol' cast collection. This is some footage of the game in action. Enjoy.