The final games featured for this series aren't the most popular driving games ever. They don't represent the pinnacle of graphical achievement either. However they are three driving games that represented the arcade experience very well. They created easy to play yet difficult to master experience. Best of all they were able to immerse the player into the experience very quickly. Allowing you to get a slice of a world, very similar to ours only slightly cooler and more fantastic. We'll begin with the most famous of the lot.
Sega's Crazy Taxi, released in 1999 was the freshest thing in the driving genre. The format had become cluttered, every driver looked and played the same for a while. Sega made a driving adventure unlike anything they had tried before. Most publishers would want to capitalize on their racing experience and just release another title in that format. Thankfully Hitmaker (AM3) didn't go down that road and instead placed gamers in a world where driving as recklessly as possible was greatly rewarded.
Players were placed in the role of a cabbie, trying to earn as much money as possible within a set time limit. Time bonuses could be earned by how quickly a person reached their destination and also for how many stunts the driver pulled off. Doing power slides and huge jumps were the best money boosters. Avoiding collisions and using shortcuts were the best for gaining time. The best players learned to balance everything while careening into oncoming traffic and looking for a destination. The game was a blast to play. I can remember putting plenty of quarters in the machine during a time when great arcade games were few and far between. It made a perfect transition on the Dreamcast console, along with plenty of mini games to keep me going.
The people at Sega poured every arcade nuance they had learned over the years into Crazy Taxi. The cabbies and their taxis all had personality, like grown up versions of characters from Top Skater or Jet Set Radio. They accepted a day job yet never lost their own personal flair. The cars were sleek low riders or bulky pre-war iron. The cities they raced in were as imaginative as the towns featured in Daytona and Super GT. Only now we could take the time to enjoy peeling around the streets, cutting through parks and alleys in a wide-open world rather than be forced to only catch a glimpse of the city from the rear view mirror. All of the drifting hijinks from the earlier Sega racers returned here, all of the responsive steering and indestructible transmissions were in full effect.
The music helped frame the experience, again, not unlike what Pennywise had done for Top Skater, So. Cal. punk favorites the Offspring provided all of the songs in the original Crazy Taxi. All I Want becoming the de facto anthem.
Latter Crazy Taxi games went through the motions but didn't recreate the charm of the original title. For what it was worth Crazy Taxi might be considered Sega's best driving series if not for all those other damn fine games Yu Suzuki had put out.
In the late 90's the US arcade scene was tapering off. San Francisco Rush by Atari was created as a rival to anything Sega had and especially to counter the popular Cruis'n USA series by Midway. The 1996 title showed that Atari was behind the curve. However even their worst Rush showing was better than the best Cruis'n game.
Atari did an accurate representation of San Francisco to race around in. The hilly city was a good setting for an arcade racer. All Atari had to do was polish out some corners and lengthen a few streets to make it perfect. They developed a series of tracks around the city, exploiting obvious as well as hidden shortcuts with their model. They also introduced a series of cars which handled differently and had their own strengths and weaknesses. The Volkswagen-inspired cars said a lot about the still lingering hippy vibe from San Francisco. Rarely did the cars mesh so well with the theme of the game. Rush was a blast to play as cars made fantastic jumps at top speed clearing entire blocks in one go. Not many racing games ever featured cars that could leave the ground. With a few rare exceptions none of the Sega racers featured any jumps, let alone those on the scale of Rush. Expert players could "thread the needle" through a series of jumps and shortcuts that would frighten even the most seasoned racing veterans. Those that took a jump just a little bit off would end up crashing miserably and lose their spot in the race. As imaginative and arcade-like as the game was it felt like it was lacking something.
I believe the graphics were the biggest detractor to the Rush series. The tracks and cars seemed very simplistic, details were sparse and the city of San Francisco felt lifeless. AM2 was memorable for their racing games but the sum of their parts were more than great cars and tracks. None of the Rush games carried the same level of atmosphere that Sega had poured into their games. Filters to convey motion, realistic lighting effects, models made up of millions of polygons, landscape and textures which were weren't flat and generic. Atari touted the latest 3DFX technology but it wasn't enough to make Rush appear more than a very pretty computer game in the arcade. However this was also a sign of the times.
Only Japan seemingly had enough of an arcade market to keep on developing dedicated cabinets and hardware for every title. In the US corners had to be cut which meant that the tech that went into arcade titles was very scaled back and based on systems not much nicer than the PC's available in homes. All of the atmosphere and technology from the Sega games couldn't be reproduced with such limited resources. This did not stop the Rush series from taking a foothold and keeping Atari going. The 1997 follow-up Rush the Rock Alcatraz edition did well as did the last in the series, 1999's San Francisco Rush 2049. All of these games eventually found their way to the consoles where a generation that didn't have an arcade scene could see what they were missing out on. There were some arcade titles that never made the transition to the home, not because the technology wasn't there but because of the interesting ways the game was presented. On the next blog we'll look at one of the more obscure and odd titles in the driving genre.
A few years after Power Drift Sega released another scaling sprites-as-3D racer called Rad Mobile. It was called Gale Racer to my friends overseas. The 1991 title was a coast-to-coast race set in-cockpit. At the core it was AM2's updated take on OutRun. Entire states could be cleared in seconds, there were hidden paths, multiple endings and cops to avoid! The graphics were very nice for the time but the details were what sold this game.
The arcade cabinet was an updated version of the Power Drift deluxe one. It rode on hydraulics to immerse the player further into the experience of racing. Hanging from the rearview mirror was a Sonic the Hedgehog. It was his first arcade cameo, a nod from Yu Suzuki to Yuji Naka for making Sega's console a real contender. The steering wheel provided force-feedback and on the dashboard were buttons to start the engine, turn on the headlights and windshield wipers. All of these things were used as the game progressed. It was nice seeing weather and time elements happen on the course. To help move the day and night along faster Yu logically had the race start on the west coast and had the cars run east. The tracks were all fantastic, some freeways suspended miles over the city or cutting a path through a valley. The most memorable level in any arcade racer is easily the Springfield portion of Rad Mobile.
It was the 12th stage in the game. Off to the side of the road was an open gate. The open track was welcoming as the rest of the racers had to contend with oncoming traffic. There was a rainstorm happening so they had to turn on their windshield wipers. It was right about then that racers realized they were on train tracks. Suddenly the cabinet would blair out a train horn and the player could see a locomotive bearing down on them in the rearview mirror. The fence on the side of the road would open up for a section of the track so the player could choose to jump into the streets and contend with oncoming traffic or take their chances and stay on the tracks. Of course most arcade gamers would stay on the tracks and take their chances with the train. It was a white-knuckle ride that has yet to be reproduced in any arcade racer. Best of all if you were a good enough driver you could beat the game on one credit, a rarity for most racing games.
The supercar that powered through this race was allegedly the Porsche 959 racing car. However most of my friends agreed that it looked a lot more like the Mclaren F1, although that supercar wouldn't debut until a year after Rad Mobile. Was this a case of design following culture or an odd coincidence?
A year before Rad Mobile the US was giving the arcade crowd an equally fantastic racer. 1990's Race Drivin' was the sequel to the groundbreaking polygon racer Hard Drivin'. Billed as the world's first authentic driving simulation game. It was a bit ugly and slow in the graphics department but more than made up for it with advances in the technology. Atari had closed the legacy on their arcade racing scene by leaving the free-wheeling Sprint games behind. They knew players wanted realism especially now that Badlands had shown that the Sprint formula was dead. Race Drivin' was as close as players would get to the feel and physics of driving without actually taking the family car out for a spin.
The Hard Drivin' and Race Drivin' cabinets were memorable for their attention to detail. These cabinets and controls were nothing at all like the freewheeling steering from the Sprint games. The steering wheels had rock-solid force feedback. Actually fighting the players for control if they were careening off course! The game also featured accurate gas, brake and even clutch pedals along with a five-speed shifter. On top of everything was a metal key that was built into the cabinet that players had to turn in order to start their cars. This game was the antithesis of every arcade racer ever. It rivaled the logic of Japanese design and trumped the details from any other western developer. However the tracks were anything but daily driving courses. They were designed to test your driving skill and patience. The game was very unforgiving. You would be penalized for driving off the course and every little bump seemed to cause your car to blow up. Every jump and landing had to be perfect or you'd be shelling out another quarter. The stunt and latter super-stunt tracks were the reasons why people really played the games. What good was realistic physics and force feedback steering if you weren't willing to drive the car like a mad stuntman? The wild jump and loop from the first title were blown out in the sequel. Players had to contend with a loop with the top portion cut out as well as a corkscrew loop as well. It was an amazing experience for a racing game.
Between Rad Mobile and Race Driving players could see how differently each country approached the racer. Sega would learn from Atari (then owned by Namco) and top Race Drivin'. They combined the US polygons with the memorable Japanese track designs and gave us Virtua Racing. Later on they would also give us Daytona. Atari would eventually catch up to the trends and release a series that many here hold in very high regards. Come back tomorrow to revisit Atari's last great arcade racing hurrah.
I am a van man. I represent a dying breed of USA car enthusiast. My pride and joy is a 1997, B1500 Dodge Ram Van. I've spent plenty of time and money keeping it running over the years. Most of the van is stock including the classic "Metallic Forest" paint. There is very little that I have to do to make it perform. It has a powerful V8 and is actually pretty quick despite its size. On the freeway some cars mistakenly try to pass me by going around, thinking that the van is moving slower than it actually is. Before too long though most fall back in the same lane when they realize I'm clipping along well ahead of traffic. Despite its size it actually gets decent mileage, better than some SUV and trucks even.
Unfortunately my model van went the way of the Dodo thanks to the economic crash and restructuring of Chrysler, the parent company. Around 2002-2003 Dodge completely changed the body on their van series. They ditched the windows and passenger seats and decided to go with a cargo-only build. The Ram label was switched out to the new Sprinter name.
The bland vans were based on the new parent company template. Mercedes Daimler bought up Chrysler and began streamlining production and cutting models in the US. The new van was actually based on the European Sprinter van by Mercedes. Daimler ended up owning Chrysler from 1998 through 2007 before Chrysler bought back controlling interest and was acquired by Fiat. Unfortunately Fiat never returned the van to its roots.
The Sprinter was ugly, garish and lacked the personality of the classic Ram vans. In fact, Daimler completely missed the fact that van culture was a genuine part of American history. The van enjoyed a sort of cultural peak from the late '60s through the '70s. In fact 1977 saw two dueling movies, the Van and Supervan. This was something that Honda did not overlook when they were trying to get more interest in their Odyssey Mini Van. They released a Van Gods commercial at the start of their new campaign. The use of airbrushed characters and iconography helped rekindle a sense of nostalgia for older drivers.
The follow-up commercials The Van is Back and Respect the Van relied on nostalgia in equal measure. Unfortunately neither Honda nor Daimler actually understood what van culture was all about. All automobile brands have followers and enthusiasts. Each car is not only a means of transport but also offers a way to express the identity of the driver. If a car could be considered a blank canvas then a van could be considered an entire wall, ready to be painted or decorated any way the owner wanted. The interior of the van was also open to more configurations than any car could ever handle. It could be stripped of seats and benches and made into a utility van, keeping tools and hardware safe from the elements. Or it could be fitted with a lavish interior, entertainment center and bed for traveling and entertaining. Some owners were able to find a balance between the practical and opulent uses for their vans. Unfortunately the passenger van disappeared at the start of the millennia and with it went the enthusiasts.
Or so I thought.
It turns out that a good number of Ram vans ended up overseas. The Sprinter van was a great choice for big city deliveries but it was not a good choice for rural areas. Japan had a larger concentration of narrow roads and mountain passages than the US or Europe making the top-heavy Sprinter van a poor choice for many. The more compact Ram was not only good for deliveries but as a passenger van it was much more spacious than the vans or mini-vans developed by Toyota, Honda or Nissan. It actually ended up creating a very strong following.
In the previous blog I had mentioned Go Nagata, the founder of the Setagaya Air Force Base. He was actually the senior correspondent for Neko Publishing's Daytona magazine. The magazine is dedicated to Western car culture and focuses on the Japanese that find, restore and roll around in American cars. As a Western car enthusiast Nagata was interested in word of a Dodge van group getting together to run a Grand Prix. He documented this in Daytona issue 255.
The title of his article was "D-Van GP a celebration of the stupid / foolish that came this year."
The image of a group of Dodge vans peeling around a turn did more than piqué my interest. It turned out that the D-Van GP had been a tradition almost as long as the Ram vans had been around in Japan.
The group raced on the Ebisu Circuit, specifically the West / Nishi course. Think of the Ebisu Circuit as a racing fan's Walt Disney World. There are multiple courses, racing schools and even a wild animal safari park in the middle of the expansive complex. It is exactly the type of place in which driving enthusiasts can spend and entire vacation.
It turned out that these were hardly anything but stock vans racing on the circuit. They had undergone a number of alterations to make them track ready. A tube frame was welded for strength. The transmission was completely changed out and motor tuned for racing. Some of the vans were even equipped with nitrous oxide. The suspensions on the vans were also completely redone and reinforced. The Dodge vans actually had great suspensions for commuting and cargo, however the wear and tear from high speed stops and starts would easily break down regular vans on a racing circuit.
When the Japanese auto enthusiasts got into something, they got into something all the way. Racing Dodge vans was no different. The same do-it-yourself mentality that was the roots of NASCAR was evident in the article. Month in and month out Mr. Nagata had demonstrated this on the pages of Daytona. Groups all over Japan would get together to strip down, hop up and trick out rides. Performance and style went hand in hand regardless of what make, model or even country of origin their rides were from. I was so impressed by their enthusiasm I was wondering what it would take to make my own van race ready.
The aggressive-looking vans may have been thought of as slow and cumbersome to most motorists but those that drove them knew how sporty they could be. The Japanese didn't approach the Dodge vans in the same ways that the US did in the '70s. There were no waterbeds, shag carpeting or disco lights on the interiors. These new vans were meant for a different type of hauling.
The enthusiasts that Mr. Nagata had written about were rare but not unique. The Japanese had been passionate about building racers with street roots as much as for the racetrack for several generations. In popular culture some of the most successful comics and cartoons celebrated car culture. The next blog will explore these things. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!
Power Drift by Sega was an attempt by AM2 to make realistic 3D tracks out of 1988's 2D technology. Yu Suzuki and company used a series of scaling sprites, one right after the other to achieve the desired effect. They did something similar with the helicopter game Thunder Blade. It was odd and cumbersome, with lots of clipping problems given the high speed circuits of Power Drift. However the game play was something new and fresh.
For the first time arcade goers were treated to 3D tracks which dipped and banked. Arcade gamers had seen some similar tracks but never to the extremes that Power Drift delivered them. Courses were compact and the changing elevations were extreme. The tracks here have been rightfully compared to roller coaster tracks. The deluxe version of the arcade cabinet was a very memorable. It was on hydraulics so it would pitch the players up and down, left and right to further immerse them into the experience.
The best part of this game was in the diversity of racers. Each had their own car and personality. Yelling at rivals or taunting opponents on the multiple courses. The cars themselves were very unique. No two looked alike and they were all highly-stylized and low to the ground so we could clearly make out the virtual driver. In order to race on the tracks the team at AM2 invented an ultra-compact, short car, more like a super-powered go kart for the game. These karts were loads of fun. They turned out were the perfect format to bring the arcade experience home.
In 1992 Super Mario Kart gave the masses the first taste of kart racing. A kart is the closest thing a person could get to a bare-bones racing experience. Many professional Formula-1 racers get discovered via kart racing because the focus is more on skill than horsepower. With the addition of the popular characters from the Mario series, each with their own strengths and weaknesses and Nintendo would be swimming in success (and money!).
Nintendo did the genre one better and incorporated weapons and power ups to the experience. Damnable shells that would knock you out of contention on the final lap or power ups that would boost you past the finish line a hair in front of the computer. There was no real "random" quality to the power ups but we saw past that and enjoyed the experience. The multiplayer modes were fantastic and have always been among the best party titles ever. There have been many updates to the Kart series but for most on 1UP the SNES version was the gateway experience. Fantastic tracks, different vehicle classes and an absurdly demanding race AI kept players on their toes. When combined with the frenetic combat element then the races became much more memorable than just about every arcade racer ever. Mario Kart even accomplished this on a flat track, the technology to create Power Drift-style 3D tracks was still a ways off for consoles.
As memorable as the kart games were they were sadly few and far between. The last notable kart series with cartoonish graphics was the decent Street Racer series which saw a release on the SNES which many likened to Mario Kart, as well as on the Genesis / Mega Drive and a polygon version on the original Playstation. The combat kart racing would continue via the Nintendo series, but to many this type of game was too chaotic. They preferred something a little more sensible and realistic. In the arcades they wouldn't find it. Next time we'll look at two racing titles, one from Japan and one from the USA, that redefined what reality meant to the arcade crowd.
Sega has been featured many times on this blog for the various racing games they created. The company actually got into the arcade market before the video screens were integrated into the cabinets. In the early days of the arcade the electronic machines had mechanized components and moving parts, these were known as electro mechanical games. One of their first arcade racing hits was Moto Champ. The title from 1973 featured scale motorcycles on an illuminated track. The opponents moved via magnets under the game screen while the player controlled their own bike via a wire frame attached to some handlebars.
The mechanical games gave way to full video screens not long after. Developers that did not change with the times were forced to shut down. Sega would quickly change from mechanical to digital entertainment. Their first breakout racing game was Monaco Grand Prix in 1980. The game was set with a top down perspective, similar to what Atari had done in their Sprint racing games. It was memorable for the use of color as well as day and night transitions. Racers could only see the portion of the track illuminated by the car headlights, making for some very harrowing action. The game was difficult but rewarding. A year later they created a game that was featured in the film Wreck-it-Ralph. Sega Turbo from 1981 did not actually feature a racer named Turbo, nor did it involve any plot but it did set the template that would make the company famous. The game used a behind the racer POV and followed players through road courses, rewarding them with points as players passed opponents. The game was one of the first to use scaling sprites to create the effect that players were racing bast buildings and countrysides. A few years later Sega used that same technique on more powerful hardware. They created a new legacy with the 1986 game OutRun.
The brains behind the game was Yu Suzuki, the head of Sega's R&D unit AM2. His studio would develop an amazing streak of hits. The games could be seen as a celebration of his love of cars, especially the Ferrari. Suzuki, like so many other Japanese men grew up idolizing the racing cars from the West. They were celebrated on film and television, car enthusiast magazines sprung up and gave a nation cause to debate and discuss the ultimate driving machines. The auto industry in Japan had to increase their pace to help the nation recover from World War II. In order to do that the manufacturers had to try and replicate the things that made the Western companies successful and then improve upon them. They looked at the daily drivers from Europe and the USA and found ways to make small, economical cars for young families. They studied British and German sports cars and began developing contemporary models all their own. Both the family sedan and sports cars would be made more appealing if they could be made domestically and cost less than an import. To help raise their profile the large manufacturers began investing in racing R&D. Toyota formally entered professional motor sports in 1957 but it was Datsun (later renamed Nissan) that got the ball rolling in 1936. Other companies, including Mazda got noticed by building light but powerful engines. The companies began to change the local and international perception of Japanese made autos.
Mr. Suzuki's formative years were during the transition of Japan's auto industry from domestic to international powerhouse. He was around to read about the most innovative racers from Italy, Germany and Britain as they visited the Suzuka Racetrack during the Formula-1 season. He was able to see how well Japan was at recreating the sports cars and duplicating the success of the legendary designs and designers. Take Todd Green's racing Datsun for example. His VQ 35 Datsun roadster was originally created by the Japanese to be a less expensive answer to the Porsche racers. Mr. Green pushed the capabilities of the car and even design to challenge the legendary British AC Cobra.
The Cobra was considered one of the ultimate sport cars. Texan Carroll Shelby (RIP) shoehorned a Ford racing engine into the light frame. The power-to-weight ratio that Shelby had unlocked in the Cobra and later Ford GT-40 went on to capture numerous racing victories and set plenty of speed records. The renamed Shelby Cobra was the envy of car fans around the world. Its styling and bold curves were copied numerous times. The Japanese did not have the Hot Rod revolution that changed car culture in US through the 50's and 60's, they however earn their own driving legacy. The Datsun VQ 35 was joined by the more famous Fairlady Z as cars that would shape post-war Japanese youths and turn them into car fans. Mr. Suzuki and the young designers at Sega were not immune to what car culture was doing to the nation. When Suzuki started he almost instantly began developing a legacy of racing games. OutRun was his most famous contribution but his team never stopped pushing the genre. A spiritual successor to OutRun appeared in 1993. Outrunners was actually developed by sister team AM1 and not by Suzuki. It featured a whole new slew of cars in addition to the trademark Ferrari Testarosa from the original game. The Bad Boy was added to give the Italian car a run for its money. Those that knew of Shelby recognized the inspiration behind the car. The blonde driver wearing a cowboy hat was a clever nod to the Texan.
AM2 did not always focus on realistic racing games, one of their most memorable entries, Power Drift was based on the silliness of go-cart racing. Another, Rad Mobile, demonstrated that storytelling elements could be incorporated through the race itself. The game had players driving in the dark and through the rain in a first person perspective, they actually had to turn on the windshield wipers and lights in order to see the track! The publisher had evolved quickly from the old electro mechanical cabinets they used to make. In fact they began pushing the technology for digital developers. They were among the first to move games away from 2D sprite based graphics to 3D polygons. You can learn how Sega Rally and Virtua Racing changed the genre on my older blogs. The studio had a unique take on the great American pastime of stock car racing with Daytona USA. By the time Super GT was released it could be considered the peak of Yu Suzuki's legacy.
Yu had created a template that defined the arcade racer. The cars were always bright and colorful, they seemed to glide over the road and could be nuanced by drivers into impossibly fast power slides. The control for the majority of the Suzuki-produced racers was nuanced. It was the result of years and years of refinement to bridge the gap from realistic driving to stunt racing. Those that had played through the majority of the games knew that they could be difficult but rewarding as well. The road rockets raced on tracks that would be the envy of the Disney Imagineers. Nothing would have killed a Suzuki racer more than strict realism, his games were gorgeous spectacles. In fact if more tracks in the real world looked liked the ones featured in the Sega racers then there certainly would be no shortage of supporters. The level design of each track had more in common with theme park design and urban planning than driver safety. In some levels towering spires of crystal and steel were the eye-candy off in the distance while roller coasters wound around the track itself. As former 1UP boss guy John Davidson said the races in the Sega games took place on the most utopian day ever. The cities that hosted the races were more breathtaking than any real world city and set a standard that would be hard to top.
The goal of one recent Kickstarter campaign has been to recreate the feel of the Suzuki-produced gems for modern PC gamers. I think that the '90s Arcade Racer did the job well.
The Japanese contributions to the auto industry could not be disputed. From the daily driver to the record breaking racer there was nothing that the nation did not help improve upon. The people had also built a unique car culture over the past century. They embraced foreign cars, sub cultures and icons with sincerity while adding their own unique spin to everything. Manga and animé titles celebrated vehicles and shaped the entertainment industry. Video games did more than their fair share to help popularize driving. Sega went from pioneering electro mechanical games to actual video racing games. Unfortunately not everything that the Japanese did was embraced by the global, or even local community. Even the best laid plans could not save some ambitious games. The next blog will look at one of the most unique racing games ever produced.
Let me know in the comments section please. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!
Auto Modellista, a console title game from 2002 was an attempt for Capcom to get a franchise racing game established. The studio was better known for their fighting and adventure titles more than their racing games. Their previous high-profile title MotoGP was actually started by Polyphony Studios, the people that created the Gran Turismo series for Sony. Before that Capcom had not made a serious effort to get a racing game in their library since Slipstream, an arcade racing game from 1995. At that time Capcom was a little late in trying to jump on the racing bandwagon. Slipstream used pixels instead of polygons for their graphics engine. By 1995 the two major arcade racing developers Namco and Sega had long since moved away from sprites to 3D textured polygon models. Slipstream looked like a better version of Namco's Final Lap, the 1987 spiritual successor to Pole Position 2. By 1994 Namco had released the all-polygon Ace Driver a year before Slipstream. Although crude when compared to modern 3D racing games it was years ahead of the technology used by Capcom.
Racing leagues including Formula-1, NASCAR and GT had already been done by other publishers. Genres like kart racing, rally racing, boat racing, monster truck racing, combat racing and even science fiction racing had also been explored on various consoles as well. Capcom would have to come up with something unique to stand out from the glut of racing games on the market. The wanted to have several things that no other racing game offered, the defining feature would be the graphics. The game used cel-shading to help give the cars an animé quality. Not many games have been released using the graphics technique and very few of them, like the 2001 arcade sleeper Wild Riders were racers.
By going with cel-shading Capcom was able to make great use of lighting, shadows, colors and even textures on the track. The high contrast between the cars and environments made for a game which looked good from every angle. Small details like the brakes heating up and changing color could be made out behind the spinning wheels. The engine even rendered "speed lines" like an illustrator would to convey movement on the edges of the frame while players raced. The faster they went the more speed lines they would get. To put it succinctly no other console racer looked like Auto Modellista.
The cars featured in the game were licensed from real world rides. Most of the major manufacturers from Japan and the US were represented. The game did not have the hundreds of makes and models from a title like Gran Turismo, instead it focused on the sportier cars from the major companies. In Japan the legendary street racer the Mazda RX-7 was the poster child for the game. In the US it was the Dodge Viper. The game actually had a couple of releases in Japan because not all the licensed cars were in the original release. After the US and UK got their versions with a few more rides then Japan got the full version with online support. The game was one of the rare PS2 racing games that supported 8-player online play. Some bundles in Japan included a special network adaptor for the PS2 to try to get more players interested in the release.
There were only a handful of courses in the game but they were all based on real Japanese locations. There were several mountain stages from rural areas and big city circuits. The Suzuka raceway was the most high-profile track in the game. The city circuit tracks were set at night and offered players a chance to drive the circuits in the rain. This meant carefully tuning each car for maximum efficiency and changing the tires from racing slicks to radials. There was a bonus track for players that completed all of the challenges. The Tamiya Kakegawa Circuit was the site of many remote control car racing championships. Once a player had unlocked this track then they could take any car to it. The car would be miniaturized and made to look and sound like an actual R/C car. Players could see the pins holding down the body kit as well as the antenna sticking out of the frame. Even the sound of a tiny electric motor would replace the usual engine sounds. It was a treat watching the world pass by from the POV of a toy on the road.
To make the game even more unique it offered players the chance to personalize cars in the Garage Life mode. The body kits, tires and aftermarket parts were all licensed from real companies. Players could not only assemble their ideal rides, they could also tune it up, paint it and even cover it in real or created stickers if they wanted to. To help further set this game apart from the other racers on the market there was a Video Mode as well. Before Auto Modellista there had been games that allowed players to save and edit replays of races. Auto Modellista allowed players to add music, filters and video effects in addition to the usual editing tools. Players could make replays that were as dazzling as music videos and save them to their memory cards.
The music featured in the game was composed by Tetsuya Shibata and Isao Abe. It was an eclectic mix of jazz, electronica and trip-hop that did not rely on any licensed music. Some people would argue that the music was actually the best part of the game. The two-disk soundtrack is actually one of the rarer Capcom albums sought by collectors.
The game had a distinct visual look, a great soundtrack, a decent lineup of cars, customization and online support but it was missing something very important. It lacked solid control, the most crucial element to any game. The cars did not handle realistically, nor did they handle in an exaggerated arcade style. For a game that featured numerous mountain stages the absence of drifting or sliding the cars around corners was shocking. It was seemingly impossible to get the cars to even commit to a slide. Players could choose the most powerful car in the game, give it slick tires and put it on a rainy track and it would still not drift more than 10 feet without coming to a screeching halt. Even the R/C cars that players could race on the Kakegawa circuit did not respond realistically. A remote control car raced and handled much differently than a real world car. At scale the small cars could go over 300MPH and hug turns impossibly close to the edge without losing control. Conversely if the driver wanted to have a drift race with an R/C car then they could also make the small cars race completely sideways at command. That lack of detail for the real and R/C physics broke a game that was filled with tremendous possibilities as much as it was filled with style.
Perhaps it was the focus on style rather than substance that ultimately lead to the game being panned by critics and players alike. The courses were well done but players were expecting more locations. Instead Capcom offered an uphill and downhill version of the two mountain stages and a clockwise and counter-clockwise version of the city circuits. The great visuals exploited on each track were done in by the lack of diversity. The novelty of the graphics wore off once players had mastered the tracks. There was little else to do than play dress-up with the cars a player had unlocked. Perhaps this was the greatest strength that the game had overlooked by most players and editors.
Auto Modellista means car designer in Italian. It does not mean racing simulator. The focus on the game was more on the look and design of the cars rather than racing. It never aspired to be taken as seriously as Gran Turismo. The game was designed to make car enthusiasts slow down and appreciate the cars and car culture. If ever there was a videogame that required players to approach it differently than other titles in the same genre then this was it. I would compare the experience of Auto Modellista to the Japanese concepts of food preparation and presentation.
The nation of Japan was known for their elaborate tea ceremonies however they were also known for creating sophisticated but inexpensive box lunches. The bento box put different but complimentary food choices into small compartments. By doing so none of the flavors would cross contaminate the others. This also allowed crisp food and moist food from spoiling each other. The bento boxes and ekiben or bento boxes for train commuters evolved to include a number of unique food combinations that would stay fresh for travelers. Some of the boxes, especially the ceramic kind were designed to be saved, collected and reused. Even the plastic boxes were designed with some forethought. They were sometimes decorated with sumi, or ink wash style paintings. Those that slowed down from their busy schedule to enjoy each meal appreciated the flavor combinations and even the preparation that went behind the meal. Every facet of Auto Modellista was compartmentalized and meant to be savored individually. The unlocking of cars and tracks. The customization of the tires, engine, suspension and body. The ability to paint and cover the car with sponsor stickers. The ability to remix race videos. All of these things were well done individual components. The whole could then be appreciated especially when compared to the other racing games on the market.
Garage Life Mode was used to hold the attention of players and help them acknowledge the differences in the title. Gamers could choose from three types of garage, the racing, contemporary and tudor styles. Each garage could then be decorated with items collected by winning races. Trophies and plaques were the obvious choices to hang on walls but beyond that players could set up their space any way they wanted to. They could put down and organize cabinets, tool boxes and machine parts. Players could unlock vintage tin signs, old cans of oil and antique radios to put on shelves. Posters from real world locations and billboards could be hung along the walls. Even the Servbots from Mega Man Legends could be displayed as trophies. Layer after layer could be built up in each garage. The items placed and displayed would tell something about the racing fan as much as the car featured in the room. It was very much like assembling a bento box suited to the tastes of the gamer. The minutiae provided by Auto Modellista were often overlooked in other racing games. Players rarely, if ever, had the time to spend simply appreciating the cars they had unlocked. Assembling a virtual collection of car memorabilia was unheard of, as was making music videos out of saved races.
The majority of the cars in the game were fairly well known to car circles; the Corvette, Mustang, Cobra, RX-7, 350Z and even Skyline had great racing reputations. Some of the other choices for the game had never been featured in a racing game. The Jiotto Caspita by Dome Co. was a very rare Japanese exotic car that could actually give the other supercars in the game a genuine challenge yet was virtually unknown to most gamers. The other, the Orochi by Mitsuoka was described by the hosts of the British show Top Gear as the ugliest car ever made. I think the Top Gear commentators were a bit full of themselves when they came to that conclusion. The lines and styling on the Orochi were very bold, as bold as those from the Italian Ferrari or Maserati designers. To me the car looked aggressive and even threatening. If it were not the perfect Interceptor from the game Spy Hunter brought to life then I wouldn't know what other car would fit the bill. Placing these two rare cars into the game was like adding a complex taste, if my bento box metaphor were appropriate. They might not be appreciated or even acknowledged by gamers but they were unique choices that helped make the game stand out.
Auto Modellista offered tremendous originality, glimpses at courses and experiences that were uniquely Japanese. Like most gamers I was put off by the controls and lack of realistic physics applied to the cars. Once I beat the game I went back through it to see what details I had overlooked. It was at that point that I discovered how much work Capcom had put into the title. Little by little I began unlocking items for my garage. I began spending more and more time setting up my dream layout. Deciding the exact placement of my stereo, toolbox and air compressor. Making sure my trophies were displayed not too discreetly. The various batteries and oil cans sorted into their own shelves. Classic tin signs framing the old racing gloves and helmets on my wall of fame. The garage suddenly had a lived-in feel. Whenever I parked a car in the garage it seemed to fit just right.
Then I went back to the roads and began driving the courses again. I noticed the high speed train running over the bridge in Osaka, as well as the low flying jet in Tokyo. The LOVE sign in Shinjuku. At night the streets belonged to the racers. There were no fans obscuring the sidelines, especially not in the rain. The lens blur effect from the headlamps, small rooster tails shot up by wheels and speed lines applied by the graphics engine made the experience feel more intimate. It was about the cars and the road, not the spectacle of professional racing. It was the experience of driving reduced to the most important components. A player that was in tune with their car knew how hard they could push it on turns, where the best lines were on the road and how to move through the gears. They could appreciate the experience of driving, absorb the details from the environment and the challenge of overtaking opponents in the middle of a race. Players were expected to live in these moments and internalize them, to make the races as individual as Garage Life mode.
None of the courses were more inspiring than Akagi Hill. Going from sea level to almost 5000 feet in elevation in just over 12 miles Mt. Akagi had been the site of numerous road races, bicycle races and trail marathons. It had been featured before on games like Initial D and other racing games based in Japan. It never looked as memorable as it did in Auto Modellista. The eternal autumn that painted the mountain orange. The strong shadows cast on the road by overhanging trees. The bright leaves on the ground that could be kicked up by the cars. The setting sun that blinded some of the turns. This course was like a snapshot, a moment frozen in time. These were the best sports cars of a generation on one of Japan's most memorable roads. The beauty of car and course would be preserved forever in Auto Modellista. Only those that took a moment to appreciate the splendor of the course would understand what Capcom was trying to capture.
Auto Modellista never became the franchise that Capcom wanted it to be. Who knows where the series would have taken players if only it had done better? In the rush to complete the title as fast as possible most gamers never gave it a fair chance. The experience of Auto Modellista was more esoteric than players were used to. They tuned cars, raced them and won trophies as they had dozens of times earlier. Because of the brevity of courses and lackluster gameplay the entirety of Auto Modellista was panned. Playing as a car designer was what gamers missed. To appreciate the beautiful coexistence man and machine the player had to be willing to put more time into the game. Passing through the title was simply not good enough. To grasp the experience that Capcom was going for a player had to invest more time in the garage and more miles on the road. The only thing that would be remembered by gamers were the visuals. No racing game before or since had colored the genre so profoundly. The look of the original PS2 and Xbox release continued to inspire, even at the dawn of the PS4 and Xbox 720. The gamer that gave up on Auto Modellista without giving the entire experience a thorough chance was ultimately the racer that lost.
