Development on the first Tokyo Xtreme Racer title in two decades appears to be moving very quickly, as the name-rebooted game will enter Early Access on Steam later this month ahead of a launch in the spring.
Publisher/developer Genki released a statement detailing its plans for the new title, set to bear the name Tokyo Xtreme Racer worldwide despite some extremely chaotic naming strategies for its earlier titles depending on the territory.
Players will be able to buy into the Early Access period on Steam from January 23, as Genki pushes a pre-launch build of TXR out for fans to try out. The goal is to garner feedback on this version — from both franchise fans and those new to the series — in order to help guide the final stages before a full release.
It’s planned to be an “approximately” four-month Early Access period, with the game’s actual launch set to follow “as soon as possible” — which could therefore be as soon as the end of May — though it depends on the progress and feedback received.
As for what’s in the Early Access build, it sounds pretty wide-ranging. Genki’s statement says that the story will be playable up to about the halfway point, and it will include car tuning features and the “SP Battle” (or “Spirit Point” battle) mode. A new feature for the TXR series called Player Skill Gains will also be included.
For the January version the game will include 50 playable cars — officially licensed, like TXR3 — of which we’ve seen around 40 so far, and there’s more than 112 miles (180km) of roads in the EA build. That’s all, as you’d expect, composed of Shuto Expressway in the “sealed-off future Tokyo” setting of the game. Additionally, there’s over 200 rival characters already, each with their own individual narratives.
No price has been confirmed yet for the Early Access period, but Genki’s statement does seem to suggest it won’t be too cheap — commenting that it “may decide to increase the price for full release”, appropriate to the additional content and storylines of the full title. However EA players will be entitled to the full release, as you’d expect.
Of course this is all well and good for PC players, but we’re yet to hear anything concrete about other platforms. TXR made its original debut on Dreamcast before moving to PlayStation 2, so it’s pretty likely we’ll see this game hit consoles at some point but thus far Genki has only mentioned PC “first” and “mobile and VR” (oddly) as future targets.
We’ll wait for more information on that front, but whatever the future holds for the title January 23 will be a first chance to play a new Tokyo Xtreme Racer game in almost 20 years.
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