Import Tuner Challenge (Xbox 360)

CNET editors' rating: 3.0 stars Good
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Overall score: 6.4 (3.0 stars)
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Product summary

Gamespot editors' review

• Reviewed by: Jeff Gerstmann
• Reviewed on: 10/02/2006
• Released on: 09/26/2006

Don't let the bland name fool you. Import Tuner Challenge is another game in the long-running Tokyo Xtreme Racer series. The Genki-developed racing games have been kicking around for close to a decade, but they've never attracted much of a fan base here in North America--probably because they've never been all that great. So the game that came out in Japan as Shutoku Battle X is now known as Import Tuner Challenge. But one thing that hasn't changed is how slowly this game starts. If you can make it through the first few hours, you'll find a passable, if repetitive, driving game. But those first two or three hours are such a grind that you might not bother continuing, given that there are plenty of much better racing games available on the Xbox 360.

Import Tuner Challenge starts out so slowly that you might give up on it right away.

Import Tuner Challenge isn't about import cars at all. You'll be racing Japanese cars on Japanese highways. But a game called Japanese Domestic Tuner Challenge probably would have turned even fewer heads, so let's just ignore that from here on out. The whole game takes place on a few different stretches of Tokyo highway. You'll start out on the turn-filled C1 loop, eventually unlocking routes that take you through Shibuya and Shinjuku, as well as another big loop called the Shinkanjo. Your goal on these routes is to become the fastest racer around by taking down what seems like hundreds of different rivals. The most common race is an SP (spirit points) battle. When you roll up behind an opponent and flash your headlights to challenge, the race begins. Each car then gets a life meter that loses a chunk whenever the car collides with anything or slowly drains out when the other car gains a lead. Your goal is to make sure the other guy's meter drains before yours does. The game also lets you challenge racers that hole up in parking areas along the highway, and some of these races are simple point-to-point affairs. There's also the chain battle, where you have to take out a series of opponents one after the other, or a gang battle, which is just an SP battle against multiple opponents. Each win earns you credits, which are used to purchase new cars and parts.

Each win also crosses that rival off your list. When you aren't out racing around, you can check out a rival list that shows you all of the different racing teams out on the metro, what time of day they tend to be out and about, and which part of the highway you can find them on. That may sound like a hassle, but with the exception of a large, secretive team called the Wanderers, finding your rivals is pretty easy. Once you've taken out all the members of a team, you can race against the leader of that team. And once you've taken out a number of teams on a given section of road, the champion of that road will come looking for a battle. While this all sounds like a good stage for dramatic, over-the-top voice acting, the game doesn't give the racers different personalities or anything. You can get a brief line of text from racers that you encounter in the parking areas, and the boss racers usually talk about how you remind them of a mystical racer called King Speed, but that's about it. Giving more life to every racer would have probably made the races feel a bit more special. Instead, you just buy the most powerful car and parts you can afford and blow the doors off the opposition over and over again along the same stretches of road, and it gets tedious fast. A neat little touch is that your name changes as you drive to reflect your driving style. If you quit races early a lot, you might be called a chicken. Other names include Blast Samurai, Bullet Noble, Serious Worker, and so on. Considering you'll be going up against racers like Silent Cassiopeia, Rolling Guy No.1, Snake Eyes, and Skull Bullet, the names make some sort of sense in context.

Import Tuner Challenge contains licensed cars, including the Nissan Skyline, the RX-7 and RX-8 from Mazda, a handful of Toyota-made cars including two different Supras, and more. None of the cars take any damage from collisions, though since traffic is awfully light, most of your scrapes and scratches will come from hitting the wall. Because of the small amount of money you start with, you won't be able to afford a particularly fast or maneuverable car in the beginning, but that's OK, because the first teams you encounter are pushovers. This also makes most of the early races incredibly boring. Once your winnings start to stack up, you can invest in a number of different car upgrades and begin to tweak the settings of your car. That's good, because the opposing cars get faster, but the computer-controlled cars never seem to get much better at taking corners. So once you get good at aggressive cornering, the racing gets really easy.

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• 0.5 stars

  "This game was the worst racing game I have ever bought!!!!!!!"

  by longtine on March 17, 2008

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Where to buy

store	price	in stock?	rating
	$38.99	No
	$18.99	Yes
Amazon.com	$29.99	Yes
Amazon.com Marketplace	$39.99	Yes

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Where to buy Import Tuner Challenge (Xbox 360)

• store price in stock
• Deep Discount.com $38.99 Yes
• Best Buy $18.99 Yes
• Amazon.com $29.99 Yes
• Amazon.com Marketplace $39.99 Yes
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