Yep, add another racer to the slate of arcade releases this year. Sega is now testing the latest iteration of the Initial D series, Initial D5 in arcades in Japan, reports AM-Net. Since my Japanese skills are weak I’m not sure what new features this one will carry other than better graphics so we’ll be keeping an eye on it in the meantime. At least there are a lot of exclamation points on that poster so something is exciting about it!!!
Between Initial D5, Sega Rally 3 and Hummer Extreme, which Sega racing game are you looking forward to at the moment?
Blimey that was quick, didn’t id4 come out last year?
It did indeed. I’m guessing this will be a substantial update rather than a full sequel, as the Initial D series tends to go through the update cycle typical of competitive games.
“Between Initial D5, Sega Rally 3 and Hummer Extreme, which Sega racing game are you looking forward to at the moment?”
Sega Rally 3 definitely. It’s already playable in London and Paris but unfortunately, it will unlikely come to Belgium anytime soon… So I’ll have to purchase an expensive train ticket to have a chance to approach it… 🙁
why would the Belgium arcades not get it?
I wouldn’t get too excited about Sega Rally 3 anyway. I thought it was pretty poor compared to SR2, which was itself pretty weak compared to SR1. We’re talking dimishing returns here. The graphics are very high resoultion, but pretty bland. There isn’t really any big recognisable scenery or locations and the way you now lap the course only reenforces the lack of character.
The cabinet throws you around alot, but there’s no support in the seats so you end up sliding off (like the deluxe Outrun 2 ST cabs) due to lack of side support. I just turned the motion off. Why can’t they have bucket seats and straps like the Afterburner Climax cabs?
I’m honestly far more interested in playing Sega Race TV than any of these three games. That was developed by Yu Suzuki rather than some amateurs.
where did you hear suzuki-san was invoiced with Race TV?
When will Sega make another Daytona USA game? That would be the best thing to ever happen to Sega since Daytona USA 2…
did you ever player Daytona 2!!!! reminds me of RaceTV.
Daytona USA is one of the truly great racing games in the arcades, the sequel although a reasonable effort lacked the magic that made the original feel like a gritty, dangerous, circuit based battle against your opponents and the clock. If you played the manual transmission cars in Daytona 1 you got a satisfyingly deep gutsy gear changing engine sound effect building up with the revs. And who can forget touches such as the change in engine sound to a deeper tone when you entered the tunnel in the advanced course. The expert seaside circuit is one of the most complex and intelligently designed fantasy arcade courses ever made.
Coupled to all of this were the brilliant graphics for their time, the boxy Nascars and weird and unique texture map logos emblazoned on them had a character all of their own. Overall it was not as ‘cartoony’ as the sequel but an original concept, with a strong sense of tight, edgy racing where even the AI adversaries could display some astonishing manoeuvres to hinder or help your progress. Daytona 2 was still a good game however it did not give the same feel as its predecessor and Race TV, from what I played at ATEI 2008 is a very cartoony ‘Mario Kart’-esque style racer that might find an audience with that crowd.
Daytona may well have been a once in an arcade life time event so I will continue to enjoy it when I come across the cabinet. However I do hope someday Sega might revisits the franchise for the arcade market and release Daytona USA 3 and display the same cutting edge gritty approach that catapulted Daytona USA into the arcade legends hall of fame.
What are they basing this game off of, I realize that the author of this cannot read Japanese but to my knowledge the Initial D anime series only goes up to the 4th stage, which is what the last game was based on, I will have to look around for a 5th stage anime because if it exists I would love to watch it. This is the only anime series I have ever sat through the whole thing, its that good.
ID franchise in arcade based on course action not story line.
Nice, hopefully my local arcade gets this. Maximum Tune, which has 4 cabs. is still doing better than ID4, which has gone from 4 to 2 cabs upon change of ID3->ID4. Hopefully they get this since they haven’t gotten any new SEGA racing games besides ID since Outrun 2 didn’t do well for them.
This is now the blog I visit most for arcade news. Thanks for contributing to it editor! Keep up the good work.
‘where did you hear suzuki-san was invoiced with Race TV?’
He’s the head of AM+ R&D. I’m not sure what exact role he had in its development, but I was under the impression he was serving as the director if I’m not mistaken…
when will it be released?? They said that there are some changes from Id4 and i want to know for myself… I think the only ones available are for testing only…
YA-HA!!
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