Shutokō Battle (首都高バトル) is an arcade oriented driving game series created by Genki in 1994. The games were released in America as Tokyo Xtreme Racer and in Europe as Tokyo Highway Challenge.
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The series is based on illegal highway racing on the Shuto Expressway's Bayshore Route in Tokyo with custom tuned cars, a common occurrence at the time of the series' debut. However, since then Japanese police have begun cracking down on street racing and the hashiriya scene. Anti-street-racing legislation have also been enacted, levying heavier fines for street racing infractions.
Despite this, the underground cultural phenomenon of illegal street racing has seen its popularity steadily growing in Japan since the mid-80's with its own dedicated manga (Shutokō Battle's biggest inspiration being Wangan Midnight), anime series and video games franchises (C1 Circuit, Wangan Trial, Naniwa Wangan Battle, etc.). Perhaps the most influential popular works spawned by the phenomenon were the six Shuto Kousoku Trial films (a.k.a. Freeway Speedway: Megalopolis Express Way Trial) released from 1986-1996, which were an obvious source of inspiration for the Shutokō Battle series.
The game series' influence can be measured by the number of North American and European driving video games inspired by its iconic features, such as cosmetic tuning (Midnight Club, Need For Speed Underground, Juiced, and Supercar Street Challenge among many others), a wide selection of Japanese import cars, or the choice of Tokyo as the game setting, which has even influenced films like The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. Indeed, the trailer of the first the Fast and the Furious movie was included in western editions of Shutokō Battle Zero.
The series is known under many names when published including the extra "Drift King" when released by BPS, it was renamed overseas Tokyo Highway Battle when published by Jaleco & THQ International. Other names include Tokyo Xtreme Racer by Crave Entertainment, Tokyo Highway Challenge and Import Tuner Challenge by Ubi Soft, and even Street Supremacy when released by Konami.
The Shutokō Battle series, which was also sometimes translated as Metropolitan Highway Battle, longs for over ten years and has been released on almost every video game platforms including cellular phones and media from ROM, CD-ROM, GD-ROM, DVD-ROM, UMD to downloadable binary files.
The series was originally subtitled "Drift King", after the trademark nickname of street racing and professional racing driver Keiichi Tsuchiya who is featured in the first Shuto Kousoku Trial episodes and endorsed the game with, then team manager, Masaki Bandoh of Bandoh Racing Project.
During the 90's Genki produced a highway drift/adult content oriented Shutokō Battle sidestory series for the Sega Saturn, Wangan Dead Heat and a circuit/tune edition unique episode Kattobi Tune (PlayStation) which oriented the Shutokō Battle series through a new direction, leading to the Dreamcast version and it's worldwide recognition & distribution. "Kattobi Tune" was compiled under the supervision of Rev Speed popular Japanese tuning magazine and features seven licensed professional tuners, RE Amemiya, Spoon, Mine's, Trial, "RS Yamamoto", Garage Saurus and Jun Auto, appearing years later in Racing Battle C1 Grand Prix and also in the influential Gran Turismo series by Polyphony Digital.
Recently, the popular illegal highway racing series "Shutokō Battle" has been extended to illegal touge (Japanese for "mountain") racing with the Kaidō Battle series, the third Kaidō episode being a crossover between the two series. Touge racing grew exposure in the western culture in the 2000s with the international broadcast and video release of the popular anime series Initial D. However 1990s Japanese popular touge racing games like Taito's Side by Side (aka Battle Gear series) or Atlus' Touge series were not released abroad.
The D1 Grand Prix drifting championship inspired the new series Racing Battle released in 2005 and remembering the 1997 drift circuit based Shutokō Battle Gaiden and the continuation of the "Shutokō Battle circuit + RPG" concept introduced in Kattobi Tune[1], a genre close to the Zero4 Champ series by Media Rings.
The first episode is taglined "C1 Grand Prix" which is a double reference to the D1 GP and the Route C1, the latter being the Inner Circular Route of the Shuto Expressway and the circuit for most episodes of the Shutokō Battle series.
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