There are remasters, there are remakes, there are reboots and spiritual sequels. Tokyo Xtreme Racer is something else; it’s a full-on resurrection. It’s the return of a unique game series — and a developer — that had been all but dead for almost 20 years. But it’s not a reinvention or an overtly nostalgic tribute, either. It’s a continuation of the games in their original form, as if the past two decades had simply never happened. It’s the best racing game of 2005, released in 2025. It’s glorious.
You might know the series by one of its many other names: Shutokou Battle, or Tokyo Highway Battle, or Import Tuner Challenge, or Street Supremacy, or Highway 2000, or Wangan Dead Heat. Genki — the developer, not the accessories manufacturer — made literally dozens of games inspired by Japan’s street-racing scene between 1994 and 2006. Then it abruptly stopped. The studio retired its Genki Racing Project development arm and, save a couple of abortive attempts to make Shutokou Battle work on mobile, went very, very quiet.
But, just as abruptly, Genki Racing Project and Tokyo Xtreme Racer are back. The game surfaced in early access on Steam in January 2025, and just updated to its 1.0 version on Thursday, Sept. 25. I’ve been playing it since the early spring, and while there have been some notable tweaks and additions, Genki’s developers had the concept nailed to the wall from the start. Of course they did — in the world of Tokyo street-racing video games, they are the OGs. This is their world.
And what a seductive world it is. In Tokyo Xtreme Racer, the action only takes place at night, on the expressways and flyovers of Tokyo, and the only races are head-to-head challenges against rivals you happen upon by cruising the streets or hanging out in parking areas. Flash your beams at a rival and you both sprout health bars, fighting-game style. Contact chips away at these, but this isn’t really a vehicular combat game; the further ahead you are, the faster your rival’s health bar is eroded.
It’s extremely simple, and the challenge can vary a lot depending where you come upon a rival and the route they select. On the outer highways that span the dark void of the bay, races can be nothing more than straight-line drags that are over in seconds. On the C1 loop that twists and tunnels around the city center, a race against a tough opponent requires threading a needle through traffic and around blind high-speed bends, using as little brake as you can get away with while avoiding wall contact that can wipe away half your health.
The key thing to understand about Tokyo Xtreme Racer, though, is that it’s as much a kind of blissed-out, nocturnal, automotive Pokémon as it is a technical racing game. Much more so, in fact. It’s about grinding out races to increase your level, unlock perks, and earn credits for new rides and car upgrades. It’s about picking your way through the perk tree to unlock legendary tuner cars like the 1998 Nissan Fairlady Z or the 1987 Toyota Sprinter Trueno, and customizing them with neon underlighting, decals, and fat rims.
It’s about hunting down the colorful members of the dozens of racing teams that prowl the streets, hoping to eventually draw out their leaders. It’s about perusing the amusing bios of racers with aliases (B.A.D. Names, in the game’s lexicon) like Woodpecker Syndrome, Melancholic Jupiter, Foreign Bookkeeper, and Silent Mongoose. It’s about hanging out at the parking areas to check out rivals’ silhouetted 2000s fashions, engage in strangely courtly, sparring dialogue with them, and pick up clues about the mysterious Wanderers and how you can unlock the requirements to race them.
It’s a vibe, in other words. Tokyo Xtreme Racer might be the vibiest racing game around right now. And the vibes are only enhanced by the game’s look, which hasn’t evolved much since 2006, either technically or aesthetically, and is all the better for it. It’s a grainy, moonlit, PS2-ass world of flickering sodium streetlamps and vaguely looming skyscrapers, soundtracked with crunchy metal guitars, hammering techno beats, and wailing Hammond organ.
Accelerating into the endless night of Tokyo Xtreme Racer has been my gaming happy place in 2025 — which is all the more surprising since I somehow never played the series before, and have no specific nostalgia for it. I do have nostalgia for visions as specific and beautifully realized as this, though, crafted by people who’ve been doing it for decades and feel it in their bones. Tokyo Extreme Racer, I never knew you, but it’s great to have you back.
Tokyo Xtreme Racer is available now on Windows PC and will be released on PlayStation 5 at a later date. The game was reviewed on PC using a copy purchased by Polygon. You can find additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.
