A spin off of the cult series Shutokou Battle/Tokyo Highway Battle or whatever name it had at the time, the PS2 exclusive Kaido Battle series shares many elements of the Shutokou games but with a focus on drifting and mountain road events.
Each game has a main single player mode called conquest, much like Shutokou Battle which sees the player racing various rivals, each with their unique biographies, personalities and some with requirements. This time, day and night events are available across multiple locations but they are restricted to individual events and not the more open road style of Shutokou. Locations are based on real places in Japan and vary nicely with differing weather that impacts visibility and handling.
Events include standard races Shutokou Style with energy bars, time attacks, drift battles and gymkhana. Locations are varied and increase with each game. Kaido Battle 3 adds off-road rally circuits too. There are also various challenges outside of the main campaigns and an enjoyable multiplayer diversion.
Cars are all licenced and superbly modelled with tons of modifications available for each. The usual engine tuning upgrades are here but body modifications differ from Shutokou, rather than a selection of body parts, you can one off modify each car with a preset aero kit. Lots of other visual upgrades are still available to personalise your car such as carbon fibre parts, rally mud-flaps and paint types.
The variety of cars across the three games is fantastic. Eastern and Western models fill the line-ups and vary from mad little K-Car pickups to monster special models of real drifters from Japan.
Visually the series is fantastic and improves with each game. You can really see Genki getting to grips with the PlayStation 2 with each release. All run at 60fps with good lighting, textures and lots of incidental details. Weather effects and wet surfaces look and feel particularly great and the volumetric fog is outstanding, very much like a certain horror game.
Audio is also decent with the best engine sounds of all Genki racing games. A neat feature is the option to have the windows down so you can hear the exhaust note from the first person view. A neat touch that is one we haven’t seen since, unless we have missed it!
A unique feature to Kaido Battle 2 is ability to create your own music. It has a mini sequencer, a basic e-Jay style creation tool that allows you to arrange pre-set samples to your liking.
Each game handles well and certainly gets better with each release. Cars are responsive and improve with each modification, you can really feel the suspension changes in effect for example. The roads are tight so it’s difficult to master but rewarding when you do. AI is as good as the Shutokou games, so not spectacular but it does the job to create enough of a challenge to avoid boredom.
All three titles offer a large single player experience, with hours and hours of racing in front of the player. Certainly they are grind heavy and can get repetitive, and aren’t really top tier racers, but offer a unique and enjoyable experience for car enthusiasts.
In summary, the series isn’t particularly stellar and certainly a rung down from the like of Gran Turismo, but it does offer the player an enjoyable experience. We will cover each game in detail in a future post for those interested but for those looking to pick one up now, we recommend the third game.
How can I play?
All three games are available in Japan, two in PAL regions and two in NTSC U/C. They are all named differently to confuse matters. If you want to play all three games in English, you will need to be able to play both PAL and NTSC games. Failing that, they are playable in Japanese though you miss out on the little details and menu navigation can be tricky. Use of a guide is recommended for the Japanese versions. However the Japanese versions can be picked up cheaply, the PAL versions as seem to be the most expensive.
The names of each game vary across regions so we have listed them below.
NTSC-J / NTSC U-C
Kaido Battle. / Tokyo Xtreme Racer Drift.
NTSC-J / PAL
Kaido Battle 2: Chain Reaction. / Kaido Racer.
NTSC-J / NTSC U-C / PAL
Kaido Battle 3: Touge No Densetsu. / Tokyo Xtreme Racer Drift 2. / Kaido Racer 2.
Happy drifting!
Digital Drift/Racer 