I Explored 10 Japanese Racing Games Nobody Has Played In Years

The Playstation 1 was the home of many experimental Japanese games. Some of those include racing games, most of which have been forgotten to time. Let's check them out!
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► Edited by: JamesVariety - / jam35var1ety

[@beegtea]

blud called the drift king yakuza man

[@sp0nge1337]

RTGame?

[@christianlenik5307]

Keichi Tsuchiya is Not a Yakuza Man...​@@sp0nge1337

[@ArbitraryOutcome]

Yakuza fans when they see a Japanese person:

[@dopey473]

​@@ArbitraryOutcome this is so true

[@Yaro2]

​@ArbitraryOutcome this is the truest words ever

[@andrewwang8204]

4:28 that billboard is a billboard that advocates safe driving. It says 'stop traffic accidents' but on the 'p' of stop they put it right behind a butt so it is an onomatopoeia of a fart. That sir right there, you guys just witnessed a Japanese fart joke 💀

[@standard-carrier-wo-chan]

It's so heartwarming to know that no matter which part of the world they come from, humanity has a whole shares the same shitty humour

[@thiagopratezi2130]

So relieved that fart humor is a worldwide thing. We are not alone!

[@TyCal_]

One Japanese “racing game” that I would recommend is Racing Lagoon on the PS1. I say racing game in air quotations because it’s actually a full fledged JRPG made by Square Soft that revolves around 90’s street racing in Japan

[@kagakuryu639]

Also there is an English fan-translation, unique game ngl 👍

[@TerkoizRHG]

And the good thing about that game too is the game already got a English Patch thanks to Hilltop

[@hijimanoble1912]

Racing Lagoon. Now that, that is a game I want to see Eden cover. Between its story, music, presentation, and absurd customisation predating more popular titles. Shout-out to Hilltop for his translation work, in our current racing game drought, Racing Lagoon is a game everyone must discover.

[@CyanRooper]

"No cap, Racing Lagoon is peak racing game cinema fr fr." - Martin Scorsese, probably

[@Rockport1911]

Thanks for the tip, back here after an hour of watching " AnyButton2Starts"´s video a bout it :)

[@JinteiModding]

It took me 2 cutscenes to realize the subtitles on the Wangan Trial FMVs werent legit. I love them

[@Flanders989]

The crustiness of the subtitles in the last game made me think they were actually legit until I saw Uber mentioned lol

[@Soonjai]

The fake translations for the FMV´s of the last game are pure comedy gold. I need a full "translation" Patch for the game with that stuff.

[@DragoCubX]

Yeah, so much shitposting potential in those, kept laughing out loud

[@CyanRooper]

The Duolingo message was the funniest part.

[@caifabe8050]

@@CyanRooper for me it was "nobody drives away from pat benatar twice"

[@king-lasagna]

The low quality effect and the story about an absolutely sane driver tricked me for more time than I'd be willing to admit.

[@Soonjai]

@@king-lasagna To be honest, it took me until "Smokers are 10 times more likely to suck at driving than non-smokers" to realize that the subtitles are a joke.

[@alexsaffamerica]

As a fellow Japanese learner, I'm proud of you learning the language, Dustin. Not everyone has the will to learn the basics of the language, and you're becoming one of the few English-speaking racing game KZbinrs who knows Japanese, even if it's just a little bit.

[@mahiru20ten]

The Densha de Go ad song is actually a banger. Also, for Side by Side there's actually a progression, but you have to win in all tracks to do so. Winning all of them will unlock 3 "Original" tracks, where if you win the races in each 3 of these new tracks you'll unlock extra cars.

[@CMDRSweeper]

The FMVs you have seen are clips and famous people from videos / DVDs in the 90s in Japan. One of the drift clips is the famous "Drift Bible" by Keiichi Tsuchiya who was nicknamed the "Drift king" or in other words, it is a lot of 90s car culture in here. As for the movies and stories, there is a movie series called Shutoko Trial and there are 6 movies from the 80s until the 90s that you can think of as early Fast and Furious with japanese car culture. Game nr 10 features a lot of of scenes and styles that these films used.

[@JamVar]

I think I need some Densha de Go! in my life...and Highway Racing Purgatory............and a game where you can fly Miatas through space. Maybe just all that in one orgasmic sensory experience sure to go down as the best video game in history.

[@dcvanta]

nice job on your editing

[@JamVar]

@@dcvanta Thank you!

[@emanh4keem_san420]

bro busted his nuts for a blue miat

[@Fay7666]

the Game Center CX episode on Densha de Go is one of my favs, it'd be cool to see u guys recreate it or something

[@MuscleCarLover]

I just want to say, I think this was your best editing yet, 12/10

[@monsterinfamous6267]

1:05:16 "A new report direct from the Ministry of Health ! Smokers are 10 times more likely to s**k at driving than non-smokers." Genius !😂🤣!

[@teddysadcat]

The guy at 47:30 is actually Masaaki Bandoh, has a decent GT300 racing team grown from his tuner shop experience and I think appeared in 4 games from the 10 shown in the stream, quite the big shot

[@beat-man5167]

the initial d ps1 came out before the anime, which eurobeat became associated with it's identity. That's why the game had 90s butt rock like many Japanese racers at the time. They say hair metal died in the 90s, but it actally lived on thru Japanese games soundtracks.

[@ArbitraryOutcome]

Reminded of the fact there were Wangan Midnight movies in the 90s, before the Maximum Tune games, and before the 2008 anime + movie. And with eurobeat, it straight up appears in a Japan-only JGTC game as well, but then again there were quite a few Super Eurobeat mixes for JGTC in the late-90s to mid-2000s

[@miragebangbravern2024]

​@@ArbitraryOutcome What game though?

[@GuntanksInSpace]

@@miragebangbravern2024 think he's pertaining to Sega Touring Car Championship. It had a lot of Eurobeat as the race music alongside just catchy electronic music too.

[@miragebangbravern2024]

@@GuntanksInSpace Thanks for telling me 👍

[@MuscleCarLover]

James is showing himself out to be the best video editor around, 12/10

[@emanh4keem_san420]

i like how edna casually disrespect Drift King

[@MrLolx2u]

Side by Side was actually real fun and real easy to control. I played that shit back when I had a PS1 in around 2002. It was awesome piece of game. The video that was in the 1st Side by Side (Yes, they made more than one) was to promote Taito's arcade game about driving a train and that's the Densha de Go!, a game only available in Japan that's still seeing new units now. What was interesting that you might not have known is that the Battle Gear series spawned from Side by Side.

[@helenastenvislavskovic]

The subtitle by the editor in the last game is god tier

[@TheGershon]

Sweet to hear that you're dabbling in learning how to read Japanese. Kana alone goes SO FAR when it comes to menu navigation in games, since a whole lot of the time they're just english words in katakana. I lost motivation for a while cause I found it so easy to coast by with just that for games that don't have stories I'm interested in actually following.

[@JRC99]

Im actually invested in that last game's plot and yet I'm also entirely confused and dont understand a single word of Japanese.

[@whitehuayra]

They were scenes from a series of jdm movies called Shuto Kousoku Trial. Theres several movies, and you can find them here on yt too👍

[@xoiDROCKiox]

Bro thank you so much! It’s been like 15+ years since I played Shutoku Battle: Drift King! I couldn’t remember this game for the life of me but until I saw the intro I recognized it instantly! Much love man thank you❤❤❤

[@dusterpl6093]

Dustin doesn't know who Keiichi Tsuchiya is? unsubbed.

[@caifabe8050]

alright listen, as a genuine Pat Benatar fan i LOST MY SHIT at those captions LMAOOOOOOOO

[@rayyagamer2011]

6:05 the car straight up looks like a 2d model if you lower the resolution enough it will look like 2d

[@keisuketakahasi4584]

about game #7 (or about all of them): the game (or these games) were made for the japanese market. jdm cars have a 180 kmh limiter by law, which is actually pretty well known among car guys (and all people of japan... for which this game was designed for) . when you re driving the stock cars of course your limiter is still active and you cant drive faster

[@Ramonatho]

That last game looks absolutely awesome. Dude came back three hours later just to say "don't care, didn't ask".

[@randallmart92]

Tokyo Xtreme Racer 3 and Zero were my favorite highway racers growing up. So underrated...

[@Sujiceel]

Side By Side has A LOT of Battle Gear arcade racer dna in it. 56:08 is literally akina. Wangan Trial is a game adaptation of the Shuto Kusoku Trial movies I believe.

[@some_dude2209]

That's cause Side by Side IS Battle Gear, they somehow changed the name by the time it came to PS2

[@Sujiceel]

@@some_dude2209 ah, I wasn't fully sure bc of the downscaled graphics. neat.

[@Layzee.15]

That last game has peak story writing wth

[@shinnosuka]

thank you eden and chat. you guys made me smile when no one else can. i was just having a mental breakdown then this popped up on my recommendation and was the first video i saw just as i opened youtube. and im happy i clicked on it. had a really great time !

[@DustinEdenYT]

Hope things get better for you soon, thanks for watching :)

[@shinnosuka]

@@DustinEdenYT thanks you made me feel alive

[@porotazo4511]

You have to play racing lagoon, I'm totally serious. It is a hidden gem in the PSX game gallery, greetings and good luck

[@n1ch0l4st8]

“Your driving is unharmonious” somebody told me that my driving is exasperating

[@myrmeko]

The meme translations are mad. But the game is so cool and unique. I'd like to see a full playthrough of it

[@MiguelHernandez-oo2cx]

10:28 ts got me crying dawg

[@IanRB26]

Man I loved Side By Side back in the day. And yes I also messed about with the illogical drift angles 😂

[@DragonInfraXtremeRGT]

Wangan trial reminds me of the Megalopolis Expressway Trial movies from the 90s

[@wieldylattice3015]

50:46 two other PS1 games I recall that did that were WipEout and WipEout 2097

[@WolfPlisken]

The subtitles on the Wangan FMVs have major Kung Pow energy and I love it

[@GodSejeong]

I played the Taito one back in kindergarten. Still remember the enthusiastic GAME OVER.

[@dan_acostacap]

Side by Side seems to be a precursor of Battle Gear... I used to play a lot of Battle Gear 2 at the local arcade, the western PS2 port is called "Tokyo Road Race"

[@TWKIC]

The editing on thus one is quite humorous, absolutely loved it!

[@idealy8456]

Wow, Side by Side. It's actually one of the racing games I've ever played fairly long enough back in my childhood. Although I didn't play it as much as GT1/GT2, but it's one of the game that I think it deserves a credit, along with Toca.

[@lolcanoable]

22nd December, meanwhile May 1st

[@GuntanksInSpace]

The editing on this is fucking powerful lol, good shit Eden! IDK how much of an F1 nut are you, but maybe you could also consider Formula Racing games in the Playstation. You get the good stuff from Psygnosis, and then a few weird stuff too lol

[@justanotheryoutubechannel]

I really hope to see a video someday of you playing the Densha de Go! games, I think it’ll be hilarious.

[@LouisTheSEGANerd]

The side by side game is actually a playable demo inside densha de go (the train game advertised in side by side) so kinda goes full circle lol

[@kikkilinu]

I love the spelling mistake in the first game, where it says "break" instead of "brake"

[@fikri565]

"Side By Side" was quite the pinnacle of JDM Touge experience in local arcade in mid 90's, still recognised not only in Japan but other Asian countries. Just remember, without "Side By Side" we will never get the"Battle Gear" series today but also influence the arcade development of "Initial D" arcade series in early 2000's.

[@InsanityPrevails]

I love how realistic the subtitles looked in Wangan Trial :D At the start I actually thought they were real lol

[@chrisahn2398]

Dustin please please PLEASE more long videos of playing games!

[@colonelsandwich641]

Happy to see more love for Side by Side, it and the Battle Gear series (the followup to Side by Side) are some of the coolest drift racers I've played. If you do something like this again you should absolutely check out the Touge Max series, 2 and G are both excellent PS1 racing games

[@rattiofficial]

The 180kph speed cap probably exist in that game due to JDM cars being limited to 180 kph or at least not going past that in the speedo.

[@someonecalledeulogio2280]

Classic gaming player playing those games since 2016

[@perezadotarts]

haven't heard Taito being mentioned in a long time, used to play Battle Gear 3 and 4 on the arcade cabinets good times

[@ZX3000GT1]

Hope there would be part 2 of this because there are a LOT more JP only racing games on PS1 Racing Lagoon being one of the most high profile of all. Made by Square, is basically Final Fantasy if it's a racer, and is probably one of the most beautiful looking games on PS1 period, as well as having some of the most bonkers story ever. Recently translated too. To list the other games - Advan Racing, Hashiriya, Touge Max games, Option Tuning Battle games, Kattobi Tune, C1 Circuit, JGTC, Race Drivin a Go Go, Racingroovy, Rally de Europe/Africa, and many, many, MANY more.

[@MelodyOo]

the idea of doing this for PS2 / Dreamcast ETC is a big yes from me 👍 thank you

[@jacobrev6567]

Yay Dustin Eden is back

[@devseiya]

Gotta love the Locobanana on the AE86 on the second game lol. Two words that just mean "Crazy"

[@Luuckkaz]

you should play advan racing, is kinda like gran turismo and toca race driver had a kid lol, but is actually super fun and has quite a lot of features that i never seen in any racing game on ps1

[@dhoffnun]

People from all over the world who have never even driven a car know the Tokyo highway system by heart thanks to Genki

[@agustindanielgimenez9483]

You should try Racing Lagoon, and some rally games for the ps2, the wrc games are amazing.

[@davep5698]

"22nd of december, the same day two years ago" Uploaded 6 days ago, Checks calendar... 8th may...

[@garrettleo2009]

You should try night runners. It is a game with a 1990s personality.

[@PowerfulE]

You should also try Option Tuning Car Battle, it has 3 games

[@wateriver]

My first console was a PS2. My first game that I got with it was Tokyo Xtreme Racer Zero. I can’t tell you how many hours I poured into that game especially since for a while I didn’t have memory cards. I still have my PS2 today with memory cards and TXRZ. I know that C1 inner loop like the back of my hand. But it wasn’t until a couple of years ago I found out it was actually real. Import tuner challenge came out for the 360 but by the time I found out it had been years since I got rid of my 360. It would be cool if you could stream that game.

[@joshjosh5721]

Babe wake up, new DustinEden vid just dropped.

[@wieldylattice3015]

I covered Side by Side Special in a KZbin video I made half a year ago. It brings me so much joy to see that someone else knew what to do with FUK

[@UndercoverBoy833YT]

Nice of you trying to learn Japanese language to get into Japanese games and trying to get japanese audiences. Bravo man ❤

[@DiegoGTRatty]

the edit going on at the 12:00 mark, magical ✨

[@GTPatty0306]

Its a beautiful day when Edna uploads

[@tescoshortage]

Shutoko Battle: Drift King has the best soundtrack out of all the Tokyo Xtreme Racer-like games and I’ll die on this hill.

[@sharpfalcon6196]

Just don't play the international release. It's horrid.

[@CorporalHudson]

Speaking of Japanese Racing game you should DEFINITELY try Racing Lagoon by Square Enix (before they were Enix, but just Square lol). It got translated after 20 years and its one of a kind game. Basically RACING RPG! Its on PS1 btw. Just give it ago, it wont let you go lol

[@rayyagamer2011]

47:45 bro its literally TXR but in japan its called Shutoku battle and in europe i think it has another name or something

[@Diegopie007]

txr is tokyo highway challenge in europe and txrd is kaido racer

[@SaintzGB]

If you haven't already I'd recommend Import Tuner Challenge for the Xbox 360, kinda obscure but a fun time

[@LotsOfToubleUsuallySerious]

The first game actually made me think this would be all just low quality shovelware, but i might actually play some of these, even though i don't know a thing about japanese

[@SNOWDUDE13]

Genki really needs to come back and make TXR games again. ❤

[@aaroncrowe7762]

this came on after another video at 2am while i was pretty much asleep and the volume scared the poops out of my butt

[@Luiz_997]

Bro, i remember playing this side by side game, they sold me as a Fast And Furious 2 game, than o started and this showed, but is a pretty Nice game btw

[@dietgilroy]

finally a new upload

[@volkte37]

Watched about half and i own all of these games so far! Drift King Shutokou Battle, you probably know now bit you need to buy a fuel cut defender to remove the 180kph limit. As a former Japanese MR2 Turbo owner, i loved this little detail. On Greatest 70s you can advance or retard the ignition timing which is another brilliant tuning detail I've not seen elsewhere. Many of these old games have issues but the passion in them is huge.

[@OfficialDJSoru]

Did not expect a What What in the Butt reference in 2024 but here we are

[@initiald975]

10:00 - from shutoku kousoku movie series about street racers in japan, one of the best movies I’ve ever watched. But I could be wrong….

[@monsterinfamous6267]

1:02:20 The subtitles are freaking awesome !!😂🤣!!

[@yuuji_]

33:38 that's how RC cars were operated before the grip handle took over (and that is the reason why my dad was dogshit at gt1/2, controls were inversed to what he learned with rc cars)

[@michelvanbriemen3459]

32:09 that total time is going really, really fast. Was the emulator overclocking the CPU again?

[@BlueShift2000]

Hey, DE. Ever thought of giving ToCa 3 a try (or DTM 3 here in Austria and Germany)? Actually a pretty good PS2 game with a story.

[@HirotoXx24]

Racing lagoon is a pure racing streets with JRPG style, Made by Squaresoft That resolves 90'S Japanese street racing

[@sp0nge1337]

We need to see Dustin try another Japanese racing game called Densha de D.

[@BlueFlagAlpha]

Side By Side is definitely the best one out of the 10 here. Its sad that you are not interested with arcade stuff like this

[@RizqiLq]

Yay Edna is back :3

[@darkblader06]

Shitoku Battler is the Tokyo Xtreme series.

[@MelodyOo]

54:19 think you were a bit harsh here.. honestly this is very detailed in compare to other PS1 games in the west like Test Drive 5 / 6

[@kazefw3834]

Bro did not just call keiichi tsuchiya Yakuza 😂

[@rapidough1925]

THAT SMOSH VIDEO OMGGGG

[@brawler5760]

33:31: Omfg, these are Halo vehicle controls… in a racing game

[@fayahmad7273]

Try Bakusou Dekotora Densetsu/Art Truck Battle series (1 and 2). Its a good truck racing games

[@RiC3R69]

Next time, play this too Option: Tuning Car Battle Spec R

[@Sujiceel]

Hey at least Genki always updates their car models.

[@dcvanta]

Now you gotta play Densha de Go! sometime (the train game)

[@BlueFlagAlpha]

With the train controller

[@bs_blackscout]

Did you mod your Audio Technica? Why is it purple? :D

[@someonecalledeulogio2280]

11:31 f zero's big blue + ussr anthem