Besides being a classic anime, Initial D was also popular in the world of video games. Mostly in arcades, though a few home console releases eventually made their way to Japanese markets. One such game is Initial D: Special Stage. A densely-packed, challenging title that rises far above the average for anime tie-in releases.
Players initially take control of series' protagonist Takumi Fujiwara. A young man who is unwillingly dragged into a world of illegal street racing after his friends discover his uncanny talent for drifting. A skill that Takumi honed for years by making delivery runs for his dad's tofu shop, which he wanted to get over with as fast as humanly possible.
Special Stage follows the plot of the anime for the most part, but presents it in a very unique way. Cutscenes alternate between using manga panels with narration and using these gorgeous, full-color illustrations for dialogue exchanges. It can look a bit silly to have mouth flaps animated over an otherwise static image, but the artstyle is both very distinct and appealing. Plus its more creative (and faster to load) than just repurposing clips from the anime.
The controls are also simple to learn. One button to accelerate, one to brake, and of course you use the analog stick to steer. You switch camera modes with the trigger button and can pick whether you want to shift gears manually or automatically. What makes the game devious is not the controls, but the layout of its maps. Every track is a spaghetti-road from hell. Perilous mountain passes littered with hairpin turns and other unpredictable curves.
It took me hours of practice before I could confidently take corners in this game without under- or overshooting. You have to find the right balance between speed, letting go of the gas, whether to brake or not. All while under pressure because rival racers will be chewing your bumper all throughout it. If you brake too much or bump into anything or hit a ditch, the amount of speed you can lose is devastating. A single bad turn could doom the entire race, even if you had a confident lead before it.
The campaign mode then frequently amplifies this challenge. It doesn't just have you race Takumi's rivals from the series in order, it keeps in all the little gimmicks as well. Sometimes that means doing fun side-activities, like having to make a friend nauseous by driving as recklessly as possible. At other times, that means having to race an opponent in a superior car while also dealing with some special rules. The most nightmarish of which was the race where Takumi's hand is duct-taped to the steering severely restricting how sharply you can turn, which completely changes the way you should take corners just as you started to learn the normal way. That race alone took me 2 days to beat.
Those not up for gimmicky challenges could instead try the arcade mode. Here you can pick from a wealth of cars that appeared across the series, lightly customize them, and then take on the cast of characters in whatever order you want. No special rules or one-off challenges. Just a straightforward race to the finish. It's still hard. It's still Initial D: Special Stage with its evil track design. You just don't have to worry about weird restrictions while you're trying to deal with it.
Completing the campaign mode is still well worth it, however. You eventually unlock races not seen in the anime as well as a bunch of neat extras. Including little informational videos voiced by Iketani about the various cars in the series.
Initial D: Special Stage is mostly a game for people that are already fans of the franchise. Especially in the West where the absence of a localization means that you'd dependent on already knowing who these characters are and what's happening. Even without that knowledge though, Initial D: Special Stage has appealing qualities that could make it interesting for a general audience. Plenty of content, devious tracks, a large selection of cool cars, high overall difficulty, and a selection of fun gimmick missions to break up the routine. It's a well-rounded experience well worth the effort to seek out.
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