#967 Initial D Arcade Stage ver 3. Hidden Car: Bunta’s Subaru Impreza WRX Type R gameplay.
0Gameplay of Bunta’s hidden Subaru Impreza car in version 3 of Sega’s Initial D Arcade Stage.
Oh god I’m so addicted to Eurobeat; send help.
Initial D is one of those series is which much better than it has any right to be. The series sees Takumi Fujiwara, a dopey tofu delivery driver, being unexpectantly thrust into the world of Japanese street racing. Takumi as a character is a bit of a Marty Stu (seriously, he wins in way too many situations), but there’s usually at least some underlying justification for how he defeats his opponents. After impressing Keisuke Takahashi, a member of the Akagi Red Suns, he soon finds himself representing his home racing team of the Akina Speed Stars, and as a result of various situations pushed into taking on more and on difficult races against different opponents.
The first series are a little dated in areas it must be said; the animation isn’t the best and, oh lord, you have THAT scene with Iketani and Mako, which had me absolutely in hysterics because it came out of the blue; a bit like “that” scene in End of Eva. The series also seems to have difficulty maintaining momentum (pun not intended) in terms of pacing, and it’s also let down somewhat by the fact that it has one of the most annoying forms of “comic relief” in existence, Takumi’s friend Itsuki. That said, what the series does have is pretty damn special. Takumi isn’t your usual shounen protagonist who wants to be hokage/the pirate king/etc; for the better part he doesn’t even really care about racing but is awakened to his passion of it over time as a result of the thrill he gains from overcoming new challenges. It makes for a pretty unique format, at least for a while.
There’s two other things which people associate with the series however; drifting and the musical genre known as Eurobeat. For some reason, it just works. I’m not even really sure why, but having Eurobeat blaring in the background while trying drift tight corners is strangely thrilling, not to mention fulfilling. How you even stumble on a zeitgeist such as this I’m not sure, but I’m damn glad they did.
Initial D has had a variety of games made for it, but the sub-series which has really stuck around is the arcade stage series; high-quality racing games produced by Sega which, although quite beginner-friendly, also have the potential to allow you enact many of the driving techniques seen in the series, most notably advanced drifting techniques. This makes for an incredibly arcade-y, not to mention just generally really enjoyable experience, and I’ve had a blast emulating some of the arcade titles.
While version 1 and 2 had a few hidden races to unlock, version 3 of the game unlocks you to unlock Bunta’s Subaru Impreza by using a simply code while highlighting the Subaru option on the car selection screen:
- Press shift up 6 times
- Press shift down 2 times
- Press the brake pedal
- Press the view change button
Do that, and Bunta’s special car will appear. You’ll need to do it every time you play, however; it doesn’t save to memory.
To be able to see how good this hidden car was, I actually configured Demul to use my 360 controller. It’s not a perfect replacement for a racing wheel, but it absolutely gets the job done.
The WRX is a pretty decent car on the whole, with a ton of horsepower and some pretty tight steering. My drifting skills are pretty basic here (namely because you can’t really drift with automatic transmission), and I accidentally picked the wrong course for the second part of the video. Up-hill races kinda suck in whatever game they’re in, to be honest. That said the power of Eurobeat spurred me on and I emerged victorious in the end, albeit barely.
This is definitely one of those videos just to show not only what something is, but also to only show that it exists. Fans of the series have probably already tried out this game (and probably seen this too, I would expect), and those who aren’t fans wouldn’t bother. Still, I had a lot of fun having an excuse to cover an Initial D game, and that’s all that matters in the end. Probably.
Next up, I recover a game I game I previously did, and boy oh boy does it look much better than before.
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