Finally. The long-awaited title from Sega finally arrives for the Sony PSP. As usual, since VpostJapan ships their japan parcels with all the processing duration crap involved, I only managed to get it via Singpost late last week. Preordered 3 copies since Jimmy (seizure) and Kaiwei was interested in this game as well, and it also comes with a free bonus UMD for the Japan R2 copies only and is only bundled with preorders in Japan.

Now onto the pictures and my hands-on impressions for this game.

Initial D: Street Stage is heavily based off Version 3 of the arcade game, and it also features some gameplay bonuses over Sega’s previously successful PS2 version of the arcade game. It has all the characters, cars and tracks (except for Akina Snow) from Version 3 of the arcade game, and in addition to wireless ad-hoc play mode for those 2-player wireless battles, the most distinctive difference this time as opposed to Special Stage for the PS2 is that it introduces a new card mode element that involves tuning your car in the game with tuning cards (no more points system this time), as well as character rivals and scenario track cards for viewing purpose and also for unlocking more BGMs, movie trailers and character files for the game. To be honest, I think this game is somehow much harder as compared to Special Stage due to the controls and also it features Bunta mode this time round. Everyone who had played the arcade game knows that Bunta mode is hell, and beating it on Easy mode is already quite an uneasy task already. I’m a self-professed lover when it comes to racing games but to be honest this was actually my first racing title for the Sony PSP that I own since I didn’t buy Ridge Racer back then cos I’m not a fan of the Namco franchise, and I don’t really consider Wipeout Pure as the racing genre so yeah, guessed I will be playing this on my Sony PSP pretty often from now onwards (actually I have been playing my PSP more often recently), and not to mention kick my friends’ ass in those wireless battles through wi-fi. (hurhur guys look out for my Evo VII GSR and RX7 FD Type-R hehe!) Oh and did I mention that this game’s loading time was like so fucking short? Was pretty surprised actually when I was playing, another bonus point for it. Thumbs up for the good port Sega, once again you didn’t fail my expectations when it comes to making solid and fun games.

Well that’s about it, my mini-review of Initial D: Street Stage. Fans of the franchise as well as racing fans should definitely buy this game, should keep you busy and hooked onto your PSPs for quite awhile. : )