Zokusha King

Zokusha King is a series of PS2 games released in Japan. It had 4 different releases and 2 of them were translated and released in Europe as Maxxed Out Racing. They were published by D3Publisher for their SIMPLE series of cheap video games. Each game released in the series was 2,000 yen (~$14 USD), which made it a popular bargain game. The developers were supervised by Champ Road to make the game more accurate. In the 2000s issues of Champ Road ads for this game were prevalent.

While this is a fun concept of a game, the actual gameplay can be difficult at times. The steering sensitivity is high and the rivals have a lot of rubber-banding allowing them to catch up quick or slow down if needed. For a bargain game, it is still pretty enjoyable to play. Later games ran the issue of being a bit grindy with how much each upgrade costs.

 最速!族車キング 〜仏恥義理伝説〜 / Maxxed Out Racing

“Fastest! Zokusha King ~Legend of the Disgraceful and Honorable~” was released in 2002 as Vol. 3 in the SIMPLE series. The first game in the series, so it is a bit more basic than the other ones. The cars in this game come pre-modified. This game was also released for the European market as Maxxed Out Racing.

狂走！単車キング 喝斗美!罵離罵離伝説

“Mad Run! Motorcycle King Katsumi! The Legend of Bali Bali” was released in 2003 as Vol. 13 in the SIMPLE series. This game focused on kyusha-kai bikes.

超最速!族車キングBU 〜仏恥義理伝説2〜

“Super Fastest! Zokusha King BU ~Legend of the Disgraceful and Honorable 2~” was released in 2003 part of the SIMPLE DX series. Because of the positive reception of the first game, they decided to update it and add some more features. Unfortunately, they raised the price of this one to 4,800 yen (~$32 USD) making it over double the price of the original. The “BU” in the title is short for “Bore Up”, which is the term used in Japan to describe boring out the cylinders larger. The game required grinding more to buy cars and parts for them, but a lot more customization than the first game. The cars are more detailed and have a nice glossy finish on top. This game also included a game mode where the objective was to rev the car as loud as possible to try and wake up an apartment complex.

超最速!族車キングBUのBU 〜仏恥義理伝説2改〜

“Super Fastest! Zokusha King BU no BU ~Legend of the Disgraceful and Honorable 2” was released in 2005 as Vol.25 in the SIMPLE series. This was an updated version of the more expensive game with different cars and tracks, but back at the cheaper SIMPLE price. I unfortunately didn’t get any photos from this game as the emulator wasn’t rendering part of the shadows correctly.

降臨!族車ゴッド 〜仏恥義理 愛羅武勇〜 / Maxxed Out Racing Nitro

“Descending! Zokusha God ~Buddhist Shame, Honor, and Courage~” was released in 2006 as Vol.30 in the SIMPLE series. New features were added along with more cars. This was released for the European market in 2007 under the name “Maxxed Out Racing: Nitro” if you want the English version. It was preserved aside from changing all of the text to English (even the decals for the cars) and the small amount of voiceovers.

I like this game the most out of the other games and maybe putting the second game in 2nd place running. It also helps that there is some cheats available to give you unlimited money so you don’t need to grind for it. Download here for the Japanese game PCSX2 cheat file.

Katamari Damacy

Katamari Damacy (2004) features an unplayable kaido racer, but as an object you pick up. In the game, you play as the Prince, a 5 cm tall man, whose main objective is to roll up all of the items of the world to create stars for the King. Initial gameplay starts off with picking up tiny things like paper clips, but by the end of the game, you are picking up entire buildings and continents.

The car featured is 4 door Chibaragi styled car, complete with deppa and takiyari. Not only does the game include this car, but also kyusha-kai with “delinquents” riding them. Once you pick them up with the katamari, they make revving noises with their mouth.

Need for Speed

Need for Speed: The Run

This version of Need for Speed released in 2011 was one of the earliest to start including cars that could be considered kaido racers. The Nissan Fairlady Z that was included in the game had a special skin that was inspired by Yuta Akashi’s “Heartbreaker” 240z. The hakosuka Skyline also had a variant that made it look race-ready.

Need for Speed (2015)

Another one of the earliest games in the Need for Speed series to feature cars where you could modify them to look somewhat like a kaido racer was the game released in 2015. This game featured a 1971 Nissan Fairlady 240ZG (S30) and a 1971 Nissan Skyline 2000 GT-R (KPGC10) that you could customize heavily. Unfortunately, kaido racer-specific parts were very limited. The Skyline was mainly replicating the race cars at the time, which falls in line with some of the early kaido racer aesthetics. The Fairlady 240ZG included a “Liberty Walk” body kit, which added features like the works kit, airone gate hatch, and the smooth out tail light panel, replicating Liberty Walk’s 240ZG

Other Need for Speed games like Need for Speed Heat, Need for Speed Payback, and Need for Speed Unbound would go on to include both of these cars with about the same amount of parts to customize it in the same way. Unbound goes a little further and introduces a new kit to the Fairlady Z.

In Unbound, they introduce a new Fairlady “240ZG” owned by the in-game character Waru. I feel like Need for Speed missed the mark on this car. They keep referring to this car as a ZG despite missing the G-nose, which many kaido racer Z cars would have installed. I also feel like other elements clash, like the exhaust and wheel setup.

Overall, the Need for Speed games will leave you wishing for more regarding kaido racers.

Grand Theft Auto

GTA San Andreas modding community was really the start of adding in kaido racers to the GTA series. Digital car creator Gred made a few videos highlighting some of the early days of modding kaido racers in GTA in 2011.

After Grand Theft Auto 5 was released for PC and modders started figuring out the game files, these kaido racer enthusiasts started building cars for it. The stock game did add a few cars that kinda get close, like the Vulcar Warrener. This was GTA 5’s Skyline “hakosuka”. Parts like takeyari muffler and tsurikawa hanging off the back were signs that it was their attempt of adding a kaido racer in the game.

Digital car creator Sad Machines is featured in this video, along with Sam, Robin.Works, and a few others. Many of the GTA car creators moved on to Assetto Corsa or CarX Drift.

CarX Drift Racing

Don’t let the name fool you, CarX Drift Racing is probably the best modern kaido racer video game. While this is mainly due to mods, the factory game includes a few quality cars to play around with as well.

Once you start entering the custom mod world, the whole game opens up. Kino is the main global mod people use for the game. This allows changing a lot of in game settings, adding new parts and cars, and changing maps. It really elevates the game in a new way.

Here is an example of me using Kino inside of CarX. I replaced the in game Skyline “hakosuka” with a Skyline Japan from carxmoddingforms. I then downloaded a kaido racer parts pack off of Gred’s blog called Garage グレッド (Google Drive link). I then installed both of them and imported all of the parts one by one. Once they are in the game, you move them around on the XYZ plane until they are “mounted” up how you want.

After a little bit of effort, I was able to make the car above. I think I would be really happy with the final product with a little more time making my own “stickers” and other details.

CarX Street

This is the newest game in the CarX series released in 2022. There are a few cars to choose from to make a decent-looking kaido racer, like the hakosuka Skyline.

Hopefully, it will be much nicer for modifications in the future. The dev team stated recently they are on a pathway to open up modding within that game as well. For now, CarX Drift is the one to build these cars in.

Kaido Battle / Tokyo Xtreme Racer

The Shutokō Battle series of video games had a spin off of it called Kaido Battle. This game centers more on racing on the mountain roads in tuner cars. The Shutokō Battle games is focused on racing around the Shuto Expressway surrounding Tokyo. The Shutokō Battle series received multiple localizations under the name Tokyo Xtreme Racer. Kaidō Battle 2: Chain Reaction got a European release as “Kaido Racer“, despite not having any kaido racers in it. This game was only include in this list to warn you before buying a game titled Kaido Racer and being disappointed.