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Not for everyone

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 10
Date: September 28, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game is made by the same company that produced the Tokyo Extreme Racer series. The game play is exactly like TXR, expect the controls are a little bit tighter than they were in the previous installments of the game. The graphics in the game are very well done, but they are not next gen graphics. There is only about 10 or so cars in the game but hundreds of upgrades. The level of customization is unbeleiveable. You can cusotmize every thing from the height of the car to what the steering wheel look like. The reason I rated the game 5 starts is because the game is so much fun to play. There is no story line in the game; the main focus is to race and beat all of your rivals. All of the reviews that compare this game to Need for Speed: Underground are very misleading because Import tuner is totally different than NFSU. NFSU is an arcade sim aimed at the mass market where Import tuner is aimed at a small niche of racing fans.
If you have ever played any of TXR series you will love this game, if not you might want to rent it first.

Xbox 360's Underappreciated Gem

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 12 / 14
Date: September 30, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game has recieved absolutely no hype. I walked into EB a few days before the game's release to preorder, and no one there had even heard of it. Usually when that happens, a game has been rushed through development, is released prematurely, and as a result, the game blows.

That is not the case here.

Import Tuner Challenge is effectively the next in the line of Shutokou Battle or Tokyo Xtreme Racer (henceforth referred to as TXR) games. However, it's received a change of name, and was produced by Ubisoft instead of Crave. This has led to a few minor changes to the game. First off, this looks MUCH better than any of the previous TXR games. It won't blow a game like Test Drive Unlimited out of the water, but it's certainly a step up from NFS:MW or Ridge Racer 6. The streets of Tokyo are beautifully recreated here. The cars are well-rendered, all high-poly models. The lighting effects are up there with the best of the racing games. As far as sound goes, the techno racing tunes are uninspired, but work for the game. While I believe that the music was well-chosen for the game, I could wholly understand someone disliking it very much. Really, though, the highlight here is the sound of the cars. As you spend time upgrading your car's engine and exhaust, you can hear a difference with every little change you make. You start out with a quiet machine, and after just a few upgrades, you can hear the turbo whirring and the sounds of the wastegate. This is just extraordinarily cool for the real gearheads. To some people, this may mean nothing. However, I find it quite refreshing to hear a car sound similar to how it would in real life.

For those who haven't played a TXR game before, you're probably wondering HOW DOES IT PLAY? so I'll get to that now. The formula is simple: race, make money, upgrade car, race, buy new car, race, win money, race, ad nauseum. Sounds simple, right? It's a very basic game structure, but it works quite well. The way it's set up makes it very addictive. I personally logged over 28 hours of gameplay in the first 3 days I owned the game, and missed many a class. If you play this game, you WILL find yourself trying to find every minute possible to race and upgrade your car. This is because of the tuning system, which, while not quite on par with TXR 2 on Dreamcast or TXR 0 on PS2, is better than any other Xbox 360 game, bar none. This blows Need for Speed Most Wanted out of the water.

However, it's not for everyone. If you want to simply upgrade a car with the press of a button, take it out on the street, and beat every race without any trouble, buy Need for Speed Most Wanted. It's a solid game. That said, if you truly want a game that allows you to tune every aspect of your car, this is for you.

Plusses and minuses:

+Addictive gameplay
+Long game-should take at least 50 hours to beat
+Beautiful graphics
+Incredible tuning options
+amazing sense of speed

-Some may find the formulaic gameplay to get old
-For the first hour or so, it feels different from TXR

I'm sure this game won't get the respect that it deserves, but if you're looking for an in-depth tuning and racing game for the X360, this is for you.

Excellent Game! Excellent Cars! TONS of races!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 13 / 14
Date: October 10, 2006
Author: Amazon User

To feed my Forza Motorsport 2 hunger, I decided to purchase this game. I'm a big fan of Japanese cars. All my cars are Japanese. Import Tuner focuses on...you guessed it...import cars, mainly Japanese brand cars- Toyota, Mitsubishi, Subaru, Mazda, and Nissan. People ask..so where's Honda? Licensing issues prevented Genki developers from including Honda.

This game delivers TONS of customizations. You can basically calibrate and modify your car based on parts you buy. However, buying upgrade parts for your car isn't that easy. All upgrade parts are level-based meaning you need to beat a boss or win races against a few rival teams to get a new level of parts to purchase. Parts don't come cheap so just racing one rival after another won't get you the goods you need once you face a fully-modified car. You'll have to go back and find a rival team you already beat and race him over and over until you get enough credit points to purchase the parts.

The game requires a lot of patience since you'll be pitted against every import car. There are two ways of challenging rivals. You either hit the streets and challenge OR you can go to the parking area and challenge racers there. To beat the game, you'll have to challenge both street racers and those who hangout by the parking lot.

The tracks are based on real highways in Japan. All the the highways have been faithfully recreated in this game. Now...since this is a race along freeway, you won't be using much of your drifting skills here since you won't find any hairpin turns. Most of the turns are like the Exit ramps you take on our Interstate highways here in the US. This should give you an idea on what's in store for you. Majority of the tracks here are straightways, a few exit ramps turns will test your turning skills. Don't be fooled though. You'll be faced with traffic on the highways. There will trucks and cars driving merrily along the highway while you're speeding at 200mph. The traffic will sharpen your skills on avoidance and overtaking. The game is quite tough on errors you make. You hit a car or a railing and chances are the rival driver will be right on your tail.

There are two modes of races here: SP battles and Time Attack. SP battles are like health meters. The farther the rival is ahead of you, the faster your health meter goes down. You hit a railing or a car and that penalizes your SP meter. The object of SP battle is to run your rival's SP meter dry. That means you'll have to outrace him or punish him by trapping him on a lane where a slow moving vehicle is right in front of him and then you accelerate at high speed to leave him behind. You can use traffic to your advantage by nudging the rival car on the side and pushing him towards an embankment. I know it's bad but hey...you gotta win by any means necessary. Time attack on the other hand is simply a race to the finish line. Why it's called Time attack just boggles the mind. This game was made in Japan so expect some translation hiccups here and there. Poorly translated Japanese terms abound in this game so expect to see weird rival names like Betelguese of the Night, Mundane Omnipotent, Cornering Opera, Mundane Zeus, Astellion Flower, and my favorite... Cat X Cat.

Graphics was where I was a bit disappointed. Genki didn't use the full power of the Xbox360. Somehow it didn't look quite next-gen to me. Also, there are horrible frame rate issues. The game just grinds to a stuttering frame rate when you have three or four rivals on screen. There are a few drawing issues as well. Sometimes, while driving, you'll notice that there's just a black empty space at the end of the ramp. Fear not, the game suffers from redrawing issues. But these issues shouldn't deter you from playing this game. AI is something that's a so-so. You will find rivals who drive like Ms. Daisy or sometimes against a rival who drives like Mario Andretti, Nicki Lauda, and Colin McRae. Most of the AI seem to be afraid to take the risk of making sharp turns at full speed. They seem to brake quite a few meters too far from the turn's entry point. As a result, you can easily take advantage of this and cut in front of them.

So...what's a good gaming tip here. Like any other tuner games, there are three things you need to focus on to win in this game: SPEED, WEIGHT, AND HANDLING. That means you need to upgrade your engine, your body, and your suspension. Don't dwell too much on making your car look like Fast and Furiousque. Concentrate first on winning a few races and invest on the three main aspects of the car. ANy part that will make your car 100lbs heavier should be compensated by a body upgrade that will make it lighter. I've beaten this game by using just one car.

Here's what I did: I purchased the Nissan Fairlady (fastest among the cheapest starter cars). I raced the hell out of it and upgraded it. Then I began challenging several rivals over and over again till I was winning 500K credit points per race. Once I got to about 4 million credit points, I bought my favorite and possibly the fastest tuner car in the game: Mitsubishi Evolution IX. I then sold my Fairlady and then upgraded the engine to the highest possible level I could get. Slowly I began upgrading the three main aspects of the car. By the time I got to about 80% of game completion, I was beating every car and rival I was up against. The Mitsubishi Evolution is by far the best tuner car I have ever dealt with, be it Forza Motorsport or Import Tuner. Try the Evolution and win every race.

In closing, this game is highly recommended. It has it's own technical issues but the fun factor is definitely in the game. Go for it.

import tuner challenge

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 11
Date: February 12, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The people that rated this game over a 1 must have one to sell.This game was a joke. If they had a 0 rating that's what I would give it. I bought it last month for 20.00 and I felt like I got ripped off. I did however get 35.00 trade-in at blockbuster. I would advice anyone who purchased this to do the same because the price will definately drop SOON.This game looked worst than the Tokyo drifter series on ps2. I would not recommend this game for anyone. Tom B

TXR fans

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: May 14, 2008
Author: Amazon User

this game is only a really good game if you have played the TXR racing series and like them. This game is very similar and is def just as addicting as the first ones. There are a few downfalls though. There are only like 10 cars, so you will be racing 300 cars that are the same cars throughout. Also the graphics dont appear to be 360 graphics except for your which you can modify a decent amount. One really good upgrade besides the addition of a few minor highways, is th parking area. The PA is where you will find racers parked and ready to race. Just as the last TXR games, there are many wanderers and still is a pain in the a$$ to figure out there requirements. I suggest trying to find a strategy guide if you plan on racing the Datsun that appears after all racers are beat.

If your a TXR fan and looking for a cheap and fun game then I recommend this game. Its pretty fun racing your way to the top of tokyos highways.

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