History YMMV / TokyoXtremeRacer

* HarsherInHindsight: Uwe and Marc Gemballa made cameos in ''3'' as Wanderers, with their bios stating how Marc was working to step out of his father's shadow and establish his own legacy. Come 2010, Uwe would go missing and later be found murdered in South Africa, causing German authorities to seize Gemballa and oust the remaining family members from its ownership. Marc was thus forced to start an entirely different company as a result, completely disaffiliated from the one his father founded.

** There is a major overlap between the series' fandom and ''Manga/WanganMidnight'''s fandom. Both focus on Japanese highway racing, presenting it through the lens of an epic narrative, and not shying away from the dark truths of such worlds.

* NarmCharm:
** Knife and Forks are a bistrot-themed team made up of a French-inspired restaurant's staff. Their name, logo, and especially ''street names'' -- "Crimson Tablecloth" is scratching the tip of the iceberg -- will incite laughter in quite a few players, and they're usually a bottom-tier team of the Tokyo expressway... but, partly ''because'' of these reasons, they have their undeniable charm. It helps that, unlike the Biriken Club listed above, they do not take themselves too seriously, which takes some of the edge off.

*** True Slide, the second member of the Thirteen Devils the player will face. For starters, getting to him requires beating four teams, which will no doubt include the aforementioned Curving Edge and SS Limited. His custom Fairlady Z32, codenamed [=Z32XK=], has the second-best possible engine and chassis upgrades and the best possible suspenion upgrade at a point in the game where no other opponents even have a roll cage in their cars. Your best bet is to block him in order to keep him behind, but if the road widens just enough, he ''will'' get through, period. As such, he's gained somewhat of a reputation to those aspiring to speedrun the game as a "run killer". Gloomy Angel and Depraved Blade, who show up right after him, are instead almost pushovers by comparison.

** There is a major overlap between the series' fandom and ''Manga/WanganMidnight'''s fandom. Both focus on Japanese highway racing, presenting it through the lens of an epic narrative, and not shying away from the dark truths of such worlds. It definitely helps that Creator/{{Genki}} worked on game adaptations of ''Manga/WanganMidnight''.
** There's a similar overlap between the series' fandom and ''Manga/InitialD'''s fandom too, thanks to the ''Drift'' sub-series focusing on mountain pass racing. Moreso, the ''Tokyo Xtreme Racer'' series contains plenty of references and [[ShoutOut Shout-Outs]] to ''Manga/InitialD'' to begin with, making overlap far more likely.
* HarsherInHindsight: Uwe and Marc Gemballa made cameos in ''3'' as Wanderers, with their bios stating how Marc was working to step out of his father's shadow and establish his own legacy. Seven years later, in 2010, Uwe Gemballa would go missing and later be found murdered in South Africa, causing German authorities to seize Gemballa and oust the family that founded it from ownership. Marc Gemballa would be forced to start an entirely different company as a result, completely disaffiliated from the one his father founded.

** In the third ''Drift'' game, after beating "Foot Break" Tatsuya Marukawa in Aso, a message from him can be found on the BBS the following morning. In it, he suggests that he should stay clear of battles until a new generation of the Honda [=NSX=] comes out. It would take ''eleven years'' until the [=NSX=] [=NC1=] finally rolled off of the assembly line. Guess it was a very long hiatus?
** UNKNOWN's car in ''C1 Grand Prix'' is a new spin on his signature [=S30Z=], having the former's front end grafted to a more contemporary Z33. It's... not great looking, to be honest. Fast forward to 2022, however, and Nissan would actually use the [=S30Z=] as a design base for the new [=RZ34=], with far better results.

* ReplacementScrappy:
** The PHANTOM NINE from ''Import Tuner Challenge'', who replaced the much beloved Thirteen Devils. Needless to say, they don't get half the love of their predecessors, with some finding their leader, Snake Eyes, downright whiny. It doesn't help that, according to many drivers the player can speak to in ''Import Tuner Challenge'', the PHANTOM NINE are the reason why ''many'' of the beloved original teams disbanded or broke up, due to their overly destructive campaign to become Japan's fastest.
** Most of the new teams from ''Import Tuner Challenge'' are seen as this. In particular, Speed Planet [[note]]who replace Galaxy Racers as the college-based team[[/note]], Red Pollution [[note]]who replace Highway Outlaw as the TokenEvilTeammate gaijin team[[/note]] and Asian Ages [[note]]who replace Lightning Dragoon as the all-Dodge Viper Chinese diaspora team, down to having the same leader[[/note]] stand out as particularly disliked, due to their nature as rehashes of previous teams with none of the history or charm they had.

** Osaka's DARTS also deserve a particular mention. Not their first four members, those being Mountain Kaneko, Fire Shinshiro, Woods Oishi, and Wind Kubota, who are fair fights at this point in the game, but the other five. Much like D3, Humanity Kawasaki, Earth Tadokoro, and Heaven Nagai need to be beaten sequentially without pausing or losing, else you'll need to restart from the beginning. ''Unlike'' D3, they can't be cheesed because they'll only spawn in the high-speed sections of the Hanshin Expressway. ''Worse'' than D3, they all drive Skyline [=GTRs=] -- An R32, an R33 and an R34, respectively, which lack D3's Supras' weaknesses. And ''then'', after you beat them, there's Kami's Ford GT and Nothingness's Corvette C4...

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: ''Import Tuner Challenge'' made some pretty noticeable changes compared to previous games. Fans were not happy. For starters, and most glaringly, a good chunk of the map was removed, mostly leaving the Kanjo Loop and the New Belt Line untouched. As a result, historic teams, bosses and Wanderers belonging to the axed areas got the axe alongside them, their replacements being generally considered as [[ReplacementScrappy far less endearing]]. The car roster was more than halved, now featuring almost exclusively Japanese Domestic Market cars compared to the variety of previous titles, something that impacted the traffic itself, now being a lot less varied. The cherry on top were the new tuning options, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking particularly the livery editor that every racing game from that generation seemed to have and struggled to work properly]]. Low budget, rises in license costs and changing IP laws definitely contributed to some of these issues, and the end result was what many consider to be the final nail in the series' coffin.

* BreatherBoss: The battles against Steel Heart, Dying Star and Grief Pluto in ''Tokyo Xtreme Racer 3'' are far easier than the ones against their fellow 13 Devils members before or after them. This is in part because their cars are clearly tuned with the more straightforward Wangan in mind; in spite of that, they challenge the player on the C1 Loop and New Belt Line, where they have no room to make use of their cars' full power due to the constant turns.

*** SS Limited can easily catch both new and returning players off-guard, as they show up on the Kanjo Inner Loop once the far easier Rolling Guy and Little Gang have been dealt with. Their cars are far more powerful and far larger, meaning that rushing ahead of them or blocking them is out of the question. It's usually around this point that the players will begin upgrading their starter car.
*** Likewise, Curving Edge can be downright frustrating to face. Even though they are the starter team of the C1 Loop Outer, their cars have more power ''and'' better handling than their Inner Loop counterparts. They might as well be the hardest team the player faces during the first phase of the game.

*** ''Drift 2'' also puts the player up against The President. They're a two-car Lancer Evo team that appear towards the late game in Nikko Irohazaka. With aggressive driving, ideal gearing set-up for the course, and a mix of tarmac and off-road sections, they might as well be harder than the area's actual bosses.

** '''''HOKKAIDO'''''. The last main course to be unlocked in ''Touge Legends'', based off of the real-life rally course, it is ''almost entirely'' untarmacked, with the few tarmac sections being short straights towards the very end of the course. Because of how dirt roads work in ''Touge Legends'', and because wall-riding causes far more speed loss, the player's choice in cars will be severely limited: FWD cars will fail to turn, whilst RWD cars will spin out at the first hard turn. AWD and 4WD vehicles become mandatory to all but a select few, but those have their own handling issues. What makes it all the absolute ''worse'' is that Hokkaido is ''mandatory'': [[spoiler:three of the hardest races of the entire game, those being the ones against Jintei, Hamazaki, and former protagonist Daiki Kōnoue all take place in Hokkaido. The post-game content is unaccessible until they are defeated]]. Hokkaido, in short, is a racing game player's ''worst nightmare'', capable of making even hardened veterans give up in a cloud of desperation and anger.

** A multi-game example: up until ''Import Tuner Challenge'', the former Devas and Devils who reappear as "mere" Wanderers (Death Driver, After Midnight Cinderella, Silver Wolf, Exhaust Eve, Z.E.R.O.) were far more challenging than most other opponents, having cars comparable to those of the Thirteen Devils and the Zodiac. Whilst After Midnight Cinderella returned to being a boss in ''ITC'', Eve joined Be Legend, and Death Driver and Silver Wolf remain Wanderers. The last three, as a result are far from the threats they used to be [[ItsEasySoItSucks because of the overall drop in difficulty in that game.]] Meanwhile, Z.E.R.O. is absolutely nowhere to be found.

* {{Fanon}}: As a result of mixed-up international releases, there are several school of thoughts in the fandom regarding the correct timeline and what games are and aren't canon. The discrepancy is particularly noticeable between Japanese and Western fandoms, with the latter believing the order they got the games in to be right one, whilst the former rely more on in-game bios and WildMassGuessing. Generally speaking, the correct order is believed to be ''[=TXR=]'' > ''Drift'' > ''[=TXR2=]'' > ''Zero'' > ''Chain Reaction'' > ''[=TXR3=]'' > ''Touge Legends'' > ''[=ITC=]'', with Street Supremacy being non-canon and other entries being considered [[AlternateUniverse Alternate Universes]].

* CheeseStrategy: Upgrades in ''Zero'' are unlocked by naturally progressing through the game and racking up miles on the car's odometer. Doing it is, naturally, time-consuming... if it wasn't for the existence of an exploit. Upon concluding a race, the player can leave the game sitting on the menu: because the game is entirely rendered in real time, the odometer continues to run on cutscenes ''and'' menus. It's entirely possible to unlock the best possible upgrades by keeping the game running all night long. Keep in mind, however, that there's a massive risk of ruining both the game's disk ''and'' the console through this exploit.

* DiskOneNuke: The Subaru Impreza 22B [=STi=] in the ''Drift'' subseries, usually unlocked as early as Haruna, and with a rather cheap price for players who can manage their money well. Its' 4WD makes it near-impervious to grip loss, and with upgrades, it can take a player through the rest of the game.

* FriendlyFandoms: There is a major overlap between the series' fandom and ''Manga/WanganMidnight'''s fandom. Both focus on Japanese highway racing, presenting it through the lens of an epic narrative, and not shying away from the dark truths of such worlds. It definitely helps that Creator/{{Genki}} worked on game adaptations of ''Manga/WanganMidnight''.

* {{Narm}}: Another Heaven has a rather nightmarish, gothic imagery going on, down to its drivers' street name. What does Tatsuya Oze, former second-in-command of Double Mind and Another Heaven's leader, go by? ''Brown Satan''. To be fair, it was his street name even back when he was in Double Mind... but still... kinda hard to find him threatening with that street name...

* NarmCharm: Knife and Forks are a bistrot-themed team made up of a French-inspired restaurant's staff. Their name, logo, and especially ''street names'' -- "Crimson Tablecloth" is scratching the tip of the iceberg -- will incite laughter in quite a few players, and they're usually a bottom-tier team of the Tokyo expressway... but, partly ''because'' of these reasons, they have their undeniable charm. It helps that, unlike the Biriken Club listed above, they do not take themselves too seriously, which takes some of the edge off.
** Really, quite a few of the teams and the street names would be completely and utterly ridiculous in other circumstances, but several factors make it so they absolutely feel at home in the zany world of Japanese street racing.
* ReplacementScrappy: The PHANTOM NINE from ''Import Tuner Challenge'', who replaced the much beloved Thirteen Devils. Needless to say, they don't get half the love of their predecessors, with some finding their leader, Snake Eyes, downright whiny. It doesn't help that, according to many drivers the player can speak to in ''Import Tuner Challenge'', the PHANTOM NINE are the reason why ''many'' of the beloved original teams disbanded or broke up, due to their overly destructive campaign to become Japan's fastest.

* UnpopularPopularCharacter: DARTS are looked down upon by other Osaka racers because of their sheer numbers and uncouth behaviour: whenever they roll up, they inevitably crowd the roads and bring any battle to a crawling halt. The fandom, meanwhile, absolutely ''adore'' them, even more than [[Characters/TokyoXtremeRacerBosses the Devas]] and [[Characters/TokyoXtremeRacer2AndZeroBosses the Zodiac]]. If other games have livery editors, there are very strong chances someone will have replicated Kami's Ford GT.

* {{Fanon}}: As a result of mixed-up international releases, there are several school of thoughts in the fandom regarding the correct timeline and what games are and aren't canon. The discrepancy is particularly noticeable between Japanese and Western fandoms, with the latter believing the order they got the games in to be right one, whilst the former rely more on in-game bios and WildMassGuessing. Generally speaking, the correct order is believed to be ''[=TXR=]'' > ''Drift'' > ''[=TXR2=]'' > ''Zero'' > ''Chain Reaction'' > ''[=TXR3=]'' > ''Touge Wars'' > ''[=ITC=]'', with Street Supremacy being non-canon and other entries being considered [[AlternateUniverse Alternate Universes]].

** Dai-Ichi Irohazaka and Dai-Ni Irohazaka in the ''Drift'' series. The two courses are mostly hairpin after hairpin, with a very tight road that makes passing far more challenging that it has any right to be. Low-to-no visibility at night only compounds those issues, forcing the player to memorize the two of them. ''Touge Wars'' added long, randomized dirt sections that favour all-wheel-drive cars, making the Irohazaka passes worse.
** '''''HOKKAIDO'''''. The last main course to be unlocked in ''Touge Wars'', based off of the real-life rally course, it is ''almost entirely'' untarmacked, with the few tarmac sections being short straights towards the very end of the course. Because of how dirt roads work in ''Touge Wars'', and because wall-riding causes far more speed loss, the player's choice in cars will be severely limited: FWD cars will fail to turn, whilst RWD cars will spin out at the first hard turn. AWD and 4WD vehicles become mandatory to all but a select few, but those have their own handling issues. What makes it all the absolute ''worse'' is that Hokkaido is ''mandatory'': [[spoiler:three of the hardest races of the entire game, those being the ones against Jintei, Hamazaki, and former protagonist Daiki Kōnoue all take place in Hokkaido. The post-game content is unaccessible until they are defeated]]. Hokkaido, in short, is a racing game player's ''worst nightmare'', capable of making even hardened veterans give up in a cloud of desperation and anger.

* CheeseStrategy: An exploit exists in ''Zero'', and ''Zero'' only, to rack up enough miles on the odometer to unlock the best possible upgrades. After a race, the player needs to stay on the post-race menu: since it's rendered in real time, the odometer will still run, even on autopilot. Keep in mind, however, that you risk both ruining the disk ''and'' overheating your console this way.
** A similar exploit exists in ''3'', albeit much harder to pull off. As miles racked up in the post-race menu don't count anymore, the only way to toggle the auto-pilot whilst in free roam is to remove the game disk prior to selecting "Free Run" after completing a race. It's the quickest way to rack up the miles to unlock the engine swap for your car, but like in ''Zero'', you risk serious damage to your hardware by doing this. It also takes a lot longer to rack up the same amount of miles, further discouraging players from doing so.

* EnsembleDarkhorse:
** Z.E.R.O, even though he was the penultimate boss of the first game in the series, became a late-game Wanderer in follow-ups. In spite of that, his popularity remains noticeable amongst the game's hardcore fans.
** A more straight-forward example is Rolling Guy. Yes, the all-[=AE86=] team. They appear in every single game of the series, spin-offs included, and are almost always the first team the player will face. As such, they are synonymous with the TXR series, to the point that they even got a ShoutOut in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV''.
** Jintei, the leader of Thirteen Devils, stands out amongst the bosses of ''Zero'' to the point of Genki making him appear in ''Drift'' as a surprise turf boss (which can be unlocked via BBS mails). This escalated in ''Drift 2'' where most of the Ogre Generals (including Jintei himself, plus two members from Zodiacs/Twelve Holy Lords) return to form the new 13 Devils.
* {{Fanon}}: As a result of mixed-up international releases and Genki's tendency of being [[UnreliableNarrator Unreliable Narrators]], there are several school of thoughts in the fandom regarding the correct timeline and what games are and aren't canon. The discrepancy is particularly noticeable between Japanese and Western fandoms, with the latter believing the order they got the games in to be right one, whilst the former rely more on in-game bios and WildMassGuessing. Generally speaking, the correct order is believed to be ''[=TXR=]'' > ''Drift'' > ''[=TXR2=]'' > ''Zero'' > ''Chain Reaction'' > ''[=TXR3=]'' > ''Touge Wars'' > ''[=ITC=]'', with Street Supremacy being non-canon and other entries being considered [[AlternateUniverse Alternate Universes]].

* {{Narm}}: Another Heaven has a rather nightmarish, gothic imagery going on, down to its drivers' street name. What does Tatsuya Oze, former second-in-command of Double Mind and now the team's leader, go by? ''Brown Satan''. To be fair, it was his street name even back when he was in Double Mind... but still... kinda hard to find him threatening with that street name...
** Likewise, the Biriken Club from Osaka. They are named and themed after [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billiken the Billiken]], a bizarre charm doll that is meant to represent "how things ought to be". Their inspiration was a fellow street racers that, reportedly, used to massage his feet for good luck before setting off on the highway, and they imitate him. Their logo are ''the Billiken's feet soles''.

* NarmCharm: Knife and Forks are a bistrot-themed team made up of a French-inspired restaurant's staff. Their name, logo, and especially ''street names'' -- "Crimson Tablecloth" is scratching the tip of the iceberg -- will incite laughter in quite a few players, and they're usually a bottom-tier team of the Tokyo expressway... but, partly ''because'' of these reasons, they have their undeniable charm. Being one of the few returning teams from previous installments in ''Import Tuner Challenge'' definitely helps in this regard.

* ReplacementScrappy: The PHANTOM NINE from ''Import Tuner Challenge'', who replaced the much beloved Thirteen Devils as the QuirkyMinibossSquad. Needless to say, they don't get half the love of their predecessors, with some finding their leader, Snake Eyes, downright whiny. It doesn't help that, according to many drivers the player can speak to in ''Import Tuner Challenge'', the PHANTOM NINE are the reason why ''many'' of the original teams disbanded or broke up, due to their overly destructive campaign to become Japan's fastest.
** Most of the new teams from ''Import Tuner Challenge'' are this. In particular, Speed Planet [[note]]who replace Galaxy Racers as the college-based team[[/note]], Red Pollution [[note]]who replace Highway Outlaw as the TokenEvilTeammate gaijin team[[/note]] and Asian Ages [[note]]who replace Lightning Dragoon as the all-Viper, Chinese diaspora team, down to having the same leader[[/note]] stand out in the bunch, as they are all rehashes of previous teams with none of the history or charm they had.
* TheScrappy: The [[Creator/{{Genki}} Genki Racing Project]]-branded Toyota [=HiAces=] from ''Tokyo Xtreme Racer 3'', which replaces the more varied traffic car roster from the previous entries. They are ludicruosly heavy, and [[HitboxDissonance have deceptively large hitboxes that stretch all the way to the very tip of their side mirrors]], which will cause you to slow to a crawl if you happen to as much as sideswipe them by mistake. [[GoddamnedBats What makes it worse is that they spawn]] ''[[GoddamnedBats en masse]]'', especially near bottle necks such as toll booths. Very much the equivalent of the Namco-branded trucks in the ''Maximum Tune'' series.

** The Wangan can be this, especially in the earlier entries. Because it's literally just a massive straight-line, the only things that matter are how fast your can go and if it can reach that speed before the battle is irreparably lost. It's also rather wide, meaning that blocking is nowhere as easy as it is on the parts of the Expressway you've raced on before. Oh, and then they added the tollbooths to the beginning and ending sections, which you can slam into at speeds well past 200 MPH.
** Dai-Ichi Irohazaka and Dai-Ni Irohazaka in the ''Drift'' series. It's hairpin after hairpin, with next to no visibility at night and a road tight enough that makes it near impossible to successfully pass the leading car and then keeping the newfound lead.
** '''''HOKKAIDO'''''. The last main course to be unlocked in ''Touge Wars'', based off of the real-life rally course, it is ''almost entirely'' untarmacked, with the few tarmac sections being short straights towards the very end of the course. FWD cars will understeer into the hills on the sides, whilst RWD cars will spin in circles, making AWD or 4WD mandatory to all but the very best... And it's not like those handle that much better. To make matters worse, you lose far, ''far'' more speed here than on other courses if you veer off towards the sides of the road, meaning that grinding against the hills is not a viable option. What makes it all the absolute ''worse'' is that Hokkaido is ''mandatory'' to progress both in the main story and for optional side quests. [[spoiler:It's also where you take on Jintei, Hamazaki, ''and'' former protagonist Daiki Kōnoue to boot in the hardest races of the entire game]]. Hokkaido, in short, is a racing game player's ''worst nightmare'', capable of making even hardened veterans give up in a cloud of desperation and anger.
* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: ''Import Tuner Challenge'' made some pretty noticeable changes compared to previous games, and fans were not happy. For starters, and most glaringly, a good chunk of the map was removed, mostly leaving the Kanjo Loop and the New Belt Line untouched. As a result, historic teams, bosses and Wanderers belonging to the axed areas got the axe alongside them, their replacements being generally considered as [[ReplacementScrappy far less endearing]]. The car roster was more than halved, now featuring almost exclusively Japanese Domestic Market cars compared to the variety of previous titles, something that impacted the traffic itself, now being a lot less varied. The cherry on top were the new tuning options, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking particularly the livery editor that every racing game from that generation seemed to have and struggled to work properly]]. Low budget, rises in license costs and changing IP laws definitely contributed to some of these issues, and the end result was what many consider to be the final nail in the series' coffin.

* TheWoobie: There are quite a few highway racers with [[DarkAndTroubledPast sad stories]] behind them, but none encompass this more than the Wind Stars, who are, pretty much, ''Woobies: The Team''. A failed rock star who had his dream shattered, a formerly-famous idol who was forced to quit due to sexual harrasment, a man who lost his brother to an incurable disease and now drives his car like a runaway train... in particular, team leader Kiyoshi Onizuka lost a friend in an highway accident, and with him their former team. What makes it worse is that things do not get better for them: by the time of ''Import Tuner Challenge'', the team's broken up, and its' two most profilic members still prowl the Tokyo expressway, incapable of moving on.

* FriendlyFandoms: There is a major overlap between the series' fandom ''Manga/WanganMidnight'''s fandom. Both focus on Japanese highway racing, presenting it through the lens of epic narrative, and not shying away from the dark truths of such worlds. It definitely helps that Creator/{{Genki}} worked on game adaptations of ''Manga/WanganMidnight''.
** There's a similar overlap between the series' fandom and ''Manga/InitialD'''s fandom too, thanks to the ''Drift'' sub-series focusing on mountain pass racing. Moreso, the ''Tokyo Xtreme Racer'' series contains plenty of references and [[ShoutOut Shout-Outs]] to ''Manga/InitialD''.
* HarsherInHindsight: Uwe and Marc Gemballa made cameos in ''3'' as Wanderers. Seven years later, in 2010, Gemballa Senior would go missing and later be found murdered in South Africa, causing German authorities to seize Gemballa and oust the family that founded it from ownership. Gemballa Junior would be forced to start an entirely different company as a result, completely disaffiliated from the one his father founded.

** In the third ''Drift'' game, after beating "Foot Break" Tatsuya Marukawa in Aso, a message from him can be found on the BBS the following morning. In it, he suggests that he should stay clear of battles until a new generation of the Honda [=NSX=] comes out. It would take ''eleven years'' until the [=NSX=] [=NC1=] finally rolled off of the assembly line.
** UNKNOWN's car in ''C1 Grand Prix'' is a new spin on his signature [=S30Z=], having the former's front end grafted to a more contemporary Z33. It's... not great looking, to be honest. Fast forward to 2022, however, and Nissan would actually use the [=S30Z=] as a design base for the new [=RZ34=], with much better results.

* MorePopularSpinoff: Arguably, the ''Drift'' sub-series as a whole gets more attention compared to the mainline games, in part because of the different subject -- mountain pass racing -- which is far more popular to an international audience thanks to ''Manga/InitialD'''s popularity. The keyword here is "''arguably''", as the opposite appears to be true in Japan, where the mainline games receive a lot more love than the others.
* {{Narm}}: Another Heaven has a rather nightmarish, gothic imagery going on, down to its' drivers street name. What does Tatsuya Oze, former second-in-command of Double Mind and now the team's leader, go by? ''[[CrossesTheLineTwice Brown Satan]]''. To be fair, it was his street name even back when he was in Double Mind... but still...

** The cutscenes in ''Tokyo Xtreme Racer 3'' try to give some context to the underlying storyline and try to paint highway battles in an epic light, but because of [[BadExportForYou the mangled translation in international releases]], what we get instead is some borderline glorious nonsense.

** A multi-game example: up until ''Import Tuner Challenge'', the former Devas and Devils who reappear as Wanderers (Death Driver, After Midnight Cinderella,Silver Wolf) were far more challenging than most of their peers, having cars comparable to those of the Thirteen Devils and the Zodiac. Whilst After Midnight Cinderella returns to being a boss in ''ITC'', the other two remain Wanderers, and are not the threat they used to be [[ItsEasySoItSucks because of the overall drop in difficulty in that game.]]

* ItsEasySoItSucks / TheyChangedItNowItSucks : ''Import Tuner Challenge'' gets some flack for a variety of reasons. For starters, it's by far the easiest game in the series, especially compared to the brutal ''Zero''. Making matters worse is that a good chunk of the map was removed, mostly leaving the Kanjo Loop and the New Belt Line untouched, and with it a lot of historic teams, bosses and Wanderers, with others instead being replaced by ones far less charming. The cherry on top was the car roster being brutally axed compared to previous entries, leading to a lot of repetition. Genki's low budget, and contemporarily a massive rise in licensing costs to cars and changing IP laws contributed to atleast some of these issues.

* UnpopularPopularCharacter: DARTS are looked down upon by other Osaka racers because of their sheer numbers: whenever they roll up, they inevitably crowd the roads and bring any battle to a crawling halt. The fandom, meanwhile, absolutely ''adore'' them, even more than [[Characters/TokyoXtremeRacerBosses the Devas]] and [[Characters/TokyoXtremeRacer2AndZeroBosses the Zodiac]]. If other games have livery editors, there are very strong chances someone will have replicated Kami's Ford GT.
** In a far smaller capacity, Highway Outlaw are downright despised by some of their fellow Tokyo racers for an untold number of reasons, be it because of their reckless driving, their unsportsmanlike tactics, their rude behaviour, or their refusal of defeat. They have a small, but noticeable following in the fandom.

** Likewise, the Biriken Club from Osaka. Their members look up to a driver who, reportedly, massages his feet for good luck before setting off on the highway, and they imitate him. Their logo are a pair of ''feet soles''.

** Most of the new teams from ''Import Tuner Challenge'' are this. In particular, Speed Planet [[note]]who replace Galaxy Racers as the college-based team[[/note]], Red Pollution [[note]]who replace Highway Outlaw as the TokenEvilTeammate gaijin team[[/note]] and Asian Ages [[note]]who replace Lightning Dragoon as the all-Viper, Chinese diaspora team, down to having the same leader[[/note]] stand out in the bunch, as they are all rehashes of previous teams with none of the history or charm.

* ScrappyWeapon: Most retro and vintage cars are this, as they have archaic mechanical designs that severely hamper their performance combined with rather high prices. Even fully upgraded, they can barely keep up with mid-game teams, and have next to no chance against proper bosses. However, there are always a couple of Wanderers, most notably Gentle Rain, who require you to drive one in order to challenge them.

** Osaka's DARTS deserve a particular mention. Not their first four members, those being Mountain Kaneko, Fire Shinshiro, Woods Oishi, and Wind Kubota, who are fair fights at this point in the game, but the other five. Much like D3, Humanity Kawasaki, Earth Tadokoro, and Heaven Nagai need to be beaten sequentially without pausing or losing, else you'll need to restart from the beginning. ''Unlike'' D3, they can't be cheesed because they'll only spawn in the high-speed sections of the Hanshin Expressway. ''Worse'' than D3, they all drive Skyline [=GTRs=] -- An R32, an R33 and an R34, respectively, which lack D3's Supras' weaknesses. And ''then'', after you beat them, there's Kami's Ford GT and Nothingness's Corvette C4...

* TheWoobie: There are quite a few highway racers with [[DarkAndTroubledPast sad stories]] behind them, but none encompass this more than the Wind Stars, who are, pretty much, ''Woobies: The Team''. A failed rock star who had his dream shattered, a formerly-famous idol who was forced to quit due to sexual harrasment, a man who lost his brother to an incurable disease and now drives his car like a runaway train... in particular, team leader Kiyoshi Onizuka lost a friend in an highway accident, and with him his former team. What makes it worse is that things do not get better for them: by the time of ''Import Tuner Challenge'', the team's broken up, and its' two most profilic members still prowl the Tokyo expressway, incapable of moving on.

* NarmCharm: Knife and Forks are a bistrot-themed team made up of a French-inspired restaurant's staff. Their name, logo, and especially ''street names'' -- "Crimson Tablecloth" is scratching the tip of the iceberg -- will incite laughter in quite a few players, and they're usually a bottom-tier team of the Tokyo expressway... but, partly ''because'' of these reasons, they have their undeniable charm. Being one of the few original teams to return in the last game definitely helped.

* ReplacementScrappy: The PHANTOM NINE from ''Import Tuner Challenge'', who replaced the much beloved Thirteen Devils as the QuirkyMinibossSquad. Needless to say, they don't get half the love of their predecessors, with some finding their leader, Snake Eyes, downright whiny. It doesn't help that, according to many drivers the player can speak to in ''Import Tuner Challenge'', the PHANTOM NINE the reason why ''many'' of the original teams disbanded or broke up, due to their overly destructive campaign to become Japan's fastest.
** Most of the new teams from ''Import Tuner Challenge'' are this. In particular, Speed Planet[[note]]who replace Galaxy Racers as the college-based team[[/note]], Red Pollution[[note]]who replace Highway Outlaw as the TokenEvilTeammate gaijin team[[/note]] and Asian Ages[[note]]who replace Lightning Dragoon as the all-Viper, Chinese diaspora team, down to having the same leader[[/note]] stand out in the bunch, as they are all rehashes of previous teams with none of the history or charm.

** Osaka's DARTS deserve a particular mention. Not the first four members, those being Mountain Kaneko, Fire Shinshiro, Woods Oishi, and Wind Kubota, who are fair fights at this point in the game, but the other five members. Much like D3, Humanity Kawasaki, Earth Tadokoro, and Heaven Nagai need to be beaten sequentially without break or losing, else you'll need to restart from the beginning. Unlike D3, they can't be cheesed because they'll only spawn in high-speed sections of the Hanshin Expressway. Worse than D3, they all drive Skyline [=GTRs=] -- An R32, an R33 and an R34, respectively. Let's not even get started on God's Estuary and his Ford GT...

** '''''HOKKAIDO'''''. The last main course to be unlocked in ''Drift 2'', based off of the real-life rally course, it is ''entirely'' made out of dirt, with very short tarmac sections. FWD cars will understeer into the hills on the sides, whilst RWD cars will spin in circles, making AWD or 4WD near-mandatory. And it's not like those handle that much better. To make matters worse, the penalty for hitting the side of the road is far more pronounced than on other courses, meaning that grinding against the hills is not an option. What makes it all the absolute ''worse'' is that Hokkaido is downright ''mandatory'' to progress, even on other courses. [[spoiler:It's also where you take on Jintei, Hamazaki, ''and'' former protagonist Daiki Kōnoue to boot]]. It is a veritable nightmare, capable of making even experienced racers give up.
* UnpopularPopularCharacter: DARTS are looked down upon by other Osaka racers because of their sheer numbers: whenever they roll up, they inevitably crowd the roads and bring any battle to a crawling halt. The fandom, meanwhile, absolutely ''adore'' them, even more than [[Characters/TokyoXtremeRacerBosses the Devas]] and [[Characters/TokyoXtremeRacer2AndZeroBosses the Zodiac]]. If other games have livery editors, there are very strong chances someone will have replicated "Kami"'s Ford GT.

* {{Fanon}}: As a result of mixed-up international releases and Genki's tendency of being [[UnreliableNarrator Unreliable Narrators]], there are several school of thoughts in the fandom regarding the correct timeline and what games are and aren't canon, even to the point of contradicting the time periods of the games (which are {{Unintentional Period Piece}}s anyway). The discrepancy is strongly noticeable between Japanese and Western fandoms, with the latter believing the order they got the games in to be right one, whilst the former rely more on in-game bios and WildMassGuessing. Generally speaking, the correct order is believed to be ''[=TXR=]'' > ''Drift'' > ''[=TXR2=]'' > ''Zero'' > ''Chain Reaction'' > ''[=TXR3=]'' > ''Touge Wars'' > ''[=ITC=]'', with Street Supremacy being non-canon and other entries being considered [[AlternateUniverse Alternate Universes]].

* {{Fanon}}: As a result of mixed-up international releases and Genki's tendency of being [[UnreliableNarrator Unreliable Narrators]], there are several school of thoughts in the fandom regarding the correct timeline and what games are and aren't canon. The discrepancy is strongy noticeable between Japanese and Western fandoms, with the latter believing the order they got the games in to be right one, whilst the former rely more on in-game bios and WildMassGuessing. Generally speaking, the correct order is believed to be ''[=TXR=]'' > ''Drift'' > ''[=TXR2=]'' > ''Zero'' > ''Chain Reaction'' > ''[=TXR3=]'' > ''Touge Wars'' > ''[=ITC=]'', with Street Supremacy being non-canon and other entries being considered [[AlternateUniverse Alternate Universes]].
* FriendlyFandoms: There is a major overlap between the series' fandom ''Manga/WanganMidnight'''s fandom. Both focus on Japanese highway racing, presenting it through the lens of epic narrative, and not shying away from the dark truths of such worlds. It definitely helps that [[Creator/Genki]] worked on game adaptations of ''Manga/WanganMidnight''.

* BreatherBoss: Jintei, in the first ''Drift'' game, is not as big of a challenge as he is in any other game he appears in. He's made even easier if you have access to the Special Cars, with a noteworthy mention going to Shutokou Leader's [=MCR R34=]. While bosses changing cars per game aren't unheard of, Jintei shifting to a new car may sound complete oddball since he uses a car that's lower in power than his [=R34=].
** The battles against Steel Heart, Dying Star and Grief Pluto in ''Tokyo Xtreme Racer 3'' are far easier than the ones against their fellow 13 Devils members before or after them. This is in part because their cars are clearly tuned with the more straightforward Wangan in mind, and yet, they challenge the player on the C1 Loop and New Belt Line, where beyond two long straights on the latter, they won't really find a point where their raw power can beat sheer handling.

** A similar exploit exists in ''3'', albeit different and much harder to pull off. As miles racked up in the post-race menu don't count anymore, the only way to toggle the auto-pilot whilst in free roam is to remove the game disk prior to selecting "Free Run" after completing a race. It's the quickest way to rack up the miles to unlock the engine swap for your car, but like in ''Zero'', you risk serious damage to your hardware by doing this. It also takes a lot longer to rack up the same amount of miles, further discouraging players from doing so.

*** SS Limited can catch players off-guard, as they show up on the Kanjo Inner Loop once the far easier Rolling Guy and Little Gang have been dealt with. The team as a whole has more powerful and far larger cars than the previous teams, meaning you most likely will have to start upgrading your car to beat them.
*** Likewise, Curving Edge can be downright frustrating for first time players. Even though they are the starter team of the Kanjo Outer Loop, their cars have more power ''and'' better handling than their Inner Loop counterparts. It's not exaggeration when one claims they might be the toughest of the first teams you face on the Outer Loop.
*** True Slide, the second member of the Thirteen Devils the player will face. For starters, getting to him requires beating four teams, which will no doubt include the aforementioned Curving Edge and SS Limited. His custom Fairlady Z32, codenamed [=Z32XK=], has the second-best possible engine and chassis upgrades and the best possible suspenion upgrade at a point in the game where no other opponents even have a roll cage in their cars. Your best bet is to block him to get some breathing space, but if the road widens just enough, he ''will'' get through, period. As such, he's gained somewhat of a reputation to those aspiring to speedrun the game as a "run killer". Gloomy Angel and Depraved Blade, who show up right after him, are instead almost pushovers by comparison.

*** The Presidents, also in ''Drift 2'', appear towards the end of the storyline in Irohazaka, which is normally a challenging, but fair mid-game course. They, on the other hand, wouldn't look out of place in Hokkaido, with their Lan Evos and aggressive driving style. They're harder than the actual Irohazaka bosses, for crying out loud!
** Up until ''Import Tuner Challenge'', the former Devas and Devils who reappear as Wanderers (those being Death Driver, After Midnight Cinderella and Silver Wolf) are far more challenging than most of their peers, having cars comparable to those of the 13 Devils and the Zodiac. Whilst After Midnight Cinderella returns to being a boss in ''ITC'', the other two remain Wanderers, and are not the threat they used to be [[ItsEasySoItSucks because of the overall drop in difficulty in that game.]]

** The Toyota Supra A70 in ''Import Tuner Challenge'' can be bought rather early on. With a relatively light body, good handling, and almost 300 HP in stock form, more than double that once tuned to its fullest potential, it can handily beat just about anyone on the Expressway. [[spoiler: Including Jintei and UNKNOWN.]]

* FriendlyFandoms: There is a major overlap between the series' fandom ''Manga/WanganMidnight'''s fandom. Both focus on Japanese highway racing, presenting it through the lens of epic narrative, and not shying away from the dark truths of such worlds. It definitely helps that Creator/Genki worked on game adaptations of ''Manga/WanganMidnight''.