Alternative Character Interpretation: Is R200 Club really doing their own legitimate tuning business, or just try to make their deceiving tricks to achieve their goals?
Also, what's the point of Drive GO GO? Is Kijima just go to make profits?
Jun Kitami as well. No one think who really is he. A psycho tuner who did some insane machines? A well-experienced tuner who fine-tunes everything to a finesse?
Awesome Music: The various S30Z themes, but especially "Run of S30Z".
Hilarious in Hindsight: In the "Legendary FC" arc, Hayashi offers to give Kijima back his prized FC for free if Kijima can prove on objective grounds that an FC (RX-7 GT-X) is better than an FD (the newer RX-7 Type R). In Maximum Tune 4 and later, the FD ends up becoming a top-tier car, with the FC close behind. Good luck trying to prove that the FC is even more OP than the FD!
While counting as Harsher in Hindsight, the scene where Ko-chan imagines Akio getting killed in a car crash falls into this, specially in the animated adaptation while "Like Hell" blasts in the background.
The Devil Z itself, since the previous drivers were killed in fatal accidents that are involved with said car. Even Eriko lampshades this by mentioning that this particular S30Z is "possessed by a Devil".
Tear Dryer: Hiramoto realizing that almost abandoned his wife and newborn child for street racing, and at the last minute coming back to them.
The death of previous Devil Z driver, as well as the backstory of Keiichiro, which mentions the passing of his father, Kouichi.
Eriko attempting to dispose of the Devil Z once and for all by using her spare key to drive it off the harbor, even if it will cost her her life in the process. Tatsuya has to physically block it with his car to get her to stop.
Less extreme examples go to Jun Kitami and Yoshiaki Ishida's respective different backstories.
What does that blue, about-to-be-junked Devil Z remind Akio of when he was looking for something in junkyard? He had seen it once when he was younger in high school, with its driver carrying a school girl on the the same car.
The C1 Runner sequel, which largely omitted most of the old WM characters and introduced completely new characters for the whole new story. ShinjiOgishima, the new main protagonist, along with the old veteran Tatsuya Shima, were brought back along with few other characters who're related to RGO or R200 Club.
The anime also had this as well; Story arcs related to Masaki were skipped and completely removed from anime although it is still prominent in video games.
Averted with Ginkai's Speed Star, which has a completely fresh new plot that discards the previous Wangan Midnight canon stories.
The Wangan Midnight games contain examples of:
Abridged Arena Array: Expect C1, Hakone and Osaka to be make up a majority of the VS battles. In the opposite direction, almost no one chooses Yokohama, Wangan or Yokohane, especially the latter.
From 4 to 5DX+, Story Mode stage 34 has "CCR" Motoki screaming "I'm coming!" in large-point font and with a very pained expression.
When you unlock the 10 Outrun Mode soundtrack, the album jacket for it shows an...alternate translation for the soundtrack's title: "Sound of Ten persons Pulling out Mode."
The opening eyecatch for Story Mode stage 27 has the line "15 years of passion from seven men is wrapped up in that silver body."note Said "body" referring to Kei's Supra.
Adaptation Displacement: Most Maximum Tune players know almost nothing about the anime or manga. Some even believe that the anime and manga are based off of the games and not the other way around.
Alt-itis: Before Maximum Tune 4 it's quite common for a player to have more than one card, as you can only have one car per card. This became a thing of the past when Maximum Tune 4 eschewed the previous games' magnetic cards in favor of Bandai Namco ID system; since player data is stored on the server rather than on the card, there is no issue of cards having limited data, and thus the player can have up to 100 cars in their profile. Maximum Tune 6 takes this up to eleven by having up to 200 cars per profile.
In Maximum Tune 1 and 2, Stage 20 is set up as a showdown between you, the Blackbird, and the Devil Z. However, the stage ends after a five-kilometer stretch of the Wangan Line, where the AI is so pathetically slow that, as long as you play it safe and haven't committed any serious mistakes, you've pretty much won once you merge onto Wangan.
In MT 3 and 3 DX's story modes, opponent cars are very slow on stages set on Hakone, to the point where on a Hakone stage beyond 41, you can turn your horsepower as low as possible and still win by over 100 meters. This is perhaps why Maximum Tune 4 through 5DX+ has Story Mode take place strictly on highways, though Maximum Tune 6 has at least one chapter set on Mt. Taikan.
In MT 4 onwards:
Stage 51, the Wannabe Racers stage, during the Legendary FC arc. Both opponents start off with a huge lead, but they move so pathetically slow that you can easily win by over 400 meters. The stage also has the least dialogue of any stage in the game, ensuring a distraction-free Curb-Stomp Battle. Well, on the first loop, anyway; it's a different matter in subsequent loops. This stage is removed in MT 6.
Stage 52 has you driving with Kijima, Reina, and his TV crew, with both vehicles suddenly take a very significant drop in speed about a kilometer from the goal, likely to coincide with Kijima wrapping up an episode of Drive GO GO. It's not uncommon to win by more than 150 meters. This becomes the new Stage 51 in MT 6.
3DX's randomized ramp selection system that replaced the manual ramp selection system had players argue as well. Some players are okay without it when other players consider this a Scrappy Mechanic because they aren't able to pick their desired starting ramps.
Dead Heat. Wasteful use of the Maximum Tune engine? Or a necessity given that the average customer probably won't play a game 60 times just to have a fully-upgraded car — a view that even some serious MT fans admit is right?
Most overseas players were complaining about the lack of currency systems, Sub-center Area and most of the new cars which were originally released in Japanese versions, while others are impressed with Regional Bonus cars as a compensation. Also, customization options were disabled for the new cars, much to many dismay. (They were later added back in 5DX, thus now averting this trope with Author's Saving Throw.)
Japanese players aren't impressed with overseas version's Regional Bonus vehicles either; they were given a bland Mercedes SLK350 while most Japanese players are expecting an AMG model. The SLS AMG wasn't included in Japanese versions prior to being added to 5DX, but as a Regional Bonus in overseas versions, much to Japanese players' discontent. Even serious, Audi and Dodge, added in updates of overseas version, couldn't see any in Japanese version until 5DX.
Some feel that Namco is doing its American playerbase a disservice by releasing 5 in North America in 2017, even though at the time of release that put NA one version (now two) behind most of the Asia Pacific and two behind Japan, and put them on separate servers from the rest of the world. Not helping this is the perceived quality of the NA cabinets (in particular, the larger screen, raised screen height, cheap sound system, and cheap steering wheel). Others are just glad Namco is bringing over networked Maximum Tune games to the West while keeping in touch with its American playerbase. Fans are even divided on the title of the game, with some deriding the removal of the "Wangan Midnight" name as a pointless part of the localization that confuses players and arcades and others arguing that Wangan Midnight's complete lack of brand name recognition in the USnote To compare, Initial D is known for memes involving drift-racing tofu delivery cars, Eurobeat music, and a parody manga involving trains and "MULTI-TRACK DRIFTING!!"; even if that's all many people know about regarding the series at least it's something. Ask Americans, even at anime conventions, about Wangan Midnight and the Devil Z and you'll get headscratches from people 999 times out of 1000. necessitate the simpler title.
Car tiers, in particular the FD3S being at the top. Some feel that the FD is an overpowered monster that ruins vehicular diversity, while others think that calling it "OP" is silly, point out that skill is still necessary to drive a high-tier car, and argue that you should just use whatever car you want and not worry about tiers.
In a rarity for a game with a competitive scene featuring real-world vehicles, most players use third-person view rather than first.
At full-tune, no one uses a setting below 700 horsepower on most courses. Only in 5DX did this finally change with the Kobe course, where the generally-accepted ideal horsepower is 640; the Hiroshima course in 5DX+ is also a 640HP-recommended course.
A milder example is the Lancer Evolution VIII and IX, two of the most popular cars among players, as well as the RX-7 FD and RX-8 (both of which currently dominate time attack records, ESPECIALLY the former). The Skyline GT-R R32 and AE86 Trueno are also not uncommon in VS play.
Pick a Final Boss song, any such song. Most players will play those same songs repeatedly, to the point where the awesomeness becomes lost.
Practically nobody at a decent level uses the brake for slowing down; whenever someone needs to slow down, they'll simply let off the gas and/or tap the outer wall on purpose.
During the Maximum Tune 3 era, players who just wanted to grind Dress-Up parts would pick level 10 default ghosts on either Wangan Line or Hakone, due to default ghosts always using 740 HP, making beating them on Wangan with a full-power setting a joke, and being incredibly slow on Hakone (same reason Hakone stages in MT3 Story Mode are practically free wins). Beating a Level 10 ghost earns 50% more Dress-Up points than beating a Level 9 ghost, and just as much as a successful Revenge re-match on a Level 9 or 10 Ghost (sadly, the Level 10 and Revenge boosts don't stack).
While challenging default ghosts is still a habit in Maximum Tune 4 and beyond, this is now done in the Japan Challenge sub-mode, where players will seek out level 10 ghosts that have all the trappings of a default ghost (740 HP/B, no team, rank B1, etc.; note that sometimes, ghosts with these qualities will be actual player-made ghosts) so they can easily complete Japan Challenge sooner for its unlocks while getting Dress-Up points (or Shop Grade points and Maxi G in 5DX and 5DX+) at the same time.
All this is removed come MT6 where challenging any one ghost of a higher level among the three will still grant the player 100 Ghost Battle Points per ghost.
Contested Sequel: The release of Maximum Tune 6 in Japan has been a rather divisive one. While there has been praise for the new soundtrack, the 1v3 Ghost Battles and return of the story arcs from MT3DX+, others have been less than pleased with the renewed dress-up system, the fact that it takes longer to full tune a car and complete a story loop (80 and 100 chapters respectively) and the overall lack of new content (no new tracks, and while they did add Porsche, they serve as a replacement to RUF). It's divisive in many parts of Asia as well, to the point that some arcades actually still keep a set of 5DX+ machines running alongside the 6 machines. In North America, Namco's decision to release 5DX+ rather than any variant of 6 in 2022 caused much of the same polarizations, with some being disappointed at not getting more up-to-date cars, newer soundtracks, and the 1v3 Ghost Battles, but others see it as a case of Cursed with Awesome since 5DX+ is the most recent game with a 60-stage Story Mode as opposed to 100, Stickers, Japan Challenge, and Maxi G System.
Default Setting Syndrome: Competitive Maximum Tune players usually play with handicap left on. Why? Well, when you're going at 330+ km/h, and traffic patterns tend to be unpredictable if not randomized at higher ranks, it wouldn't be fair to be screwed halfway through the course because of one unfortunately-placed truck that you had no way of predicting.
Demonic Spiders: Any skilled ghosts (especially when you race it in the track that you think is hard).
Ensemble Dark Horse: Among hardcore racers as of WMMT4, the Mazda RX-7 FD and RX-8, which as seen on the online rankings, dominate most of the courses in Time Attack runs. This translates into their frequent usage in VS Battles by the same players. On the VS Battles side, it's Lancer Evo 8/9 and Nissan Skyline GT-R R32 instead.
The Toyota AE86 Trueno introduced in WMMT4 is fast becoming this thanks to its performance: Grippy, excellent handling, tough to push around, and small enough to sneak through traffic. Its fame in Initial D has also helped, which has also earned it the affectionate nickname "Tofu Car." Yes, it wasn't in Wangan Midnight, but in its authorical ancestorShakotan Boogie where a minor character uses it.
Whether a car is undefeated in Story Mode or not is referred to as "unshaded" (undefeated) or "shaded" (lost at least once). This is an artifact from the days of magnetic cards: a car that has not lost in Story Mode has hollow (unshaded) stage completed marks printed on its card, while a car that has lost at least once has filled (shaded) marks; Banapassport cards do not get marked by the machine (since they only have to be near the machine when logging in or purchasing as card straight from the game cabinet, and Banapassport cards are read-only anyway with all player data stored on network servers) but the terms are still widely-used.
The sharp left turn on C1 Inward that forks off from the stretch of road shared with New Belt Line Clockwisenote Known in real life as Edobashi Junction, but Western players generally don't use the location names that aren't mentioned ingame is known as the "suicide left", due to being one of the hardest turns in the entire game. The term originated in a guide on GameFAQs written by DKW.
Handicap is referred to as "Boost" despite no official material referring to it as such; this is a carry-over from Initial D Arcade Stage which does officially use the term.
"Fishing" is the term given to the act of challenging a player with a partially-tuned or stock car (usually a casual player who doesn't have a card) with a fully-tuned vehicle. Like "Boost", this is also a carry-over from Initial D Arcade Stage, where the term is instead used to refer to challenging players and taking then to courses that the challenging player knows their opponent is terrible at.
Due to its reputation as a High-Tier Scrappy, the Nissan Skyline GT-R V-Spec II, known amongst car fans as the R34 after its chassis code, is referred to Maximum Tune players as the "No-Skill GT-R".
"Zero stop" is the name given to slamming into an object, usually a tollbooth, head-on (often due to an opponent ramming the victim into said object) and coming from (usually) 300+ km/h to a complete stop as a result.
Fandom-Enraging Misconception: Don't ask if dress-up parts affect car performance. Not only has it been indicated by the operator's manual that they don't, but players are sick of hearing it.
WMMT 3DX+ introduces the Nissan GT-R (R35), which qualifies despite being made significantly slower than its real life counterpart at the start, with it being one of the grippiest cars in the game (especially for a heavy car), so much that when driven right it outraces even the purpose built rally cars (Evo and Impreza) in cornering courses like Hakone, and not to mention it's a really tough car to push out of the way (see Car Fu in the main section).
WMMT 4 and later has the Mazda RX-7 Type R (FD3S), which has fantastic grip and excellent other stats, making it the choice of car for time attack. Small wonder that many players call it a "bandwagon" car.
Germans Love David Hasselhoff: As one of the premier flagship arcade titles in an era where arcades are losing prominence, the series enjoys a pretty strong and just-as-competitive playerbase in other parts of Asia; Southeast Asian countries such as the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and Hong Kong have populated scenes with many of their players even heading to Japan for the series' world championship events.
Goddamned Bats: Traffic cars. Though partially averted that all the traffic cars had bright yellow Namco paint job.
One amusing bug that appeared since WMMT 3, and still hasn't been fixed as of 3DX+, happens during 32-Outrun in Yokohane if you manage to get to Akio / The Devil Z before clearing the ramp from Wangan back to Yokohane - just before the junction going into C1, his car will come to a complete stop, and become permeable.
If you're clever enough, in some chapters of Story Mode, putting yourself in front of an AI car that suddenly accelerates to insane speeds will have the said car push yours to such speeds, sometimes over 400kph!
In R, expect to draw a lot of ire from human opponents if you choose the Devil Z. Its unparalleled speed means that on Wangan and Yokohane, it's virtually untouchable if it gets to pass you.
The Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX CT9A and Nissan Skyline GT-R BNR32 provoke a similar level of ire and bandwagoning accusations from the community for the same reasons as the FD, mainly due to how frequently players use them in VS battles, where they excel the most.
The Nissan Skyline GT-R BNR34 is a similar "all-arounder" car, coupled with heavy pushing weight and a wide body that makes it excellent for the game's Car Fu meta. As such, it's referred to memetically as the "No Skill GT-R".
Hilarious in Hindsight: Maximum Tune 4 introduced Toyota Sprinter Trueno AE86, the hero car of "Initial D", to the base car roster. It's the other way around in 2021, with Initial D: The Arcade" put Nissan Fairlady Z S30, the hero car of Wangan Midnight'', as a selectable car.
The most prevailing complaint about the game within the arcade racing game community is that the courses are seen as "straight line driving simulator" and thus take minimal skill compared to other competition-viable arcade racing games like Initial D Arcade Stage, and given this series' popularity compared to other arcade racing games, Hype Backlash ensues.
MT 3's story mode, for many, ruined the prestige of unshaded status.
A common complaint about the English-language versions of Maximum Tune 5, which doesn't add as much new content as the Japanese version. For many players, it may as well be called Maximum Tune 4 DX.
Fans are not pleased to see that Maximum Tune 6 looks very much like the seven years of Maximum Tune games before it, and as a result feel that the series is starting to degrade into full-on Sequelitis.note In contrast, the series' longtime competitor Initial D Arcade Stage gets criticized for changing completely with every new game.
Low-Tier Letdown: All of the Joke Cars (Corolla, Hiace, R2, Pajero) are examples, but Hiace is considered the worst vehicle in the game to drive due to having nothing good to go with its "lol huge wagon van" factor. It's become something of a meme within the community that tuning a Hiace is a road to depression.
The Mazda RX-7 Type R (FD3S). Or as the playerbase likes to say, "THE FD IS OP." While player skill is more important than car selection, a lot of folks like to joke that the FD is an unstoppable monster that will instantly demolish Time Attack boards when used.
Similarly, the Skylike GT-R R34. While it's mainly a high-tier car that's good at time attack and battle without being straight up overpowered, fans often refer to it as the car that requires absolutely no skill to use, or the "No-Skill GT-R".
Memetic Loser: International fans have come to view North America as Bandai Namco Amusement's Butt-Monkey, due to being given inferior cabs and an outdated version (5) as a cost-cutting measure. It got even worse when Namco announced that China would be getting an upgrade to 5DX, which while behind the other three regions' 5DX+ is still something that NA doesn't have. note Then again, even North Americans view themselves as Bandai Namco's butt-monkey, and this was already going on long before Maximum Tune (*cough* TalesSeries *cough*)
Please call an attendantExplanationThe games are notorious for their somewhat-frequent fatal errors along with a sound (Reverse sound in Maximum Tune 3 until 3DX+, and nuke siren in Maximum Tune 4 and Maximum Tune 5, and a car alarm in Maximum Tune 5DX and onwards) that made you caught off guard when encountering this message for the first time.
Slamming the wheel or gear stickExplanationErrors are often caused by a player slamming the wheel hard to either of its limits; making such abrupt and sharp turns of the wheel is never necessary in high-level play, but it still happens amongst angry players, as well as ill-mannered or very young arcade patrons who don't quite understand the game physics just yet. The same principle applies with slamming the gear stick while shifting gears.
I'm coming!ExplanationA bit of Accidental Innuendo in the English-language versions of the games, spoken by "CCR" Motoki in stage 34 of Story Mode from Maximum Tune 4 onwards, not helped by his rather tense expression◊.
Sound of Ten persons Pulling out Mode.ExplanationWhen unlocking the 10 Outrun Mode soundtrack, the album jacket for it◊ features the caption "Sound of Ten persons Pulling out Mode", likely an overly-literal translation of 10人抜きモードサウンド (meant to be translated as "10 Outrun Mode Soundtrack". Due to the Accidental Innuendo that results, players like to couple this with the "I'm Coming!" meme.
15 years of passion from seven men is wrapped up in that silver body.ExplanationYet another instance of Accidental Innuendo in Story Mode stage 27 of Maximum Tune 4.
FExplanationA borrowed meme from Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare's "Press F to pay respects" scene, it started with players in a community Discord server spamming 'F' in channels for regions that don't have current Maximum Tune games, most notably Europe and the U.S. East Coast (the latter of which would've gotten it in Dave & Buster's branches, but issues arised that have since at the least delayed D&B from getting the game, and additionally there are few Round 1 branches in the East Coast compared to the West Coast), but has since been used as a catch-all reaction for bad things happening to players (such as breaking their Story Mode streak and subsequently having the racing meter unlocks delayed) in various avenues of the North American Maximum Tune community.
No Skill GT-RExplanationWhile not as much of a Game-Breaker as the FD, the Skyline GT-R R34 has a similar reputation for being a powerful car that takes "no skill" to drive effectively, especially on high-speed courses.
Enjoy the ProcessExplanationA song that debuted in 3DX with vocals that many regard as So Bad, It's Good. Someone in a Maximum Tune Facebook group had something of a hate-on for the song, leading to many to list "Enjoy the Process" as one of their favorite songs or sing the lyrics just to troll the person.
Enjoy the ButtsexExplanationA rather...interesting mishearing of "Enjoy the Process".
TrollboothsExplanationSeveral courses are notorious for having tollbooths, or "trollbooths" as some call them, that the player has to zip through while at speeds in excess of 300 km/h. These tollbooths are a major hassle especially in non-TA modes due to trucks and opponent cars having the potentialy to ram the player into a booth for an instant drop to 0 km/h. The Kobe course in particular is infamous for having a tollbooth in the middle of a curve.
"Shut the fuck up! The Devil Z is behind us!"ExplanationComing from a shitpost by YouTube user RSR_131, it features a short animation of an anthromorphic character dancing before immediately switching to a sped-up footage of SOARS/MaxiLabs' WMMT2 gameplay while juxtaposed to a bass-boosted version of "Nip And Tuck Race" (albeit the tenth movement) by Yuzo Koshiro.
The traffic trucks, which always pop up in the worst places (such as during a sharp corner) and sometimes in dense groups. It's not uncommon to hear of players having their Story Mode streaks destroyed because of a truck in the last kilometer or so.
Never Live It Down: "CCR" Motoki will forever be remembered as that guy who screams "I'm coming!!" since MT6 corrected it with "Something's coming!!"
Nightmare Fuel: Due to Early-Installment Weirdness, Wangan Midnight R has some pretty unnerving tracks that will send chills down your spine, even by the franchise's standards:
Reina's theme can catch the player off-guard when it's heard in the final stage, due to being significantly more serious than the rest of the soundtrack and having a One-Woman Wail.
Once the first part of the stage ends and Akio appears, his respective theme (which is a Dark Reprise of the "Intrusion waiting mode") plays and it begins with a bone-chilling fade-in before kicking into full gear and giving you the impression that you're racing against That One Boss himself, which is also a complete panic fuel.
"The Final Count Down" from MT4 is even worse, since the chanting goes on throughout the track. The result is a track that sounds less like a showdown at 350 km/h and more like the end of the world.
The fatal error sound ("Please call an attendant") that sounded like a nuke siren wailing in Maximum Tune 4 and Maximum Tune 5 will make you jump when the game's audio is at high volume. Thankfully, it has been changed back to a car alarm starting from Maximum Tune 5DX.
Obvious Beta: When the Kobe course was first added in 5DX, it was playable in Time Attack only in night mode. Morning was selectable in versus mode, however - in a clearly unfinished state. Thankfully, this was fixed in an update.
No Problem with Licensed Games: With the arcade releases, not unlike the case for Initial D Arcade Stage. Every single arcade release so far has received more praises from it’s fans.
The Problem with Licensed Games: The PS2, PS3 and PSP games, however, don't seem share the same success the arcade titles does.
Play the Game, Skip the Story: You'd think that since WMMT has gotten very big in Western arcades that Wangan Midnight the anime and manga would get popular, much less licensed. It's been five games and there still is almost no fanbase for WM; Namco could remove the Wangan Midnight license for the next Maximum Tune game and no one would notice. Namco's new arcade racer Dead Heat (which uses the same game engine as MT3), as well as the US localization being called just Maximum Tune 5 (without the Wangan Midnight part), are thought to be indicators of this.
The hidden "maintenance zone" barricades in later parts of the Story Mode in Maximum Tune 2 is what caused its Sequel Difficulty Spike (possibly to mitigate the difficulty of the considerably-easier predecessor), and became a source of contention amongst some players, as unwary players could crash on them and lose the races rather easily. Maximum Tune 3 removed this to alleviate the difficulty.
The randomized ramp selection system since 3DX. It is a Luck-Based Mission and some players used to manual ramp selection in 3 can't stand it because they can't help them select their desired starting ramps. Unlucky players can get wrong starting ramps because of this.
Maximum Tune 4's card transfer service let you transfer cards from Maximum Tune 3DX+. Two problems: It ended in October 2013, and North America never gotMT4, skipping straight to Maximum Tune 5; American and Canadian players have to start all over again.
Having to play 60, 80, or 100 credits of Story Mode for a full tune is reviled by players of all experience levels. Newbies don't like it because it's a case of Earn Your Fun. Veterans don't like it because they have to repeat the entire process every time they make a new car, unless they use the "discard" system to get a car that has the first 20 stages completed, and even then it's still at least 40 credits of grinding to do.
A minor example for North American players of Maximum Tune 5: The North America super region only has one region available: United States, unlike the Japan version (which uses the prefectures of Japan) or the Asia version (which uses countries, of which multiple are listed). This makes all region-based indicators and features (such as the "Select by region" option in Ghost Battle mode) rather redundant. Also, even if you play in Canada, your region is still listed as "USA". However, this was fixed in the update and Canada is now featured in the region select.
The original games before Maximum Tune (and that includes PS2 ports) were nefarious games where everyone is a Spiteful A.I. that pits you at total disadvantage. The first Maximum Tune? Even considering the severe Rubber-Band A.I., the opponents were seriously nerfed to the point as long as you're not making serious mistakes, you have already crossed the finish line.
After that, the opponents in Maximum Tune 3 is toned down further from Maximum Tune 2, and also alleviated the requirements to get unshaded status explained below.
Sequel Difficulty Spike: Maximum Tune 2 ramps up the difficulty back to the levels of Genki-developed predecessors, but for different reasons. The addition of tough Story Mode stages, especially ones with invisible maintenance roadblocks, have made the undefeated status much tougher than the first Maximum Tune game.
Sequel Displacement: Ask a room full of Maximum Tune players if they've played Wangan Midnight R. You're lucky if anyone raises their hand.
Shocking Moments: The song "Love And Gold" from Maximum Tune 6. While the series has experimented with a few non-trance music genres (rock in "Highway Discipline" and "The Race Is On", house in "Drive Me Crazy"), nobody expected eurobeat or The '80sSynth-Pop to appear in Initial D Arcade Stage's prime competitor. To be honest, the live-action movie version of Wangan Midnight used actual Eurobeat before, but this one is unexpected.
6RR's ending theme features an 80s city pop-esque song of "Starry Night" that sang mostly in Japanese, which was the first time the song played in Japanese since the PS2 port's Mission Mode ending song.
If you grind for soundtracks, don't bring it up, or players will tell you to just listen to the soundtracks on your personal music player while playing instead. While they might be making a point regarding the Fake Longevity involved, there are players who do feel that the long grind is Worth It and prefer to have the music be part of the game, cues and all, rather than something on a separate device, yet some players try to tell them how they should enjoy the soundtracks.
NEVER force any blocking techniques (especially brake blocking) to random players. It WILL offend most of them.
Saying you dislike Hakonewill result in insults towards your intelligence.
Tatsuya Shima in the PlayStation 2 port isn't anything better, as the Blackbird not only has its top-speed par with the former mentioned above, it's also tougher and more resilient by a margin. Trying to overtake and block him at 340 KHM with the precious Devil Z? Think again, he'll immediately rubberband and start rear-ending you while eating your SP bar from every single hit while your only hope will be the said timer flashing and kick in or his AI starting to lose the pace. Like the Devil Z above, he is nerfed in Maximum Tune games to avoid repeating such issues.
Sonoda in all of his appearances, due to his aggressive AI that will do everything to keep you behind him. Even in WMMT3 where the CPU AI is watered down, he still stands out amidst all the opponents.
New Belt Line Clockwise. It is the longest non-premium track in the series, taking about 4 1/2 minutes to complete with a full-tuned vehicle. Moreover, in order to get the best times, you have to run the course at a full-power setup, as there is a 5-kilometer stretch of the Wangan Line where you can easily find out your vehicle's top speed, but in doing so, much of the course becomes difficult to navigate, especially the C1 portion where you are more liable to slam into walls at the red S-turns, smash straight into the two dividersnote The dividers are also featured when running C1 Inward, but the recommended setup on that course is a "balanced" setup, as opposed to NBLCW's "Dangerous" setup., and have a very bad time with the sharp right out of C1.
Hakone was such a huge shock when it was introduced in Maximum Tune 2 and still is today for many new players. It is the only course in the game where the yellow S-curve alert can actually refer to more than two corners in a row; these corner combos are often blind, forcing the player to memorize them by heart. Yeah, the game does reduce vehicle speeds for this particular course, but it's still tight enough that it's a turbulent roller coaster of misery for many low-level players. The game's drifty physics means that if you're used to Initial D Arcade Stage, you might attempt this course the same way you play IDAS, only to eat walls and rails for days. Many opinions of Hakone are either "best course because all of the other courses are so easy they're boring in comparison" or "a salt mine where I always lose by over 100 meters." Ironically, in Maximum Tune 3 and its expansions, the few chapters set on Hakone are the easiest because of the comically slow AI.
In WMMT 3, Wangan Westbound. For the majority of the course, it's a simple feat of keeping 345 km/h...until the very last part where you have to merge onto Daikoku, in what is likely a full-power setup. At least when you do Wangan Eastbound, those sharp turns are at the beginning.
In WMMT 3DX+ , the new Fukuoka Expressway can be considered such, due to its narrow layout, long straights, and numerous long winding corners, combining the best and worst features of Hakone, Osaka Hanshin, and Yokohane.
MT4's latest update introduces Yaesu, a detour course inside C1, which is narrow, has very sharp bends, and has tollbooths, all of which can catch unwary players off guard.
MT5DX has Hanshin Expressway Route 3, around Yamaguchi-gumi's home turf of Kobe. The roads are somewhat narrow, there's one yellow turn with a tollbooth at the end of it, and if you can't evade bumping the walls, you're in a dire need of a Yakuza driver. Some parts composed of city streets doesn't help. It's notable for having a player-recommended horsepower setting of 640, tying it with Hiroshima from 5DX+ for the lowest recommended HP of any course.
Story Mode:
Stage 58 in Maximum Tune 4 onwards. The vast majority of the route takes place on Wangan Line...but the end of the course is less than a kilometer after a sharp turn to merge from Wangan Eastbound to New Belt Line Counterclockwise. (While Story Mode does show the route used for each stage, it's sometimes ambiguous where exactly the route ends.) Many players use 815 HP thinking that it won't be a problem, only to crash on the final turn and get passed by the Blackbird, making their attempt at a racing meter (awarded with clearing a round of Story Mode without losing any stages) go up in flames a mere three stages from earning it. For many players, this is a very hard lesson that a "balanced" tuning setup works just fine for all of Story Mode.
Stage 51, in spite of featuring "wannabe" racers, becomes this on subsequent loops. Due to the odd way Story Mode AI rubber-banding works, the two opponents move faster and you have less time to catch up to them. Unlike in other stages where you can commit several early screw-ups as long as you come around in the last 5 or so kilometers, more than one mistake on this stage anywhere basically means you've already lost, and you won't know this until they're at the 700 m mark and still hundreds of meters ahead of you. Maximum Tune 6 thankfully removed this and swapped it out with Stage 52 ("Drive Go Go"), regarded as one of the easier stages.
That One Sidequest: Clearing Story Mode without any losses is one of the most frustrating side goals of the game, as a single mistake near the end of any stage can destroy upwards of 60, 80, or even 100 credits' worth of efforts:
Maximum Tune 2 has perhaps the hardest Story Mode to clear without losing, and also one of the most significant rewards: an extra tuning point (giving you 32; completing Story Mode with any losses only rewards 31). Did you slip up and lose a stage? Well, your card is forever tarnished and you'll have to start a new one if you want that 815 HP! Perhaps because of how much this frustrated players, Namco introduced a "Ver. B" patch that allows the final tuning block to be alternatively unlocked by simply racking up 5000 kilometers on your file's odometer.
In Maximum Tune 3 and its Updated Rereleases, the reward for undefeated Story Mode is the Wangan Midnight R soundtrack. While the Story Mode AI is cakewalk compared to that of Maximum Tune 2, and you can retry on the next loop instead of having to get a new card, it's still frustrating to lose this reward if you make a mistake near the end of any stage.
In Maximum Tune 4 onwards, you unlock racing meters and there are four meters to collect, one per loop, meaning that to unlock all of the meters, you have to play Story Mode four times (240 stages). Per car. Even though you can have multiple cars tied to the same Banapass account. And that's if you don't lose any stage at all; losing pushes back all of the unlocks by one loop!note The one solace is that if you retire in Story Mode before a race ends, Nonstandard Game Over and it won't count against you, but do note that you will instantly lose and not be able to retire if the opponent crosses the finish line. Soundtracks are unlocked in a similar way, again one per loop, and while the condition to unlock each one is simply "complete Story mode" and you're allowed to lose stages, it's still a ton of grinding and spending money to do. Maximum Tune 6 made meter unlocks worse and better at the same time: You now have to play 100 stages, but on the slightly bright side you now only have to beat 100 stages in a row, even if the chain goes from one loop to the next.ExampleIf you lose your undefeated streak on stage 53, then play stages 54 through the next 99 stages in any order without losing a stage, you'll get the meter.
North American fans are not pleased that, due to Executive Meddling on Toyota's part, Gatchan's Celsior and his wife's Aristo had to be replaced with the Crown Athlete and Chaser Tourer V, respectively, for their version of Maximum Tune 5.
An update for 6RR modified the time attack routes, changing the start points and lengths, which also reset the time attack rankings much to the ire of many players. It also seems strange to many that Namco would do this to routes that had existed for multiple games in an update in the middle of the game's life cycle, rather than just doing it for the next title-changing update.
In Maximum Tune 2, if all players in a VS match hold down the red button during course loading, additional players cannot join in on the race, preventing the problem of being joined at the very last second of a 4-minute race, causing the entire battle to start over. This was unfortunately not kept from Maximum Tune 3 onwards.
In Maximum Tune 3, when racing in a Tokyo sub-area or Hakone in VS, players can vote on the starting ramp. This was removed in 3DX onwards in favor of randomized ramp selection, which is considered a Scrappy Mechanic for some players.
In Maximum Tune 4, ghosts can be searched by unique IDs, avoiding the problem of searching for a car by name only to get multiple results due to multiple cars sharing the same name. This was scrapped for 5DX+, likely because few players acknowledge that ghost IDs even exist; in the North American community, almost nobody who wants others to race their ghosts will list their ghost IDs.
Visual Effects of Awesome: Some of the in-engine rendered cutscenes in WMMT4 and later's Story Mode, notably the Devil Z's big crash at the end of Chapter 10, which was finally animated.
" blasts in the background.
