While the music games have surely been taking off here at Round 1 San Jose, I've also been noticing an influx of players for Initial D 8! Let's take a look! (ﾉ `･∀･)ﾉﾞ
Initial D 8 is a driving game created by SEGA, and is based off of the anime of the same name. It is the only Initial D 8 cabinet in Northern California, with both Golfland USA and Emerald Hills Golfland having Initial D 6 as its current version. Many players both new and old are flocking to Round 1 to play the new installment. But what's the difference between Initial D 6 and Initial D 8? Why is there so much hype for this new installment? 〣( ºΔº )〣 I am on the floor with Alex Flores, a 26-year-old Initial D player who has been a fan and a player of the game since he was 13.
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| Alex demonstrates the game play in Initial D 8. |
Amy: What Initial D games
have you played?
Alex: I’ve played every single version of Initial D in some way
shape or form, be it console, portable console, arcade… I’ve played the PC one
but that one’s kind of ass so nobody cares about that anyway. (laughs)
A: So starting from Initial D3 which is when the arcade game really took off, can you tell me some of the differences you've noticed up to say, version 6 which is the most recent Initial D game in this area?
A: Going from 3 to 4, it was like going from a Playstation 1 to
a Playstation 3 in terms of graphics. It was a lot smoother, the road textures
look more real… but the physics engine kind of sucked. It was made to go super-fast,
but it made them look more “twitchy” whenever you turn. If you turned
super-fast, the screen would kind of twitch. It wasn’t seizure inducing, but it wasn't realistic looking at all. And they kind of went with a different physics engine in 5, and then tried to go for an ultra-more realistic feel where you would have to slow down super super slow at every turn and grip-run: there was no drifting. You could try, but your times would be slower. Version 6, they seem like they (SEGA) were trying to go back to where you had the smoothness of 3 but everything ran fast like version 4. So every single time attack would be much faster with the other ones. SEGA tries a new physics engine each time, so 6 had the best physics (besides version 3).
A: What are your expectations for Initial D8?
A: Well, ideally, I'd like for people to continue keeping up with it and people continuing to play even after a year of so. With the game kind of leveling off a bit, I'd like it to be kind of like the Beatmania IIDX players in terms of people constantly playing and having us as players on the level, if not, better, than the players from Asia in terms of records.
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| Sunday night driving game crowd. Some are waiting for turns while some are starting their game. |
A: What are your expectations for Initial D8?
A: Well, ideally, I'd like for people to continue keeping up with it and people continuing to play even after a year of so. With the game kind of leveling off a bit, I'd like it to be kind of like the Beatmania IIDX players in terms of people constantly playing and having us as players on the level, if not, better, than the players from Asia in terms of records.
According to Initial D World (idforums.net), there are a LOT of new updates to the new Initial D! Some of them range from new courses, new cards, new physics and a new tuning system. Also, many of the game modes such as Legend of the Streets (Initial D's story/mission mode) and Time Attack has also been updated. Additionally, Initial D 8 offers an Online Battle and Online Tag battle mode which allows players to go head to head against each other in a race. (Unfortunately, Round 1 is not connected to SEGA's server for this.) You can take a look at the comprehensive list here: Introduction to Initial D 8. (wahhh, there is so much info!)
Guess it's time to learn how to drift! (๑✧◡✧๑)
-Amy
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