Peak Performance

"Scream up and down mountain roads, Do doughnuts in the middle of a busy downtown intersection, Race through tunnels, over bridges, Drive a bus, a scooter, or any of the 20+ cars. If you don't like the way I drive, stay outta my way!"

There is not much to this game which is a cut down version of the Japanese game 'Tōge MAX: Saisoku Drift Master' which contains a narrated story mode. The US release played here is pretty much just an endless score attack recording your times on a leader board. Presentation is lacking with no intro, ending or even a credit roll. You wont seen any cool drifting or sliding in my video as in order to win, I need to keep the peddle to the metal losing minimal speed. This video ends up being more of a vehicle unlock walkthrough. I open the video with the demo which uses some camera views that I don't use playing the game.

Due to lack of content, the longplay can be over fairly quickly but as I try to unlock all the hidden cars, I recorded the journey to show how long it takes. In the longplay I show the initial 3 race tracks choosing a car from one of the four available groups. The difference between the groups is the difficulty levels they provide. Its weird the cars not having proper names even though its clear what they are based on. You can go into the menus and edit the correct names in your self though. I then go into Time trials and race hard to some very tight time requirements for the car unlocks.

Pikes Peaks was interesting in that you are being chased by Airwolf the whole way. Getting a time of at least 2.28 unlocks both the Truck and the McLaren F1. I think 2.35 will be enough for the Truck alone. I then take the Mclaren to the Bay Area where you need to race around and collect 30 flags before heading to the finish line. Finish in under 3 minutes to unlock the Bus and finish in under 2 minutes to unlock the Nissan 240 ZX. I then take the Nissan to Northern Countryside to find the Scooter. This requires two laps Counter clockwise where on your second pass, a gate will have opened to allow to to go down to the river and find the scooter. I finish off very quickly showing the Course Editor where you can lay out some cones to race into around the track. Placing white cones will put Soccer balls onto the track.

Now there are two cars left to unlock and the instructions to do so are unclear and it may be possible to unlock in a slightly easier way than shown. To unlock the Diablo, Race and win 3 difficulty levels. This will unlock a fourth difficulty level. What I am unsure about is If i could have raced 3 levels in the easier car groups. I stayed in Group A just in case. You cant play different levels in different groups (nothing unlocked from those 3 races at start of video). Group A Extreme would be enough but It seems you can Play at least the Special Killer difficulty level and have it count. Then head to Time Trial mode on the same track to find the Diablo parked at the tunnel entrance. I then show a quick race to show off the car. The Porsche is unlocked the same way but on the Seven Tight Corners track. Once unlocked the Porsche is found parked at the Hotel in Time Trial. Ill just note that it wouldn't appear when I tried driving the bus there so there may some kind of vehicle limit going on there. I then finish the video by showing off the Porsche in Time Trial this time mainly to show the games framerate while in dashcam view.

So overall, not much meat to the game. The cars all perform differently and can take some getting used to with highly exaggerated handling and didn't get into the tuning aspect of the game. The rubber banding is weird and can be annoying when it tries to steal the win. You can almost control as it as youll see the other cars speed up and slow down to match your speed. The game it self doesn't look to bad. Not quite GranTurismo or Ridge Racer 4 but it is well detailed the cars have plenty going on as you can even see the driver steering and shifting as well as getting a good view of the driver if you spin the car around. The bet car for me was the Mazda Eunos Roadster. It had the right combination of speed, acceleration and weight to allow me to get round corners without sliding out was the only Group A car I could complete Extreme difficulty with. You'll notice I use it a few times.

00:00:00 Demo and a look at the cars.
00:03:20 Race - Seven Tight Corners (Group A)
00:08:26 Race - Up Town Drive Way (Group B )
00:13:53 Race - Northern Countryside (Group C)
00:18:50 Time Trial - Pikes Peak (Unlocks Truck & McLaren)
00:22:35 Time Trial - Bay Area (Unlocks Nissan 240 and Bus)
00:25:45 Time Trial - Northern Countryside (Unlocks Scooter)
00:30:25 Course Editor (Just to show Soccer Balls)
----- Game Complete Nothing new to see -----
00:33:00 Race - Up Town Drive Way (multiple plays)
00:47:55 Race - Up Town Drive Way (Killer difficulty on Scooter!)
00:53:52 Time Trial - Up Town Drive Way (unlock Diablo)
00:55:45 Race - Northern Countryside (Show off Diablo)
01:01:35 Race - Seven Tight Corners (Multiple Plays)
01:15:26 Time Trial - Seven Tight Corners (Unlock Porsche)
01:17:05 Time Trial - Northern Countryside (Show off Porsche)
The End