Battle gear is an arcade racing series, well, I don’t know when it started. I only saw the second series up to the present. The game was technically created to compete with the “top” names in arcade racing games, namely Initial D Arcade Stage series and Wangan Midnight Series. Recently, Initial D released the Arcad Stage 3 and about to release the fourth and Wangan Midnight carries “Maximum Tune 2″. Now, Battle gear is basically a realistic simulation of vehicle maneuvering. All aspects and specifications including the real-world physics. The way the car behaves is their aim to simulate. Now, what the punks can play these days is the Battle Gear 3. Unlike the 2, the 3 features the same basic controls, hazards, high beam buttons, semi-auto gear knob but with added “hand brake”, probably for drifting purposes. The “2″ actually had a later version called Battle Gear V2 or something like that, that featured a handbrake but they emphasized the handbrake feature on the “3″. The “3″ had an improved graphics, much better than the a-bit-pixelated “2″. I can say that the 3 has graphics similar to Gran Turismo 3. Just like Initial D, BG3 has an individual identification system called NETSYS, which, instead of using a magnetic card to store info, it uses a key but not all countries can avail it. Unfortunately, we belong to those countries. Still, could be worse…
Now, only BG3 can be seen on the usual playgrounds of youth, meaning those places that are easily accessed by common people. Why don’t we move to the more “sophisticated” ones. Timezone is just an example of those and new games usually arrive here first. They use cards instead of tokens and other “luxurious” stuff. It’s really expensive to play there, to be honest. Now, they have Battle Gear 3 there and Initial D 3 and WMMaxtune as well. But recently, I noticed that the positions of the cabinets are moved. It’s because of this new game, the Battle Gear 4 Tuned.
BG4 featured the basics from BG3: handbrake… wait. The gearknob is different though. The gearknob can be set in 4 distinctive settings. First is Full Auto, meaning no need to use the gearknob and Driving assistance is observed. second is Auto that can be observed in our latest auto vehicles. Can’t tell you exactly because I did not use the feature. Third is “Manual – Semi Auto” Meaning, manual transmission with gear-up-gear-down feature. and then the fourth is the 6-speed MANUAL TRANSMISSION. So I thought you can only move the gearknob up and down but when I chose the 4th feature, the gearknob setting changed and can be moved like a real manual transmission with all gears having separate place, like the manual of a real car. So, just like Maxtune, but not so fast. I noticed something with the pedals. You’ll see the gas pedal, brake, and to my surprise, a CLUTCH PEDAL, JUST LIKE THE ONE IN THE REAL CAR!!!. When I played the game with the feature, you really have to step on the clutch to shift gear or else if you don’t step on it, the gearknob will lock a neutral and will not be able to shift at any gear you want. It’s really amazing, they really went on simulating it with the best of what they have. They even have a lever just above the gearknob. That’s overboost feature or nitrous, depending on the car and situation you choose. They have 4 modes of racing, you get single race, time attack, self explanatory, “same make race”, meaning all of you have the same car and last, drift mode. Yeees, drift mode! I liked it a lot. Just drift and earn points. Unfortunately, the game is not featuring the Netsys key. I’ll jot in more observations after playing more. It really ate up all my money. hehehe, here are the pictures:
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