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(Image credit: e-frontier) Pasokon Retro is our regular look back at the early years of Japanese PC gaming, encompassing everything from specialist '80s computers to the happy days of Windows XP. Developer: e-frontier Released: 2000 PCs: Windows 95-NT, Mac (Image credit: e-frontier) Sometimes I buy obscure old games for what I like to imagine are grand, noble reasons. A niche developer makes an unusual puzzley twist on the RPG, and I must learn more. A great idea turns up 20 years too early on hardware that could barely run it, and I just have to know if it works anyway. An ancient dungeon crawler dares to combine horror with extensive map-making, and I need to see it for myself. And then there are times like this, where I see the words "Initial D typing game" and just know it's going to be so daft I have to experience its particular brand of absurdity with my own eyes. You may like Tokyo Xtreme Racer brings heart, soul, and sweet handbrake turns back to the genre just when it needed them most I'm not even a car guy, but Y2K throwback Tokyo Xtreme Racer '25 looks incredible and has thousands of Overwhelmingly Positive Steam reviews after 4 days of early access No setting could be more unsuited to the typing game treatment—not even Sega's The Typing of the Dead felt as forced as this. The '90s street racing manga and anime adaptation of Initial D are full of achingly cool people driving hyper-tuned cars I will never see outside of old arcade games and Tokyo Xtreme Racer. It's about as effortlessly stylish as anything could ever hope to be. Which means it's also on the exact opposite end of the cool spectrum as "accurate touch typing" and "being the sort of person interested enough in typing games to have them shipped from the other side of the planet." (Hi). I expected to have nothing more than a bit of a laugh with 2000's Initial D: Ryosuke Takahashi's Fastest Typing Theory, to confirm it was a silly idea and a fun curio for my shelf I'd soon put away forever. A brief run through practice mode quickly corrected my casual attitude. This game is as deadly serious about the typing tutor part of the package as it is showing off nighttime drifting around hairpin corners. Image 1 of 4 (Image credit: e-frontier) (Image credit: e-frontier) (Image credit: e-frontier) (Image credit: e-frontier) There are separate sessions for each hand, colour coding to show correct finger placement and their corresponding keys, and a full dual-handed test too. When I'm done I'm shown my clear time, tracked to the hundredth of a second, as well as how many slip-ups I made and my five most commonly fumbled keys. I've been judged in three specific areas, none of them drifting a tuner Toyota Trueno, and found deeply wanting. Seeing my weaknesses laid out in this way wounded my writer's pride. I type all day and night. I've worn keyboards out, haphazardly stuck them back together, and then typed some more. So when some decades-old game has the gall to tell me I'm anything less than amazing at the one thing I do all the damned time, you bet I'm going to take it personally. The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. I think Ryosuke Takahashi's Fastest Typing Theory did this on purpose. I took my white-hot umbrage and poured it into the main "Battle" mode, ready to unleash my lightning-fast reflexes against the game's five opponents, unaware that I was so wounded by its mild accusations I was about to dedicate an entire afternoon to showing an ancient piece of typing software who's boss. Rather than try to meaningfully integrate the races with my frenzied keyboard mashing, these sprints instead follow a video > typing > video > typing pattern, the compressed action pausing in certain places to allow for some burning hot key pressing action. (Image credit: e-frontier) The short and low resolution clips used to sell each "race" aren't exactly up to modern technical standards, but as they're all directly lifted from the '98 TV series Initial D: First Stage (as is the fabulous Eurobeat soundtrack and numerous snatches of dialogue), they're still enough to drum up some genuine excitement. Watching another one is my reward for typing well, and I'm soon caught up in clearing the latest word off the screen, always afraid I'll take a second too long or fumble too many keystrokes, every error chipping away at my health bar until I crash out. At first I assumed the text I'm asked to type out would lean towards racing/car terminology in a vague attempt to justify the licence, so I was surprised to see the Japanese names of countries, rivers, and short words that would translate into "periodic table", "shampoo", and "hamster" turn up instead. Weird, but nothing I couldn't handle. I was doing pretty well in no time at all, actually. My typos were down, my speed up, and my initials were plastered all over the game's arcade-like high score table. I soon had a string of breezy victories to my name and confidently clicked on the next race without giving it much thought. It felt as though the game had suddenly slammed the accelerator to the floor. By the end of the fifth stage I'm desperately typing out full sentences, sometimes with punctuation, and swearing like I'm facing the final boss of a soulslike. No more single words to quickly clear away for me. Oh no, now the challenges demand perfect inputs like "AREHAHASIRIKONNDEKO-SUWOYOKUSITTERURAINNDAYO" and "ITUMADENETEYAGARU.OKIRO,DENNWADA."—and that's if I'm lucky. I've had less stressful hospital appointments. Image 1 of 3 (Image credit: e-frontier) (Image credit: e-frontier) (Image credit: e-frontier) Just as it's on the verge of becoming truly unbearable the game throws out something that could be translated as "Count Dracula can't handle the sun" just for fun. I end up swearing again, only this time it's because I'm trying to focus on typing accurately without laughing my head off. Against all odds, this is a genuinely useful typing tutor. The practice sessions are of real practical use, and the Initial D framework makes it all feel more like play than real homework even when things get tough. The lack of any true link between these two seemingly incompatible halves turns out to be for the best, the unpredictable text forcing my eyes to focus on the screen and trusting my fingers to do the rest. I am a better touch-typist for playing this, and I got to see some great '90s drifting, too. I'm not sure if my freshly honed skills will transfer to Tokyo Xtreme Racer, but I'm still counting them as a win. Kerry Brunskill Social Links Navigation Contributing Writer When baby Kerry was brought home from the hospital her hand was placed on the space bar of the family Atari 400, a small act of parental nerdery that has snowballed into a lifelong passion for gaming and the sort of freelance job her school careers advisor told her she couldn't do. She's now PC Gamer's word game expert, taking on the daily Wordle puzzle to give readers a hint each and every day. Her Wordle streak is truly mighty. Somehow Kerry managed to get away with writing regular features on old Japanese PC games, telling today's PC gamers about some of the most fascinating and influential games of the '80s and '90s. You must confirm your public display name before commenting Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name. Tokyo Xtreme Racer brings heart, soul, and sweet handbrake turns back to the genre just when it needed them most I'm not even a car guy, but Y2K throwback Tokyo Xtreme Racer '25 looks incredible and has thousands of Overwhelmingly Positive Steam reviews after 4 days of early access Blood Typers is a budget-priced fusion of Typing of the Dead and co-op survival horror After punishing my graphics card with Monster Hunter Wilds, I've returned to the rock-solid frame rates of my old hunting grounds: Windows XP I paid money to drive a real car that filled up with fumes when I didn't pump the pedal, and it's all because I loved Jalopy This '90s PC game's one-of-a-kind combination of puzzles and RPG heroics was the perfect way to jumpstart my brain for the new year Latest in Games Overwatch 2 Stadium details: Everything you need to know about the new mode Diablo 4's lead live game designer says difficulty is 'a tricky balance,' but Season 8 should pack more of a punch: 'If there isn't enough challenge, then it just feels like you're getting candy for free' Fallout 1 lead Tim Cain says the marketing department wanted him to make it real-time 'because of Diablo,' but he got them to back off when he told them how much it would cost I thought I knew my keyboard until I played the Initial D typing game, which somehow takes touch typing even more seriously than drifting Steam's latest themed sale is so specific it includes just 0.367% of the 135,000 game library Best base locations in RuneScape: Dragonwilds for collecting resources and staying fed Latest in Features I thought I knew my keyboard until I played the Initial D typing game, which somehow takes touch typing even more seriously than drifting Last Epoch's excellent new update proves we're in a golden age of ARPGs, and there's something here for everyone This subreddit dedicated to the worst computer setups on Earth makes me weirdly proud to be a PC gamer You don't see the Havok logo much anymore, but the legendary physics middleware used in Half-Life 2 never went away—just the splash screens 5 years out from its last hero release, Heroes of the Storm is looking awfully spry for a 'dead game' Thank you for ruining my life, Larian: Even after 900 hours and a dozen playthroughs, Baldur's Gate 3's Patch 8 has me obsessed all over again HARDWARE BUYING GUIDES LATEST GAME REVIEWS Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads Best graphics card for laptops in 2025: the mobile GPUs I'd want in my next gaming laptop Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most Best 14-inch gaming laptop in 2025: The top compact gaming laptops I've held in these hands Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I've tested MSI RTX 5060 Ti 16G Gaming Trio OC review Tempopo review Tempest Rising review Corsair Void Wireless V2 review Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB review (Palit Infinity 3) PC Gamer is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. 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