3 Weeks ago, Sega invited us to enjoy some of the coolest games at the Sega Joypolis in Odaiba, Tokyo. Among several nice games we could spend time playing with, was the latest arcade game version of Initial D, the ultimate manga for all Drift fans.
For several months, Japanese gamers have had the chance to play Initial D in one of the cars shown in the manga, especially the TOYOTA TRUENO, used by the young hero of this sequel.
Basically, like a full flight simulator used to train airplane pilots, Sega mounted 3 cars, a Toyota Truneo, a Subaru Impreza WRX, and a Mazda RX7 on top of a moving platform, which will simulate your driving style.

I have to say that I was not prepared for such FUN! Not only are the video game and graphics quite nice and very realistic when it come to the driving experience, but also, the roads in the video games are taken from real roads in Japan (or sometimes are close to real ones). But, the moving platform, in my opinion, is the real killer in this game; it is as violent as in real life, and you will feel your car drifting or doing a power slide as real as if you where in a real car, on a real road.
The steering wheel gives good feedback, and you really feel like driving as a real thing… IMPRESSIVE.
Now, if I wanted to be picky, I would say that few things are not well done:

-First, you cannot use the handbrake,　I know you should not use handbrake in Drift, but hey, I like it this way !
-The revs on the dashboard are not moving, everything is set on the screen… pity ;
-You do not have a REAL gear box in manual mode, neither a clutch… pity, I would’ve had better results with a real gear box…

But hey, this is ONLY my opinion, and just as it is, I had a LOT of fun! And actually, you can judge this by yourself, thanks to our little video where you will be seated next to me, and see me trying to drift around !

Akihabara News Test Initial D Arcade Stage 4 Limited, the Ultimate car simulator at Sega Joypolis
(DivX 6 HD 720p, Hosted by Stage6)