"Excellent game that does something specific ... and does it flawlessly"

Note: This is just a copy of my user review for this game on Gamespot.

Kaido Battle 2: Chain Reaction focuses on one thing: racing through the narrow, winding mountain roads that grace Japan's countryside. You start as a newcomer, with little money and a small selection of cars. As you work your way up, you unlock cars, sponsors, and upgrades that can be purchased or won. Typical of racing games, in a way... Fortunately you're given Genki's ever-improving and wonderfully in-depth tuning options. Much like real-life, your car's top potential comes not just from buying the upgrades, but from tuning them to perfection. As someone who is horrible at it, I can tell you it is neither easy nor necessary to beat the game. However, it certainly adds a lot of depth to the game, and gives you something to work on, even if you've completed everything.

The game itself isn't really that hard. You get a car, race opponents, and then upgrade your stuff. Eventually, you'll want to get a new car to upgrade, and the process continues. There's a pretty respectable selection of well-modeled and properly-specced cars to choose from, which is always good to have in a racing game. You'll see a pretty heavy dose of Japanese manufacturers, which is to be expected for such a specific release. However, there are a few European and American car dealers, each of which have a few cars... some that may even surprise you at their inclusion.

Graphically Kaido Battle 2 is excellent. Car models are great, looking really good during the race and even better in the replay. You'll even notice the brakes glowing under heavy braking (obviously you can only see the side of the car in replay mode). Attention to detail is great. The only thing to fault is really the off-track stuff, which sometimes looks a little cheesy, as if it were glossed over. Not much to complain about, really.

Sound is great. As far as cars sounding like real-life counterparts, they do a pretty good job. Rotary engines are distinct, exhaust changes actually change the sound, etc. The background music is nice, maybe getting a bit repetitive at times. That's where they 'create-a-track' option comes in (not titled as such in game). You can actually create your own segment of music that will be played while you race. For a simple little program, you really can get some excellent stuff done! I find myself wishing I had something like this on my computer to toy around with. Really excellent addition.

The game doesn't claim to be expansive. There are a few tracks, each of which are very long, and you race other cars or attack challenges on segments of them (or the whole thing, in some cases). It's nice to get to know a few certain tracks, and you don't get stuck with endurance races that require epic patience, will, and thumb-endurance to complete.

In the end, what you have is a game that chooses a few roads to use as tracks, a great selection of cars, an exquisite tuning model, and some wonderful little extras (creating music, the message systems, etc). For the most part, though, you know what this game is going to offer when you look at the cover and the few screenshots on back. It does what it set out to do: mountain pass racing. It also happens to do it very, VERY well.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/07/06