Update: September 28, 2007
«©NCSX» In the Wangan Midnight manga serial, Akio Asakura's in his Fairlady Z31 with three friends when he spots the legendary "Blackbird" which is a turbo-charged Porsche driven by Tatsua Shima. Akio tries to catch up to the Porsche but Tatsuya speeds up and leaves Akio in the dust. Akio is humiliated but is later comforted by a mechanic who suggests that he visit Kuro's junkyard to salvage parts from a wrecked Z31. Instead of attending school, Akio goes hunting for parts to boost his Fairlady Z31. While spelunking in the junkyard, he spots a first generation Fairlady S30Z that's in fairly good shape. Sure, it's missing the front wheels but the engine's a twin turbo and the innards are fine. Strange coincidences goad Akio to buy the S30Z. From humble beginnings, Akio's legend begins. Wangan Midnight Portable is based on the manga by Michiharu Kusunoki but plies the night racing trade popularized by Genki's own Shutoko Battle franchise. To play a story based racing challenge, there's the Scenario Mode to explore which features mission-based races but players out for a simple racing interlude may choose the Versus Mode which allows up to four PSP-equipped racers to compete against each other wirelessly. Perfectionists can check into the Tuning Mode which puts an emphasis on infallible driving skills where your car is kept away from the walls and other vehicles on the road. The racing action takes place entirely during the twilight hours where the only illumination is from overhead lamps. The controls are responsive as expected and the illusion of speed as cars topple the 300 km/h threshold is fairly convincing. Since the roads in the game are fairly tight, there's not a lot of drifting to be found in Wangan Midnight in case you're wondering. Then again, Wangan Midnight isn't really about drifting in any case. Jan Code: 4994934800071 View the back cover and screenshots for this item on the main NCSX website.
NCS Game Notes
» Press START on the title screen and the following selections appear:ARCADE MODE
SCENARIO MODE
TUNING MODE
TIME ATTACK MODE
VS MODE
REPLAY THEATER
OPTION » Before starting a race in the ARCADE MODE, you'll be able to select a vehicle and paint it to your liking from a palette of eight colors. Next, select manual transmission or automatic transmission and it's off to the races. Literally. » The controls are as follows: CROSS / Accelerate
CIRCLE / Activate Turbo Boosters
SQUARE / Hit the Brakes
TRIANGLE / Change view from three possible perspectives Either the D-pad or analog nub may be used to control the vehicle but note that NCS doesn't recommend using the D-pad since it's much less responsive than the analog controller. » During a race, a map of the track is shown on the left side of the screen and the speedometer is located on the lower-right corner along with km/h and current gear shift. The SP gauges of the drivers are shown next to their portraits at the top of the screen. » If you fall behind an opponent, your SP gauge drops quickly if he zooms ahead and leaves you in his wake. Fall behind too much and it's game over. In the first stage of the ARCADE MODE, there's a couple of trucks that you'll smack into if your control is less than respectable. One tactic in the first race is to corral your rival so that he's behind another passenger car or truck on the highway and you'll be able to speed ahead and win. » After each race, your time, remaining SP, and ranking are shown on a splash page along with an image of your character. » In the TUNING MODE, the game keeps track of how many times you hit the wall or another car. The aim of the TUNING game mode is precise driving where the center of the road is where you want to be. If you slide against a wall, that contiguous contact will be counted as multiple hits. To improve the handling of your vehicle, a garage may be visited to tune it up and tighten up its responsiveness to your controller tugs. » Along with the tried and true one-on-one challenges found in the Shutoko Battle series, multiple competitors may be challenged in a Wangan Midnight race for added thrills. » Much of the game's menus are in English for an import friendly racing game that probably won't be released stateside for a while. » The cars featured in the game are: MAZDA
RX-7 (FD3S)
RX-7 (FC3S)
RX-8 (SE3P) MITSUBISHI
GTO (Z15A)
Lancer Evolution VIII (CT9A)
Lancer Evolution V (CP9A) NISSAN
Skyline GT-R (8NR34)
Skyline GT-R (8NR32)
Fairlady Z (Z33)
Fairlady Z (Z32)
Silvia (515)
180SX (RP513) SUBARU
Impreza (G08)
Impreza (GC8)
Legacy (BL5) TOYOTA
Supra (JZA80)
Crown (GRS182)
Altezza (SXE10)
Celica (ZZT231)
MR-5 (ZZW30) There's a SPECIAL and CUSTOM section as well in the vehicle selection screen but both sections can't be selected... yet. This document is ©NCSX 2007. All rights reserved. No reproduction in whole or in part of this document may be made without express written consent of National Console Support, Inc.
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