It’s sometimes nice to see developers wear their influences up their sleeves, a trend currently very observable among indie racing games. And you can add Kaido Genkai to this growing list.
Kaido Genkai, developed by solo indie developer Karoshi Electric Company with the help of various contributors, is an anime racing RPG that’s clearly inspired by Auto Modellista and Choro-Q.
For the uninitiated, the former was a cult-hit racing game that mostly remembered for its impactful use cel-shading graphics that still holds up two decades later that also happens to be developed by the unlikeliest of developers, Capcom. The latter is a video game series based on the chibi toy car line by Takara Tomy, with one of its entries, Choro-Q HG 2 (or Road Trip Adventure as it is localised overseas in some regions) feature a full open world with RPG elements, predating Need For Speed Underground 2.
In other words, Kaido Genkai is inspired by two deep cuts in the racing game genre, during the heydays of the PS2. But it’s also take cues from Rockstar Games’ Midnight Club and Genki’s seminal Tokyo Xtreme Racer series (which had a new entry released just last year).
These inspos has resulted in Kaido Genkai being what it is, an open world racing game with arcade-style driving, exploration, RPG elements and a distinctively proud visuals inspired by anime.
Players can drive around the open world map in cute but-legally distinct cars inspired by classic Japanese cars from the 2000s (which was, for those who needed to hear this and we apologise, more or less two decades ago), complete quests, find secrets and more.
For the car enthusiasts, Kaido Genkai’s lineup of cars has some familiar looking rides. From four-wheel drive machines, to station wagons, and from kei cars to kei trucks.
“We wanted to create something different from modern festival racers and serious sims,” said the game’s creator, Karoshi Electric Company, pointing out the current trend of racing games. “Kaido Genkai is meant to feel nostalgic, atmospheric, a little strange, and focused on exploration and personality as much as racing.”
The trailer for Kaido Genkai is a charming one. It’s made with great respect to anime by anime fans with the qualities one would expect from an anime-style video game would have. The trailer has a J-Rock song (脱税 by indrop) with an energy of an anime opening, visual novel-style dialogue, sounds of cicada, good use of speed lines and sound effects visualised by katakana letterings, and most importantly, a sense of whimsy and sincerity.
The failed romance option (there are romance options?!) is followed with a cut to the car the player drives driving off a cliff. The folks involved here clearly had fun making their passion project’s trailer.
Kaido Genkai looks set to be an ode to the good old days of 2000s racing game where they were in abundance and full of creativity. While the current crop of big-budget racing games are looking promising (Forza Horizon 5 and Star Wars Galactic Racer, to name literally two), it’s cool to see more game devs especially in the indie space are making indie games.
Kaido Genkai will have a new demo, which will be publicly released on June 2. The demo is now available for Patreon supporters.
Kaido Genkai has no release date yet, but will be out on PC (Steam).