Netflix Underground Racing

Kadokawa Underground Racing is the latest racing video game from Kadokawa in June 15, 2023. It was the only game in the series to offer a career mode featuring a storyline, and a garage mode that allowed players to fully customize their cars with a large variety of brand-name performance and visual upgrades. All races take place in Neon Tokyo City in the virtual reality. KUR featured vehicles associated with the futuristic import scene. KUR also features all of the Kadokawa animes' main characters who become players.

Plot
86% of the world population buys the new VR game, Underground Neon Racing. All of the Kadokawa animes' main characters also bought them too. So, they are transported into the virtual futuristic city in Tokyo, and going race in the streets. One must win the game if the player wants all of the other players to get out from the game. An NCT member, Mark Lee, buys the new game and transported to find the anime characters and race them. Will he win?

Career
The players' career is centered around their driver progression. They can choose one of the anime characters as their avatars. After choose, they can choose their starter car first, the 2013 Honda Fit (Jazz) RS GP4.

Races
Circuit is a standard race that involves racing with up to three opponents' cars around a loop track for two or more laps. It is the main mode of the game.

Knockout Mode is played on the circuit tracks, and involves "knocking out" the last racer who passes the finish line in each lap until the final leader of the race remains, and wins the race. Knockout sessions have a maximum of three laps for four racers.

Sprint mode is a variation on the Circuit mode, where the contestants race in a point-to-point track instead of loop tracks. These races are typically shorter than "circuits" (with a maximum of 8 km in length), so players are required to be more cautious of any mistakes during racing, such as crashing into barriers or vehicles.

Drifting is the most challenging and technical aspect of the game. Drift mode consists of one player in a short loop track, where the objective is to collect as many points as possible by drifting along the track. The player competes with three other contestants, who appear to accumulate scores along with the player during the drift session. The player would be required to beat these scores in order to obtain top positions.

Bonuses are awarded for players who drift in the outer borders of the track, drift vertically, or perform chained-drifting (continuous drifting by constantly steering the vehicle during drifts to maintain speed); if the player succeeds in ending a drift without collisions onto the sides of the track, the collected points are added into the score, otherwise, the collected points are cancelled.

Drift mode is the only type of racing where time taken to complete the track does not matter, since players are given the freedom to complete the allocated number of laps at their own pace. There is no nitrous oxide in this mode.

Drag racing is the second most technical form of race in the game. It involves racing against one or three cars on typically straight tracks and attempting to obtain top positions to win. In order to master Drag mode, players must employ good timing and reflexes for gear shifting, redlining, overtaking, and the use of nitrous oxide boosts. Since players must use manual transmission, drag races place particular emphasis in monitoring the tachometer and the engine temperature during races, which is enlarged and displayed on the left side of the screen. Steering in this mode is simplified to simply allow for lane changes, while the computer handles the steering along the lanes, and the player focuses more on maintaining an optimum speed for the car.

Two conditions will result in players being forfeited during a drag race: head-on collisions with an opponent, barriers, traffic cars or dividers (being 'totaled'); or blown engines as a result from prolonged redlining and the subsequent overheating of the engine.

Street X mode is similar to circuit races, except that they take place in closed and tight tracks. A maximum of 4 racers participates in this event. Like drift mode, this mode disables the use of nitrous oxide.

Underground Racing League (URL) is a set of tournaments that takes place in a specific set of closed tracks outside city streets - either actual racing circuits or airport runways. URL tournaments typically consist of one to three races, with up to six cars (both in career mode and online). In tournaments with two or more races, a points system is used. At the end of each race, drivers receive a specific number of points according to their standing in a race. The total score at the end of these races determines the winner of the tournament.

Special events - these are similar to sprints, intending to reach a target point on the map, which is a "photographer", and the player needs to reach the target within a specific time limit. Achieving this will reward the player with a magazine cover.

Outruns - while in free roam, the player can challenge specific opponent cars (an outrun opponent car will have bright tail lights, similar to the player's cars when they use nitrous oxide) in an "outrun", where the goal is to start an outrun and then distance their car from the opponent's car by 300 metres (1,000 feet). The player can choose when to initiate an outrun and can take any path and/or use tactics to achieve this goal, provided they are in the lead. Each stage, including stage 1, has a limited number of outruns a player can win. For example, in the first stage where the player is driving Honda Fit, 3 outruns can be won. After winning the number of outruns allowed for a stage, the outrun opponent cars cease to appear. After completing a career, there is no limit to the number of outruns wins allowed. Depending on the stage, after winning some number of outruns, the player is rewarded with a unique part. Some stages allow a player to do a series of outrun sequences, rewarding the player with multiple unique parts (one for each series of outruns won). The outrun mode is similar to that of Tokyo Xtreme Racer and Wangan Midnight video games, which use health bars instead of distance to determine the winner.

Car Customization
In the car customization menu, cars can be altered with performance upgrades and visual upgrades, such as paint colours, vinyls, decals, neon, hydraulics, trunk stereo systems (speakers, amplifiers & subwoofers), nitrous bottles, custom front and rear bumpers, custom side skirts, spoilers, custom hoods, exhaust tips, roof scoops, custom tires and stickers, spinners, wide body kits, and more. Players can apply performance upgrades to their vehicles. The player can upgrade their car's engine, drivetrain, suspension, tires, engine control unit (ECU) as well as add nitrous oxide, turbochargers and reduce the car's weight (in the form of "weight reduction packages"). Performance upgrades are earned by completing certain races in the story mode.

Vehicles
There are 44 brands which are available from the beginning.

To see all of those cars, click here.



Development
Kadokawa Underground Racing was first announced on June 2022, KUR features all of the April 2013 model year fully customizable licensed Vehicles from thirteen manufacturers, and hundreds of aftermarket parts from no fewer than 52 aftermarket parts manufacturers, including Bilstein, Holley Performance Products, GReddy, Sparco, HKS Power, PIAA Corporation and Enkei. KUR went gold (became ready for release) on June 15, 2023. KUR was shipped to retailers in North America, Europe, Japan, and other regions.