Legendary Japanese racing game dev goes under the radar for 18 years, quietly emerges to drop the best-rated Steam racer of 2025, and gives fans 20 days to grab it at a hefty discount before the price jumps to $50

A blue car in Tokyo Xtreme Racer.

Japanese developer Genki spent decades developing a legendary reputation for racing games for everything from the SNES and Game Boy to the PS2 and Xbox 360, and genre fans would be forgiven for thinking the studio dropped off the face of the Earth in the '00s. The sudden launch of a Tokyo Xtreme Racer revival in Steam early access back in January made quite a splash, however, and the devs are finally ready for a 1.0 release.

Tokyo Xtreme Racer goes 1.0 on September 25, as the devs announced today on Twitter. The game was originally due to spend four months in early access – which would've meant a May launch – but the devs pushed the launch back both to respond to fan feedback and "conclude our discussions with our licensing partners," according to a Steam post.

【Notice】 Announcement of release date and sales price for the full version of 'Toyko Xtreme Racer''. For more details, please see the images below. #TokyoXtremeRacer pic.twitter.com/izht9TYVINSeptember 5, 2025

Whatever the specifics, it seems like that wait will be worthwhile. Tokyo Xtreme Racer currently has 96% "overwhelmingly positive" reviews from players on Steam, which makes it the best-rated racer on Steam for 2025. Not bad for a game that technically isn't even out yet.

Take note that Tokyo Xtreme Racer is currently $30 USD, but that price will jump up to $50 with the 1.0 launch. If you're interested in playing at the proper release, you might want to grab it early to secure that $20 discount.

The Tokyo Xtreme Racer series goes all the way back to 1994, with the launch of the Japan-only Shutoko Battle '94 on Super Famicom. The series would eventually go worldwide under various names on PS1 and Sega Saturn, but it was the 1999 launch of Tokyo Xtreme Racer on Dreamcast that gave us the familiar English name. Numerous follow-ups would be released in the years that followed, taking the series to PS2 and Xbox 360 before going underground in 2007.

Since then, Genki has quietly been keeping busy with everything from pachinko machines to supporting the development of Square Enix mobile titles. The Tokyo Xtreme Racer revival is certainly the studio's highest-profile launch in decades, however.

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