0 to Z of Playstation 1 Games - Bakusou Dekotora Densetsu Otoko Ippiki Yume Kaidou

      

Bakusou Dekotora Densetsu Otoko Ippiki Yume Kaidou is the first entry in the quirky Japanese only truck racing game, Bakusou Dekotora Densetsu translated means Art Truck Battle with Dekotora and abbreviation of decoration truck, a type of highly decorated and extravagant truck in Japan, with neon lights, extravagant paint and shiny stainless or golden parts a common theme.

Human Entertainment has managed to make a game out of this pastime and hobby, with Bakusou Dekotora Densetsu a truck racing game that was released exclusively in Japan on the 25^th of June 1998, the game also got a release on the 11^th of November 1999 in the Playstation The Best range of budget titles similar to the Greatest Hits in North America, Essentials in PAL regions and BigHit Series in Korea.

The main objective of the game which is a mode called Country Battle Mode or a similar translation is to race two semi trucks down a freeway, starting out with a basic unmodified truck, winning races earns the player money which they can spend to modify and customise their Truck.

Unlike other racing games that allow customisation which comprises of fitting improved parts like engine components, suspension, and brakes, Bakusou Dekotora Densetsu upgrade system is entirely cosmetic with the aim to make your truck as unique looking as financially possible.

 

While there are some improvements to the performance of your truck these are only minimal improvements, prior to starting this mode the player selects their name which can be a maximum of 6 letters long, as well as two abbreviated three letter names.

Once these are chosen you can get around to choosing your truck, a total of 5 trucks are on offer with all 5 similar looking with a few minor differences to the trucks cab. Once this is done you can begin on the option menu you will have four option start race, modify truck, save truck and exit, also on this menu is a rotating image of your truck with its current cargo shown as well as your current 

financial situation.

 

Once you click start race a map of Japan will appear with the various freeways across Japan that you will be racing on, moving to any one of these freeways will bring up an image of the other trucker you will be racing against. As you defeat drivers other ones will appear that can be challenged some of these have unique trucks that when defeats are unlocked in the time attack mode.

When competing in a race the truck is steered by using either the D-Pad or the left analogue stick, with the X button used for acceleration while breaking is done by hitting the square button,  the L1 button changes the camera, L2 will allow the player to Pan the camera around. the circle button is the review view mirror

While racing the R1 button can be used for the horn while the R2 button is the insult button, the game also makes use of the analogue controls rumble which can be switched off using the triangle button to pause the game use the start button.

During the course of the battle mode you will be able to modify your truck with a variety of cosmetic upgrades, when upgrading your truck you will see two percentage numbers, the first is your decoration percentage this will continue to go up to more as you add more cool gear to your Truck.

The second percentage bar is the trucks performance or the main part that any other game would focus on, this percentage will slowly go up each time you win a race, going back to the cosmetic changes you can make a total of 22 difference modifications to your truck, from the cab topper, bumpers, side panels. Wheel covers, mirrors and many, many more.

In addition to the main Battle Mode the game has a time attack mode in which the player can use any trucks they have beaten in Battle Mode, as well as their own created trucks in a race against an AI controlled opponent, and the clock. The game also has a drawing mode where the player can create their own artwork in a simple paint like program, when saved the art can be used to decorate your truck.

This being a Japanese only release critic reviews for this game are non existent so we head over to GameFAQs for their user ratings, where we find the game sitting at an average user rating of 3.81/5, from a total of 8 user ratings.

Taking a closer look at these ratings we find that not one of the 8 users rated the game lower than a 3/5, with 2 users rating it at that, another two each rated the game either a 3.5 or a 4 out of 5. The remaining two users rated the game at a 4.5 and a full 5/5 from one user.

Moving on to the games difficulty where we find just 4 users rating this category, with a 3 to 1 swing in favour of the game having just the right difficulty level. The remaining user rated the game as being on the tough side, averaging out the game rated as having a just right to tough difficulty rating.

Lastly we have the games lifespan, again we have just 4 users rating this category with an even split between them, with each rating the game as having a different lifespan. The 4 users are split between 1 hours, 4 hours, 20 hours and 40 hours, averaging out the game comes in at a 16.3 hours lifespan.

This is the part of 0 to Z where is visit four online retailers and see what the availability of the title is, and what price you would be looking at if you wanted to pick this title up, the sites that I will be using for this are Amazon.com, eStarland.com, retrogames.co.uk and Gamedude.com I know the last one is very location specific, but from a podcast I listen to, I’ve heard they have a huge stock of older games, Ebay has now been dropped unless the game is unavailable at other retailers.

So lets get down to business with Gamedude who unsurprisingly don’t stock this Japanese exclusive release, same goes for Retrogames.co.uk and eStarland.com, so our last hope rests with Amazon.com in out search for a copy of this game.

Amazon do stock copies of other games in the series however this particular one is not stocked or listed on the site, same goes for the co.uk version of the site. So the last hope we head over to Ebay.com to see if we can strike lucky and find at least one copy.

We do strike lucky finding 2 copies of the game available on Ebay.com, the first copy is a used copy in good condition, it comes with the disc, case manual and cover, this copy is priced up at $9.50, however a shipping fee of $6.50 pushes this up to $10.10.

The second copy that is available is again in good condition with the case, manual, disc and cover, this copy is priced up at $13.98, this copy however comes with free economy shipping to Asia, Europe and North America, expedited shipping is available however this will add between $15 and $24 in shipping fees depending on where you are.

Written by

P J Gibbon