Microsoft's first video game console, the original Xbox, didn't see release in Japan until February 22, 2002, being the second region in the world to receive it. The company was hoping to give the console more of a worldwide appeal by bringing in Japanese third-parties to develop original games, and while it didn't help systems sales in Japan (where it never even broke 500,000 units), it certainly wasn't for a lack of trying. While there weren't a ton a Japan-created titles in the OG Xbox's nigh-1,000 game catalog, only 47 of them actually stayed exclusive to the region, though that still includes the likes of Magatama, Double-S.T.E.A.L. - The Second Clash (a.k.a. "Wreckless 2"), Shin Megami Tensei: Nine, Rent-A-Hero No. 1, & the original version of Metal Wolf Chaos. The second Japan-developed game that Microsoft Japan published, after Media.Vision's Nezmix/Sneakers, wound up being Genki's Maximum Chase, which saw release in its home country on September 26, 2002; this was Genki's third & final Xbox game, after Kabuki Warriors & Phantom Crash.
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| Though the game uses letterboxing for cinematic effect, I'll only be keeping them for relevant screenshots. |
Though inspired by Hollywood movie chase sequences & starring "gaijin talent" for its live-action FMV cutscenes, the game wouldn't actually see international release until November 3, 2003, when Majesco Entertainment suddenly licensed it from Microsoft for North America; there was no European release, sadly. At the time the game was dinged points partially for being sold at standard MSRP at the time ($50), even though it was more of an arcade-like experience, but this game wound up being only the start of bigger things. As the life of the Xbox went on, Microsoft had plans to release games like Yukio Futatsugi's Phantom Dust & Double Fine's Psychonauts in North America, but wound up cancelling both releases in 2004. Luckily, both did eventually see release, and their savior was one & the same: Majesco Entertainment. Personally, I feel that Majesco bringing over Maximum Chase is what gave the company the opportunity to then rescue both of those later games from their respective fates (Japanese exclusivity & Unreleased Hell), but what about this first game itself? Let's take a look at Genki's original Xbox swan song, see what it aimed to do, & if it's worth a play today, nearly 20 years after the console's North American launch.
After beating his partner Det. Ervin Barret in a gun range target shoot-out, "traffic cop" Det. Rick Summer of the LAPD gets into his 1970 Chevrolet Camaro to enjoy his day off by attending a baseball game. While waiting at a red light, a woman suddenly enters Rick's car, saying that her name is Catherine Stanfield & asking for help. While Rick initially wants to shrug her off as a crazy person, they're suddenly shot at by unknown assailants, resulting in the two gunning it to escape... And Rick just washed his car! Rick now has to figure out why people want Catherine dead, and eventually how all of this relates to LA's "King of Narcotics" named Coleman & an ex-Soviet hitman named Ivan, both of whom Rick has dealt with in the past, & a new energy bomb code named "Overflare".
Maximum Chase is a game made up of two portions. The first is "Chase Mode", where you have to reach the end of the current stage, all while taking on black cars (or cops) that chase you simply by ramming into them & forcing them into either each other or the environment until they explode. To help enforce the fact that you're being chased & have to reach the end ASAP is the fact that there's also a giant black helicopter following behind you at all times (with very few exceptions), and if you aren't maintaining enough speed then you start getting shot at by it. Also keeping you moving forward is the fact that black cars will always be coming after you, no matter how many you take out; you might get the occasional moment of being by yourself, but it never lasts too long. After finishing a stage you get scored based on how long it took to finish the stage, how many enemies you took out (each one being 2,500 points), your average speed in km/h x100, how many environmental objects (boxes, cones, etc.) you destroyed x500, & how much % of life you had remaining x500, as well as being docked points based on how many "Misses" (i.e. destroyed civilian cars) you had x-2,000. You want as many categories' points to be shown in orange text, which indicates an ideal amount, & you get ranked from E up to S grade. Finally, some stages feature an "Unknown" car that will appear to chase you, identifiable by the word appearing above its health meter & always looking uniquely different, which takes much more damage to destroy. Essentially, in order to get S rank you need to have the right balance between maintaining speed as long as possible, while also consistently taking out enemy vehicles & driving into destructible objects, all while taking as little damage as you can & avoiding civilian vehicles; if you choose to restart a stage, you instantly get an E rank at the end.
The other portion is "Gunfight Mode", which acts like a first-person rail shooter & has you taking out enemy vehicles by shooting them with your gun, and all but the last of these stages ends with a boss fight. Like any standard rail shooter of the time, your gun has limited ammo for each clip & needs reloading in order to keep firing, but Maximum Chase does offer something unique with the Maximum Shot. By holding the Fire button you charge up the Maximum Shot, which does extra damage but also spawns three new reticles over all nearby enemy cars, specifically over each front wheel & a smaller one in the center, roughly in proximity of the engine. If you hit one of these reticles with a Maximum Shot you instantly destroy the enemy vehicle, either making it explode with an engine shot or forcing the car to suddenly move to the left or right, getting in the way of its allies. This is where the real trick to Gunfight Mode lies, though, as a car destroyed by a Maximum Shot can lead to any nearby cars (enemy & civilian) getting damaged, & if any have low enough health they also get destroyed, resulting in a combo, which gives even more points; I should point out that Maximum Shots are only available for handguns, specifically. As for bosses, they can only be damaged by hitting specific spots indicated by reticles, and doing enough immediate damage to a spot can stun the boss temporarily, usually preventing you from taking damage yourself; a single Maximum Shot is usually enough to stun. Just like Chase Mode, the game also scores & ranks your performance after finishing one of these stages, though now the criteria are accuracy % x200, number of enemies destroyed x2,000, total number of combos x4,000, number of destroyed objects x300, & total % of life remaining x300, with the same point deduction amount for each "Miss". Unfortunately, there is no light gun support for Gunfight Mode, but considering that Maximum Chase came out before any of the (paltry) three compatible games did for the entire console, it's understandable; also, I'd argue that this mode is more like Panzer Dragoon Orta than House of the Dead III.
With gameplay out of the way, let's go into the presentation because this is really the most appealing aspect of Maximum Chase. In short, the game splits everything up across a consistent pattern of live-action cutscene, Chase stage, live-action cutscene, Gunfight stage, rinse & repeat across all 10 stages, evenly split between the two modes. Each cutscene slows things down to allow for storytelling, while each one before a Chase stage establishes why Rick & Catherine are always in a new vehicle for each pair of stages, though the change in gun that also accompanies each vehicle isn't really focused on, so Rick pulling out a .44 Magnum for one stage (while he had previously only used semi-automatics) is amusingly silly & left unexplained. While playing each stage, you'll hear the occasional banter between Rick & Catherine, usually befitting the kind of banter you'd hear in a chase scene of some sort from an action movie, but the interesting thing is what happens after you finish a stage. Instead of simply going to the next cutscene, you instead see the stage you just finished replayed, only now with all manner of different camera angles, so as to make it look more cinematic. Also, in place of Rick & Catherine's banter, you now get exclusive phone conversations (Coleman & Ivan, Ervin & Rick, etc.) to help explain the overall plot, like Coleman threatening the Mayor with Overflare, which in turn leads to Ervin finding out about bomb, who then informs Rick about Coleman's threat. Not just that, but you have the option to save your replay of each stage; the magic of a console now having its own internal hard drive.
And, really, that's the entire point of Maximum Chase: It's a cheesy B-movie that's filled with a bunch of chase sequences, ones that the player has the ability to directly control. A single playthrough of the story, cutscenes & all, shouldn't take much longer than about 2-3 hours, depending on how much of the replays you watch; without these repeats, it shouldn't be any longer than your standard feature film. After beating each stage you're asked if you want to save the replay, & after finishing the story you get the option to watch each section of the plot, cutscene or stage, either on their own or as a single, interconnected movie. The main focus is to first make the player feel like the star of a series of chase sequences in an action movie, followed by making the player feel like the director (or at least stunt coordinator) of said sequences, as they now have the ability to look back at their "first take", so to speak, & see what could be changed & improved upon, and you can even select which car & vehicle to use for subsequent playthroughs; each car has a set gun, so take that into consideration. This also applies to the replay value of the game, as after beating the story the first time you gain access to a tree of bonus objectives to achieve, starting with two, which in turn allows access to new objectives as you accomplish those; there are a total of 19 "prizes" to unlock. By doing things like editing a replay, driving a total number of kilometers in-game, finishing a stage at a specific average speed, & taking out "Unknown" enemies (among others), you unlock things like new vehicles (namely the ones that acted as "Unknown" enemies) & guns, & even new codes for some visual filters, like black-&-white. You also can unlock the game's trailer (complete with cheesy narrator), a Making of feature, & a really bizarre promo for the Nissan 350Z, which is one of the cars you get to use in-game.
Of course, only adding to the cheesy fun are the live-action cutscenes, which are almost always obviously done in front of a green screen, since the backgrounds are very obviously 90% fake, which just adds to the silliness. The cherry on top, though, is the fact that, despite hiring nothing but "gaijin talent" who are obviously native English speakers, a completely separate cast of English-speaking actors, seemingly from the U.S., were brought in to voice over everyone in post! The end result is that you kind of get double the hammy acting, as the actors you see on screen are very obviously playing up their roles & scenes in a fun & enjoyable way, while the voice actors do their best to match the cheesy on-screen acting, resulting in them being just at hammy at points; the script being filled with all manner of one-liners doesn't hurt, either. Because of this, I'll be covering the major cast with both actors in "on-screen/voice" order. Rick is performed by Eric Bossick (Kazuhira Miller in Metal Gear Solid V) & Chris Hatfield (Big Al in Ratchet & Clank), with Bossick delivering a great visual presence, while Hatfield gives an enjoyable voice to listen to. Catherine is performed by Maria Robson & Jennifer Aquino, with Robson giving her a good face to feel for, while Aquino gives her a voice you can trust. Ervin is performed by Steven Haynes & Daniel Bryant, and he's probably the most amusing pairing of all, as I wouldn't be surprised if Bryant is NOT a black man, which in turn makes Ervin's voice feel awkwardly "wrong", but in all the best ways. Coleman is performed by Richard Grosse (Douglas in Silent Hill 3) & Dan Gilvezan (Bumblebee in Transformers [G1]), and the two do well to give the villain a cheesy evil mastermind look & sound; amusingly, Gilvezan also voices the Mayor of LA for one replay scene, so he literally threatens himself. Finally, Ivan is performed by Eric Kelso (Jacky Bryant in Virtua Fighter) & Peter Sepunek, and while Sepunek says very little, Kelso winds up making Coleman's heavy look astonishingly like Duke Nukem... Which is awesome.
Visually, Maximum Chase is a good looking game, though maybe one that could have still been doable on the PS2 or GameCube with a few tweaks & some minor graphical downgrades. The vehicles are represented well, and showcase some good damage over time, and there's even some early showcasing of environmental reflections off of them, as extremely basic & limited as they are today. To match the cinematic feel, the entire game is shown in 4:3 letterboxed format with a max of 480p resolution, with no option for widescreen, though during gameplay the HUD & subtitles use the letterboxing, which keep them from being intrusive; at the time it made sense, but with today's TVs it has aged about as well as you think. The live-action cutscenes look decent, if a bit soft, like some sort of filter was put over all of the footage, preventing it from looking a crisp as it should; maybe it's to help the CG backgrounds mesh better with the actors. Unfortunately, the game does suffer from some slowdown at points, most notably in Stage 5, which features all manner of explosions, destructible objects, & the like; the rest of the stages run much more solidly, but with the occasional hiccup. It never ruins the gameplay itself luckily, and it generally performs better during replays, but it is an unfortunate chink in an otherwise solid visual armor. As for the controls, while I don't own a racing wheel for any of my gaming hardware (& I don't even know if this technically supports any), the OG Xbox controller (especially the Controller S originally made for Japan) is perfectly fine for Chase Mode and steering the various cars feels great, which makes sense as some of the staff for Maximum Chase did work on Genki's Shutokou Battle/Tokyo Xtreme Racer franchise. As for Gunfight Mode, while a controller is obviously no replacement for a light gun, it works well enough here, with decently lenient hitboxes on enemy vehicles allowing for your reticle to not always be 100% on the mark, and the Maximum Shot makes for a good work around for not having more immediately accurate control options.
Meanwhile, the music by Yasuharu Takanashi, who would go on to compose for Naruto, Fairy Tail, & Genji: Dawn of the Samurai, doesn't have a lot to it, but what little there is is just outstanding. Seiichi Negi is also credited, but from what I can tell he was simply a producer that Takanashi worked with for his earlier compositions. Essentially, there are two main sets of songs played throughout the actual gameplay, one pair for Chase Mode & one pair for Gunfight Mode, and each pair is for "gameplay" & "replay". The replay songs in particular are the real standout, delivering an excellent orchestral performance that really wouldn't feel out of place in a Hollywood movie; the Gunfight replay theme in particular is instantly memorable. However, Takanashi also mixes things up a little bit, as the Options theme's hip-hop/R&B sound honestly wouldn't be out of place in a game like Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike. Beyond Takanashi's output, Maximum Chase also features two songs from Bellefire, an Irish girl group probably most known for their 2002 song "All I Want is You", a cover of U2's song from 1988, as they're meant to represent Catherine also being an up-&-coming singer in the story. "All the Money in the World" is heard during the end credits, while "Each Step That I Take" is heard in the background of a couple of scenes, and both are perfectly fine pop songs that match the Hollywood-inspired feel that the game aims for.
While the original Xbox's catalog is definitely one best defined by its games developed in North America & Europe, there were still some really cool and/or interesting games for it that came from Japan, and I there are some that I could always cover here in the future. Of them, Maximum Chase most certainly won't be near the top of anyone's favorite Xbox games, but it's one that I will always have a soft spot for. I fully understand its less-than-stellar reception at the time, mainly due to the fact that short-lived arcade experiences like it were no longer the norm & the price it was asking for didn't match with what was expected. However, Maximum Chase is not really a game that's meant to be played for long periods of time, but rather is the perfect game to come back to & play every now & then, similar to how people love revisiting their favorite movies every once in a while. The bonus objectives after beating the main story help encourage some bonus replay value, as it forces the player to do specific things & experiment with different cars & guns in stages they weren't designed around; also, you unlock cars that let you fire rocket launchers, which is awesome. While it wasn't exactly a great value at the $50 MSRP it was originally released at, today it looks to go for no more than $10, on average, which is the perfect price.
In fact, I feel Maximum Chase would be a perfect candidate for the Xbox One & Series backwards compatibility program, as it'd be a great digital release for $9.99, and the unfortunate frame rate drops seen on the OG Xbox would be completely removed. Unfortunately, while the game is technically a Microsoft property, the use of licensed cars from the likes of Nissan, Chevrolet, Toyota, Lexus, & GM, along with the use of songs by Bellefire, might be enough to prevent it from ever happening. Still, if you own the original "DirectX box" (yes, that's where the name came from), then Maximum Chase is more than worth a spot in your collection. It won't go down as one of the all-time greats, but it knows what it wants to be, and is a fun ride to be had.
Game © 2003 Microsoft Corporation
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