Racing Lagoon is a classic PS1 Japanese racing game you've never heard of

Even these days, very few racing games attempt to tell an actual story. Usually it’s up to you to concoct your own bitter rivalry with whichever fictional driver sits above you in the championship standings. Back in the late 1990s though, when anything seemed possible, Japanese developer Square Enix attempted to blend street racing with a role playing game in Racing Lagoon.

Not an RPG, but a Car-PG. Yes that term is excruciating, but for Racing Lagoon we’re prepared to fight the rising bile in our throat.

That’s because there has never been a racing game quite like this one. Inspired by the Japanese illegal street racing scene and, of course, the ever present influence of the Initial D manga, Racing Lagoon took place around Yokohama City and spun a stylish, moody yarn involving rival teams, poetic dialogue and an amnesiac hero.

You spent your time between events cruising around a top-down world map, challenging other drivers and effectively prying components from their cars after you beat them, until your own vehicle was fast enough to compete in the next big race. The cars themselves were functionally identical to real world models, but with barely tweaked names. As an example the Mazda RX-7 was dubbed the Seven-RX, which is the legal equivalent of when a toddler covers its eyes and assumes you can’t see them.

The only slight problem for Western audiences is that the game sold modestly in its native Japan, so it was never translated into English and exported to foreign markets. It took a concerted effort by fans, who clearly have a bit too much time on their hands, to produce a complete, unofficial translation of the game in 2021, which is floating around the internet for those dedicated enough to find it. Nerds, we salute you...

PlayStation, 1999