Battle Gear 3 is a 2002 arcade online racing game released by Taito and based on real Japanese locations such as Hakone and touge races on board tuned sports cars licensed by famous Japanese makers including Nissan, Toyota and Mazda. On December 15, 2003, Taito released an updated System 246 version named Battle Gear 3 Tuned and featuring seven extra cars including the Mazda RX-8 Type-S (SE3P) and the Nissan 350Z (Z33). Also, four new tracks (the B courses) including a secret one, were added, as well as an exclusive "Takumi Mode". The Takumi Mode gives the player a finishing time/reduced speed penalty each time the car hits a wall. The purpose of this feature is to offer a more realistic and artistic driving experience dixit the developer himself. This principle was used one year later by Polyphony Digital in Gran Turismo 4. By Christmas of the same year, Nextech Entertainment ported Battle Gear 3 to the PlayStation 2 with an opening CG movie, an exclusive "Event Race" online contest mode and some extras from the updated version, consisting of four cars (D-Class) and two courses (B). The Battle Gear (BG) franchise has a popular following in Asia due to the continuation of the Side by Side arcade and PlayStation 1990s series. In late 2002, a PAL version of Battle Gear 2 was licensed by Midas Interactive and published as Tokyo Road Race in Europe and Oceania. Both "Net Ranking" and "Network" modes were removed though. By July 2005, Battle Gear 4 was launched in Japan on Taito's latest 2.5 GHz CPU based Type X+ system board. This new episode introduced official tuned cars such as the Nismo Fairlady S-Tune Z33, Nismo Skyline S-Tune R34 or the Apexi RX-7 FD3S (D1GP'05 version), and even licensed European makers for the very first time.
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