Idea #82: A random review of Cyberformula: Road to the Infinity 1 to 4

The audience for this game outside of Japan is probably in the low hundreds, but after binging the games for the past two weeks, I needed some way to organize my thoughts.

First of all, what is Cyberformula?

It originated in the 90’s intended to take elements of Speed Racer before being reformulated to take advantage of the boom in F1 popularity. It features futuristic, hydrogen powered vehicles that can transform their body panels for aerodynamic advantages, AI assistance to handle the ludicrous 600+ KPH (370+ mph) speeds, and also have rocket boosters, set in the far flung era of … 2015.

They were a bit optimistic.

The original run definitely shows its Speed Racer heritage. Despite supposedly being a take of F1, they regularly have courses that lead them to go down dirt tracks and narrow canyons. Its surprise popularity with older audiences had the show runners quietly remove those events and focus on circuit/street racing in the following OVAs.

A select handful of cars use their transforming abilities to have a very generous take on “movable aero” ranging from just moving fins, a more streamlined body, all the way to lifting fans allowing you to practically fly over your competition. Why no one else tries to copy it after the insane success the protag gets with it, or at least suggest it being mildly unfair, is not the focus of this post.

In the early 2000s, the anime Cyberformula had released 4 games for the PS2, its story mode roughly based upon the OVAs that came after the main show due to its appeal to older audiences. There were an earlier game on the SNES, but it got its serials scrubbed off when imported to the US for some reason. Outside of a handful of fangames, that’s all the series got.

The four games are all part of the “Road to the Infinity” series, numbered 1 to 4, and all with fairly distinct playstyles.

I only played the first one years back, though I did glimpse the other titles on youtube though I never figured out why they looked so different to mine until recently. So I ... “acquired” the other 3 titles out of curiosity, and see for myself what the devs tried out.

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Onto the games.

Infinity 1:
A surprisingly well polished first entry. A decent selection of events and track variation, though the series never really makes new tracks outside the ones that debuted here. Technically the Grand Prix events are supposed to take place after canon, but the IP owners declared them fun fanfiction.

The cars are also pretty well detailed, with shiny metallic surfaces and smooth animation of the moving bits on the vehicles. And there’s a decent selection of them, almost 50 once you unlock them all, all with unique stats.

The driving physics are pure arcade. Every cars’ brakes are inhumanly strong, just letting go of the gas for half a second lets you take turns at over 400 KPH for all but the sharpest of turns. (Editor’s note, the cars don’t seem to be actually hitting 600 KPH animation wise, I don’t think my reflexes are that good. That or they’re implying we’re driving in slight slow motion). However, it does help give the impression that these formula cars are monstrously powerful machines, especially once the rocket boosters are activated and send you into 700 KPH territory.

Every games’ boost mechanic is a little bit different. For 1, you have a recharging meter you can use when full. The recharge rate is varies with each car, however you can vary it by adjusting the boost pressure meter. Crank it up, you get a slightly higher boost speed at the cost of slower recharge. Vice versa, less speed, more frequent uses. Based on the track’s number of straight lines, and length, you can make decisions on whether you want to spam boosts every 20 sec or save it all for the main straight. Ending the boost early results in half the remaining meter being lost, so if your recharge rate is particularly slow, short bursts aren’t as worth it.

The presentation is the weakest part in comparison to the future series. Everyone’s speedo uses the exact same design, and there’s a lack of customizability in the controls.

Infinity 2:
Things kept the same, the tracks and the cars for the most part, though with a handful of new drivers and cars. The Grand Prix format is kept.

However, the physics and boost mechanic got heavily reworked, and IMO not for the better. The devs seemed to want to move a little bit away from the arcade-y feel of the first game, but it seems like it ended up on a weird halfway point. It is unpredictable whether the car will just barely turn hard enough into a corner or suddenly oversteer like crazy. Honestly, could be a skill issue, but the following change is an even bigger negative.

The boost was changed from a recharging meter to a fixed integer count of uses. This completely takes out the strategy of being able to adjust your boost usage based on how powerful your boost speed was. If your car had both low top speed and boost speed, too bad, you get the same amount as everyone else.

This may be partially based on how the anime presented the boost usage, with some scenes showing an integer count of remaining uses. The anime also had only 2 or 3 cars being competitive, with the protag and his rivals getting cars ridiculously faster in both straight-line speed and cornering speed than everyone else to the point of lapping them, so maybe it’s not the most balanced system. Perhaps hover turns shouldn’t be legal.

The presentation received an overhaul, and is probably the best change of the sequel, and one that is kept for the rest of the series. Everyone’s speedo is based on the one showed in the anime, instead of the generic bars and blobs in the first game. The few cars with super cornering abilities from the anime also got implemented here. If you can master them, you barely have to slow down for corners at all. Really, this just shows how ridiculously dominant the protag’s car is.

The controls, however, are somehow even more limited. Like the first game, you can only choose from a list of presets, but somehow there’s even fewer choices. Why???

Not much comment on the story mode because the driving controls baffled and confused me too much to want to continue.

Infinity 3:
There’s a bit less in alternative events, but a much-expanded story mode, which weirdly enough takes cues from the anime in some points. One race I got first place because the guy in the lead canonically crashes out and is just gone for the rest of the event. It’s a decent way of introducing new players to the driving mechanics. The vehicles, and tracks are broadly similar to previous titles, though I think there’s a handful of new cars and tracks.

And just like before, the driving physics got tweaked a bit again. While still blending the line between realistic and arcade, it is a lot easier to predict how your car reacts when you brake into a turn. However, this has the side-effect of making the cars feel a lot more sluggish, their ability to accelerate out of a turn being noticeably lacking in comparison to previous titles. The turns I take at 350 KPH in Infinity 1 now must be handled at around 150 KPH in Infinity 3. Rarely will I go down a straight fast enough to hit the car’s top speed without using boost. This causes a feature in several cars, the ability to transform the car’s characteristics from cornering mode to low-drag high speed, to be somewhat pointless if the car is never able to reach it normally. The millisecond boost in acceleration barely keeps it worthwhile.

Somewhat in compensation, boost usage is a lot less restricted.

The boost system only got a minor tweak this time, but it is an amazing change for how simple it is: you can choose the number of boost charges per race, and a pit-stop to refill it. Just like the first game, you can choose between boost spamming or saving it for the longest straights. Get a good enough lead, you then have the option of entering the pits to get a fresh set of boosts. For the most part I tend to almost max out the boost counter (10) since even with reduced boost speed, boost spamming can still up my average speed enough to climb back into the lead after a trip to the pits.

Controls, this time, is finally “do whatever”. There’s the default control scheme, but also a “Custom” scheme, where you can freely change what each button is mapped to.

However, I feel like the art direction of the vehicles and tracks are a bit of a downgrade.

The cars are more cel-shaded instead of metallic, blocky looking instead of streamlined. A few of the cars with fins are so tall they reach over half the screen. It makes them look like painted, plastic toys.

The tracks, despite the cars being less firmly planted into the road, are slightly narrower than before. Combined with the somewhat lackluster acceleration and sluggish turning, it is difficult to pass other cars without accidentally bumping into them.

Infinity 4:
This is the last released official Cyberformula game I can see, though I’ve recently found out an indie group is making a fan game on Steam (with limited tracks, but decent art direction so far)

The tracks, cars, and events of 4 are once again broadly the same compared to 3.

Another overhaul is made to the driving mechanics, though overall not entirely for the better.

While the act of driving is like that of Infinity 3, the third-person camera lags noticeably behind your car’s turning movement. The camera in Infinity 3 also lags a little bit more than the near rigid cameras in 1 and 2, but for the most part it is pointed where your velocity vector is pointing. With 4, the lag is bad enough that I’m forced to go into first-person mode just so I can be sure which way the car’s nose is pointing, and not zig-zag down a perfectly straight road. Otherwise, I would need to memorize the turning angle for each corner and adjust the car’s nose almost blindly. I know it can be mastered, but not being able to see the cars kinda takes away from the aesthetic. Another baffling change is removing the ability to look behind you due to the button being taken up by a new slow-motion ability only a few drivers have. The rear-view mirror? It only looks out your left side. Want to know if there’s a car in your right-side blind spot? Too bad, it is now Super Illegal.

This is a shame, because I really do like the new ideas for boost and pitstop.

Instead of an integer number for boost uses, this time you get a fuel bar to be used as you see fit. Spamming short boosts is basically not penalized at all in comparison to the previous titles, and you can once again, precisely adjust how powerful the boost is like Infinity 1.

A new reason is added for visiting the pitstop: tire wear. You are given a selection of hard to soft tires that affects your handling and how quickly they wear out, mostly you use soft for qualifying and hard for the full race. You can even swap tire compounds in the pit. The tires mechanic has a neat side effect of encouraging heavy boost use. Because no tire can last the entire race without being worn out, you will have to visit the pits at least once to avoid being almost incapable of handling turns. Since the pit stop also refills the boost gauge, might as well empty it beforehand.

This is honestly a neat idea; you have a choice of risking an extra lap or two on yellow tires for a more aggressive back half or pitting early. Unfortunately, it is hampered by the bad camera. The slightly unpredictable nature of wearing out tires combined with the wiggly following camera makes it especially difficult to get a handle on which way your nose is pointed. This results in a somewhat frustrating player experience.

The controls customization is kept over from Infinity 3

In Summary:

In terms of just a fun arcade racer, I think the first game nails it the best. Its available cars have varied handling and they all look pretty good. Hilariously, there’s a single regular open-wheeled formula car surrounded by super futuristic multi-wheeled and multi-winged contraptions. Adjustable boost power allows for a customizable driving style. Most tracks are decently wide, therefore forgiving of mistakes. Most events give points to unlock something new. The high cornering speeds aren’t too realistic, but it does give the feeling of controlling hyper advanced machines blasting down the countryside.

In terms of aesthetics, both 2 and 3 do a pretty good job. The car shading and speedometer is much more aesthetically like the anime, and the story mode actually follows a set of characters and plot (that I barely understand since it’s all in Japanese) instead of a “do whatever you want” kinda thing in 1. Though I am biased in preferring the way 3 feels to play.

4 I’d say has the best theoretical gameplay in mechanics and options, but how it feels to drive is the most annoying thing to learn to master, or rather, work around. If it just had the camera of 1 or 2, it’d be the best all around game in the series.