Unfortunately the sound effects are played back at higher sound levels, drowning out any real enjoyment one could have with the great music. All of the cars looked very well modeled, crafted with impeccable detail to represent their real world counterparts. Graphically Initial D looks great, with some very nice lighting effects sporting the usual lens flare effect that's prevalent in many games today.
I tend to find racing games with plenty of other cars on the tracks to be more vibrant and exciting overall. It gets real lonely out there because you're either the only car on the road OR you're racing against just one other opponent. The other CON, which is more of a personal preference, happens to be the emptiness of the roads. So with that, those looking for some 2 Player Initial D action will have to stick with the linked setup of the coin-op version. The biggest one being the lack of a 2 Player mode! What the hell? In this day and age, 2 Player head-to-head racing should come standard in all racing games since even gamers tend to have friends to. Unfortunately even with the amount of pros this game has, it also has a CON or two. This is a very useful feature that significantly increases the replay value of the game, while at the same time preventing frustration from setting in due to being relegated to using the same car over and over again.
INITIAL D STAGE 5 PC GAME PS2
In addition to being an excellent port of the coin-op version with some hidden console exclusive gems, the PS2 conversion also brings other extras to the table such as a virtual garage where you can store a number of different cars. With the generous inclusion of new tracks taken from the anime, as well as plenty of new music and other enhancements, this conversion goes beyond its 'Arcade Stage-Version 2' sibling. Initial D: Special Stage plays more like an arcade conversion PLUS. With Initial D: Special Stage, if you think you're getting a direct conversion of the arcade game, you're wrong. Even when your vehicle rams into walls and bounces back and forth, it still maintains its high rate of speed, and isn't penalized severely like it would be in many other racers. The action really is "fast and furious" as you burn rubber around those hairpin turns at high speeds.
Although the controls tend to feel a tad bit sensitive with the cars making sudden turns at the tap of the digital pad/analog stick, it's still a dream come true when compared to the nightmarish controls of actual driving sims. Each car controls impeccably well, gripping the roads as you round those sharp corners and speeding through those straight a ways.