Play the Initial D Racing Game in a Real Hachi-Roku

While it’s not quite the same as ripping around Japan’s mountain passes in your car, this fun Initial D game at a Japanese arcade is about as close as it’s going to get without actually having to deliver tofu for your dad. With this take on the Initial D game, you sit in a real car, steering with a real steering wheel, throttling with a real gas pedal, and tossing it through the gears using a real shift knob. It’s almost like you’re right there in Akagi next to Takumi and the rest of his crew.

At this arcade, you have the choice of sitting in Takumi’s Toyota Corolla hatchback (Trueno AE86), Keisuke’s yellow Mazda RX-7 (FD3S), or a blue Subaru WRX. Yes, this is all pretty gimmicky, but obviously it was no cheap gimmick for the arcade owners to pull off. The irony of it all is that you could conceivably sit in the real AE86 while controlling a different car in the video game, couldn’t you?