Final Lap Twin

What happens when you cross a racing game with a Japanese RPG? Namco posed exactly this crazy question in the case of Final Lap Twin, and the result is one of the most unconventional titles on the PC Engine, where behind the wheel you live out a slice of adventure.

The game is split into two faces. The first is a classic racing mode derived from the arcade hit Final Lap, which is purely about speed and the fight for position on the track. The second, far stranger one, is the so-called Quest mode, in which the player, as a young racer, travels between towns, talks to characters, collects parts for their car and gradually works their way toward the top of the racing world. Instead of battles there are races, and instead of experience points there are upgrades to the machine.

Namco was one of the pillars of the Japanese arcade and console industry, and Final Lap was its respected racing brand. Combining it with RPG elements, a genre at the peak of its popularity in Japan, was a bold experiment that exploited the fact that the PC Engine held a strong position in the land of the rising sun and had an audience open to unconventional ideas.

It is precisely in this hybridity that the game's cultural significance lies. At a time when genres stuck to their pigeonholes, Final Lap Twin showed that a racing game could have narrative, progression and a sense of a journey. It was a harbinger of later titles that brought story and career elements into racing, even if at the time it was more of a fringe curiosity.

Today, Final Lap Twin is enticing above all for collectors and fans of unconventional concepts. The combination of straightforward racing and a slower quest mode offers an experience hard to find on other platforms of the era, and it is a fine showcase of the experimental spirit of the Japanese gaming scene.

Why play it: For the unusual fusion of racing and RPG progression that turns simple lapping of a track into a little adventure.