Game series
Video game series
Battle Gear (バトル・ギア), previously known as Side by Side (サイド・バイ・サイド), is a series of racing video games developed and published by Taito, first released in arcades with Side by Side in 1996. The series was later released for various home consoles, such as the PlayStation and PlayStation 2.
Side by Side series
Side by Side episodes allow the player to select import sports cars from a Japanese maker either, Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Mazda, later Mitsubishi and Subaru were available as well, and race downhill in Japanese mountain passes known as touge.
Battle Gear series
The Battle Gear evolution allows online play in both arcade and home versions and add a tuning feature for the cars. Battle Gear 4 saw the adding of European and American makers for the first time, Renault, Peugeot, Citroën, Mini, Volkswagen and Ford.
Tokyo Road Race
The PlayStation 2 version of Battle Gear 2 was licensed by Midas Interactive and released as a budget game named Tokyo Road Race by various distributors in PAL territories, hence the different packages in Europe and Oceania. Online play mode was deactivated in the Tokyo Road Race version and the game was not distributed in the American market.
