Battle Gear

Battle Gear
Side by Side’s current franchise logo
Genre(s)	Racing Sim racing
Developer(s)	Taito
Publisher(s)	Taito
Platform(s)	Arcade, PlayStation, PlayStation 2
First release	Side by Side 1996
Latest release	Battle Gear 4 Tuned 2006

Side by Side ([サイド・バイ・サイド] Error: {{nihongo}}: text has italic markup (help)) is the franchise for a popular 1990s touge racing game series whose name changed to Battle Gear ([バトル・ギア] Error: {{nihongo}}: text has italic markup (help)) in the 2000s. It was developed by Taito and was first released on arcade cabinets before being ported on the PlayStation home consoles. Battle Gear 2 is known as Tokyo Road Race in Europe.

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 home version for Battle Gear 2 was licensed by Midas Interactive and released as a budget game named Tokyo Road Race and released by various distributors in PAL territories, hence the different packages in Europe and Oceania. Online play mode was deactivited in the Tokyo Road Race version and the game was not distributed in the American market.

Series Timeline

[1996]

• Japan 08: Side by Side (Taito JC System Type-C)

[1997]

• Japan 06: Side by Side 2 Evoluzione (Taito JC System Type-C)
• Japan 12: Side by Side Special (PlayStation)

[1999]

• Japan 06: Battle Gear (Taito Type-Zero)
• Japan 11: Side by Side Special 2000 (PlayStation) - bargain re-edition

[2000]

• Japan 07: Battle Gear 2 (Taito Type-Zero)

[2001]

• Japan 03: Battle Gear 2 (PlayStation 2)

[2002]

• Japan 11: Battle Gear 3 (Namco System 246)
• Europe 11: Tokyo Road Race (PlayStation 2) - offline only

[2003]

• Japan 12: Battle Gear 3 (PlayStation 2)
• Japan 12: Battle Gear 3 Limited Edition (PlayStation 2) - deluxe edition with goodies
• Japan 12: Battle Gear 3 Tuned (Namco System 246)

[2005]

• Japan 07: Battle Gear 4 (Taito Type X+)

[2006]

• Japan 11: Battle Gear 4 Tuned (Taito Type X+)

See also

• Battle Gear 3
• Battle Gear 4

External links

• Side by Side homepage - Archives
• Side by Side 2 homepage - Archives
• Battle Gear 2 PS2 homepage - Home
• Battle Gear 3 PS2 homepage - Home
• Battle Gear 3 Tuned homepage - Arcade
• Battle Gear 4 homepage - Arcade
• Battle Gear series homepage - BattleGear.net