Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune
Red Flash FAQ by AkioAsakura
Contents
i. COPYRIGHT INFORMATION
ii. VERSION HISTORY
1. INTRODUCTION
a. The game itself
b. Time attack
c. What are the red flashes for?
d. Why should I bother trying to get them?
2. GENERAL TIPS
a. Optimal Set-up
b. Watch out for that... wall!
c. The Need for Speed
3. COURSES
a. C1 Inbound
b. C1 Outbound
c. Central Belt Highway Counterclockwise
d. Central Belt Highway
e. Metropolitan Highway
4. EXTRA STUFF
a. The perils of being "Special"
b. The Special Car Time Attack
5. CREDITS AND CONTACT
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* i. COPYRIGHT INFORMATION *
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This FAQ is copyright 2004 by Dexter Maallo. This is intended for personal use
only, and publication of any kind without notification is strictly prohibited.
This FAQ is hosted at www.gamefaqs.com. If you wish to use this FAQ on your
website, please contact me first. Contact information is listed at the end of
this FAQ. If you wish to quote from this, at least give me credit. Any
translations are welcome, but you must let me know ahead of time and must not
alter any meaning from the original text. All vehicles and characters are
copyright of their respective owners.
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* ii. VERSION HISTORY *
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Version 1.0
12/15/04
-*yawns* I stayed up to 4 in the morning for this?!?! I must really be bored...
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* 1. INTRODUCTION *
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A. THE GAME ITSELF
Welcome to AkioAsakura's Red Flash FAQ! This is an in-depth FAQ concerning the
game WANGAN MIDNIGHT: MAXIMUM TUNE, one of the newest and hottest racing arcade
games (at the time of this writing, anyway) right now. It uses the memory card
system like Initial D, and it allows you to save your car into it. You can then
play with that card over and over in order to tune it up as you go through
story mode, race against other players, and do time attacks on each course.
For this FAQ, this assumes that you already played out the game completely and
are either battling or doing time attacks and want to get that custom title. If
you're looking for FAQ's about the stats for each car, or how to beat that pesky
Blinky and Pac Man at the last stage, check out the other FAQ's. Note that this
FAQ does not give detailed descriptions about what lines you have to take
throughout the course to get the best time, but only at certain points on the
course to get that red flash.
B. TIME ATTACK
Time attack is one of the features of this game in which you race your car
through one of 5 courses, one of which requires additional tokens to drive on
(more on this later), and try to race through them as fast as you can. This is
great practice if you want to get your lines right; and by lines, I mean the
fastest path that your car should take through the course. Your top record is
stored into the card and you can take note of its password to put into the
ranking websites (
http://www.namco.co.jp/aa/am/vg/wanganmaxi/ranking/ for
Japanese,
http://www.namco.co.jp/aa/english/wangan-mt/ranking for English,) and
compare your times with that of the rest of the world. This is also the place
where you can get custom titles to go with your car.
C. WHAT ARE THE RED FLASHES FOR?
During time attack, you may have noticed red flashes. No, you're not
hallucinating, nor is your car getting tagged by the police for driving too
fast, and if they catch you, they'll confiscate your card (and if you live in
California, it will get ripped to shreds; they're doing that to real cars
impounded for street races); this means that you are going at "ultimate speed"
(at least, for that part of the course). You have to get a certain number of
flashes in a course in order for the prefix of your title to change.
D. WHY SHOULD I BOTHER TRYING TO GET THEM?
Well, for one, bragging rights! It's one thing to be called "The Red Holy
Emperor", but its even cooler to be called "The HIGHWAY Holy Emperor"! You'll
have to admit, mastery of a course will garner respect (at least for your
driving ability). The only side-effect I can think of is that now everyone will
run away from you because you kick butt way too much, or at least, that's what
they're thinking if they see that title.
On the other hand, it is also a good indicator of how fast you're going in a
time attack; even after you've gotten the title, its still a good indicator of
whether or not you're going really fast in a course (although since it occurs in
only some parts of a course, it is possible to have a very fast time without
getting all the flashes). If you're getting those flashes, you're doing okay,
besides the negative time that shows up when you pass a checkpoint.
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* 2. GENERAL TIPS *
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A. OPTIMAL SET-UP
For all of those flashes, setting your horsepower at 680 is the optimal setting
before you set out to get that title. This assumes though, that your car is
fully tuned. If not, make sure you have at least 3-4 units of handling to go
with that horsepower. It is certainly possible to get those flashes at a
different setting, but having your car at grip at 680 makes it doable and
comfortable, which brings me to my next point...
B. WATCH OUT FOR THAT... WALL!
If you make wall contact on any part of the course around 5 seconds before you
hit that red flash, you're screwed. You typically won't be able to get your
speed back up to the required minimum to get that flash. This is why handling is
very important. You want to be able to control your car enough that you get the
fastest speed possible without hitting anything before that or drifting too far.
Which also brings me to...
C. THE NEED FOR SPEED
Remember, the whole point is to be FAST ENOUGH through that point! 680HP is the
minimum required, and for that setup, you DON'T WANT TO LOSE TOO MUCH SPEED
THROUGH THE TURNS! If your car is set to drift or dangerous, it will lose way
too much speed to go through the turns without hitting something, and it won't
make it up to speed even if you don't hit anything! Being able to do that
requires a lot of control during the drift, and it is certainly not for
beginners or intermediates. At the same time though, even with a grip setup, it
is still possible to lose too much speed simply because you turn too much. Some
turns only require a gentle turn without holding it for too long. This is
especially true in C1 Outbound and Central Belt Line, where even if you make it
through the center divider without a scratch, you end up with a tad less speed
than required because you jerked the wheel too much. For little turns like
these, keep your speed constant or increasing as much as possible by keeping
your turns as little as possible.
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* 3. COURSES *
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The setup for this section is like this:
A. <Course name>
Flashes: <n, where n is the number of flashes in the course>
Location: <where each flash is located>
1. <location> <speed required>
<General tips on how to get that flash, description of the section>
Difficulty: <easy, medium, and hard>
..
Title: <The title you get for that course. In this case, the car will be a blue
S30.>
These were done using the S30, the old Fairlady 240 Z (my Devil Z, mwahahaha),
so the techniques may be slightly different depending on the drive train,
especially if you're using a 4WD like a R32.
And now without further ado:
A. C1 INBOUND
Flashes: 4
Locations:
1.) Right where you start off, around 12.9km left; 271+ kph
Just push the pedal to the metal. Try to cut in close through those walls as
much as possible, but without making too much tire squeal going out of the turn.
Weave in through the small turns as straight as you can, and just turn gently on
the last left. The flash is right after you exit that turn.
Difficulty: Easy
2.) After the first red s-turn when you pass under the tunnel, around 4.1 km
left; 265+ kph
Grrr, this one's annoying. It's very easy to hit the walls as you do that
s-turn. If you exit that s-turn under 240 kph, forget getting that flash and
start over. You have to get the hang of it and find your groove; let off the
pedal before you turn, but only for a very short while, and try to cut into the
wall. Halfway into that turn, turn VERY hard to your left. Downshift and let off
if need be, but take care to not let off too much. I did that once and it pissed
me off royally.
Difficulty: Hard
3 and 4.) In close succession, as you go through the two center dividers, around
3.9 and 3.8km left; 300+kph and 290+ kph respectively
This one is semi-hard if you're doing it for the first time. The first of these
two flashes is dead easy, as you can go through the first center divider with
your foot down. The second part is highly intimidating though; you're actually
trying to fit the camel through the eye of a needle at the speed of a sewing
machine, if that analogy fits. You have to turn to the right just enough so that
you shoot through the hole, but at the same time stop short of slamming into the
wall of the tunnel due to sheer inertia. The recommended path (and is the
optimal path I know of, as I don't know how you can possibly go the other way
without too much speed loss) is to take the first center divider through the
right, turn a little to your right, and shoot through the left of the second
center divider. I usually take it by turning so that it looks like I'm aiming
the car towards the center divider, but because I'm already drifting a bit to
the left, I miss it completely and take a straight path through the hole. Its
hard to get the hang of at first, but once you get over your minor bout of
claustrophobia, you'll find it is surprisingly easy to take.
Difficulty: Easy (first one), Hard (second one, only if you let the center
divider mess with your head)
Title: C1 (e.g. "The Cyan Mistress" becomes "The C1 Mistress")
B. C1 OUTBOUND
Flashes: 3 (confirmed, supposedly 4, will fix in a later version)
Locations:
1 and 2.) In close succession, as you go through the first center divider after
the hard right; 300+ kph and 290+kph respectively
Oh man, not this one again. Fortunately, you only have one center divider to be
really worried about, and its set up so that you can shoot straight through it
too! The only catch is that you don't get the second red flash through one of
two things; a.) you hit the wall on your right as you turn left, or b.) you turn
way too much to the left and go below 290kph (!@^%!^@#!%$@#%$!@). Just turn
slightly left, and time it correctly so that you do it BEFORE you exit the
divider. This will point your car to the left and it will avoid the railing on
your right and get the flash. It doesn't matter which side you take it, as long
as you don't hit anything or turn too much.
Difficulty: Easy (first one, if you didn't hit anything after you make the hard
right), Medium(second one)
3.) After the hard right, before you end the course, around 1.0 km left; 260+kph
If you can time the turn right, you can make it even if you do hit the wall as
you turn. Just make sure the hitting sound is more of a bump sound than a WHAM
sound. It is preferable however if you don't hit the wall at all. Take the far
left after you go through the 2 winding yellow turns (optimally you should end
up here anyway). Then as you approach the red turn, point your car a little off
to the right of the edge of the yellow and black bar. As soon as you shoot in,
turn hard. The turn will automatically slow you down enough, so just maintain
the steering wheel position (and maybe do a bit of counter-steering as you go)
and downshift as you exit. Even in fourth, you should be able to hit that speed,
but you'd want to be shifting to 5th as you hit the flash. I've seen people take
that flash at around 275, and that's a comfortable cushion.
Difficulty: Medium
Title: C1
C. CENTRAL BELT HIGHWAY COUNTERCLOCKWISE
Flashes: 2 (confirmed, but a friend says there are 3; I have to ask him first
and see it for myself)
Locations:
1 and 2.) See the descriptions for flashes 1 and 2 on C1 Outbound.
Title: Wangan (e.g. "The Cyan Mistress" becomes "The Wangan Mistress")
D. CENTRAL BELT HIGHWAY
Flashes: 4
Locations:
1.) Around 20.5km left, after the hard right yellow turn and the slight left
turn; 295+kph
Dead easy. If you don't hit a thing and don't turn too hard on the yellow turn,
you should be fine. Take note though that even though it is a yellow turn, you
have to turn hard like it was a red one, like the one described for C1 Outbound.
But again, because you actually have more room here, take advantage of it and
let yourself drift to the edge of the left wall as close as you can to keep your
speed up.
Difficulty: Easy
2, 3 and 4.) See the descriptions for flashes 2, 3 and 4 on C1 Inbound, but
change the kilometers remaining.
Title: Wangan
E. METROPOLITAN HIGHWAY
Oh man, this is the big one! You need to put in more tokens (4 usually) just to
play on this course, and with good reason; it takes 12 minutes to finish! It
almost runs like the final stage in story mode, but much longer. But if you get
all flashes, you get the final title. It's VERY hard to do because its tiring
and so many things can go wrong (even I'M haven't gotten this one because I
messed up one of the turns >_< ), but if you make it, you can say that you've
mastered all the courses (because it does take up ALL of the courses!). Note
that any descriptions I make can be referenced back to C1 Inbound and Outbound,
the base courses.
Flashes: 8 (!!!)
Locations:
1.) See the description for the first flash of Central Belt Highway.
2.) Hard left turn after the second long CBH straightaway, where the slight
right going into part of C1 Inbound was supposed to be; 265+kph
This is like flash #3 for C1 Outbound, but you're going left instead of right.
This one is kind of an exception to the rule of "Don't-hit-anything-right-before
-the-flash". Downshift as you go into the turn, but instead of trying to cut
into the turn, stay as close to the wall as possible. When the actual turn does
come, turn hard to the left, but allow yourself to hit the wall and downshift to
3rd. Ride the wall, and then kind of bounce off it. It's tricky, but if you
bounce off the wall at 185kph or higher, you should be fine.
Difficulty: Medium
3 and 4.) See flashes 1 and 2 for C1 Outbound.
5.) See flash 1 for C1 Inbound, but instead of 270+kph, you must be 285+kph. It
is much higher because unlike the start of C1 Inbound, you're running through
that point at full tilt. It is also slightly more difficult.
Difficulty: Medium
6, 7 and 8.) See flashes 2, 3 and 4 for C1 Inbound.
Title: Highway (e.g. "The Cyan Mistress" becomes "The Highway Mistress")
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* 4. EXTRA STUFF *
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A. THE PERILS OF BEING "SPECIAL"
Remember the 2 secret cars, the Celsior and Z31? (6,4,3, oh 6,4,3) They're
pretty cool, aren't they? Especially the neon lights under the Celsior. I don't
know how they're supposed to help handling, but they just look cool.
Unfortunately... they're also nigh impossible to get titles with.
Why is this? Well, the Celsior alone has a very bad disadvantage. It's really,
really, slow! It's the slowest car in the game, and with bad handling to boot.
And its massive. I've rarely seen anyone shoot that thing through flash #4 on C1
Inbound without hitting the walls, just because the back end smacks anything it
gets its butt on. As for the Z31, it loses too much speed in the turns. I've
seen my friend Ali, who happens to be the 25th highest (world) and 2nd highest
(USA) time attacker on C1 Outbound, try it with his friend's Z31 and fail to get
all the flashes. What this basically means is that the cars are very hard to
keep at the speed needed to get the flash. You might have to be at 800HP just
for that to work, especially for the Celsior (although I'm probably exaggerating
here). I'm not saying it is impossible, just very, very hard.
If there is anyone who knows of a Highway Ultimate or Valiant out there, please
let me know how you got it! I'll make sure you get full credit for it.
B. THE SPECIAL CAR TIME ATTACK
There are two modes of time attack for the game; the one where you use your own
car, and the second option lets you use the 3 special cars; Reina Akikawa's
GT-R, Akio Asakura's Devil Z, and Tatsuya Shima's Blackbird (Personally, I like
MY Devil Z better, but that's another story). You can't change modes from refuse
to accept challengers once you choose it.
Using any of these cars will still activate the red flashes; however, getting
those flashes will NOT transfer to your title. It treats the car as if it
doesn't have a title and won't give it a new one. Makes sense, actually, since
its not your car... why should you get the title for using someone else's car? I
did try that in the hope of getting Wangan on my friend's Z31, but to no avail.
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* 5. CREDITS AND CONTACT *
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I have to thank:
- My friends Ali and Kris, who is some of the best players of the game, and
taught me all I know. Go Diamond Stars!
- The Cal Poly Pomona Student Center, where I first found the game
- My friends Brandon and Randy; it was great racing with you guys ^_^
- the GameFAQ's community, for letting fellow gamers find help with their game
- And last, but not least, God, for nothing else other than giving me a talent
for racing and writing. I hope nobody has a problem with that.
If you have anything to add, see something wrong, or would like to contact me,
e-mail me at
[email protected] with the word "FAQ" somewhere in the subject.
Otherwise, I'll dismiss it as spam. And remember kids, politeness is a virtue!
