Let me tell you something about myself. I like cars (or car-adjacent vehicles). I like to go fast. I like to pump up my speakers. A lot of people feel the same way and tend to make games where you can indulge in these simple pleasures. And while I've played a ton of great ones - titles like Wipeout Fury, F-Zero GX, and Gran Turismo 4 sitting neatly towards the top of my list - I've never felt so understood before I played Type 4.

I don't think I've ever played another game this effortlessly stylish. The presentation is flawless. The simple but eye-catching contrast of black-on-yellow, the shifting of lines and text, the sort of quasi-visual novel interludes that break up each race. The short amount of time you get with each team manager is still enough to develop them and endear them to you. And of course, the game is a stunner for its hardware. I'm not even going to talk about the soundtrack, because if you aren't already intimately familiar, you are going to be shortly. The track designs are engaging and memorable, even if there aren't nearly enough of them. I'm still trying to hit a sweet spot with the drifting mechanics but they satisfy nonetheless. The driving mechanics as a whole aren't some kind of technical masterpiece but they work perfectly for what they are. The biggest issue for me really is the overall lack of content and the fact that the 300+ cars you can unlock don't have enough distinctive qualities to justify that number. It's still pure automotive pleasure from start to finish.

This game has a genuine spirit to it that I'm always hunting for in the medium. If you have a PlayStation and enjoy racing, there is zero reason for R4 to not have a place on your shelf. Haven't played it? Go fix that right now.