Final Lap Twin

Final Lap Twin (ファイナルラップツイン) is a hybrid racing/role-playing game released for the PC Engine in 1989 and the TurboGrafx-16 in 1990, as a spin-off to the 1987 arcade game Final Lap. The story mode featured in the game revolves around a young driver who desires to live up to the reputation of his racing-champion father. He travels over the map, meeting small-time racers, and must race his car to earn money that he spends on upgrading his car, eventually facing the local racing champion. After beating the rest of the local racing champions in the various cities, the player character must go through a maze to find the final upgrades of the different parts of his car, and then face the world racing champion.

As with a previous Namco TG-16 game, World Court Tennis, Namco added an unusual RPG mode which plays much like other JRPGs of the era with the main difference being that all battles are played out as single lap races against other drivers. Losing a race sends the player back to their home in the starting city. The player must challenge the star racers of each area before they can move onto the next and must upgrade their vehicles to stand any chance of winning. The player earns "special parts" from defeated champions which assists them against subsequent foes.