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Wangan Midnight is a racing game based on the Wangan Midnight manga. In the main Story mode the game weaves together races based on the manga's plot. It follows the life of the young racer Akio Asakura, his rivals and his love interest Akio Asakura who is a model but also a street racer at night. All the street races take place in Tokyo with licensed cars from the manufacturers Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, RUF, Subaru and Toyota. Akio's story is only one of the ten available scenarios. Two are available at the start and the other eight are unlocked gradually, featuring the characters Harada, Keiichiro Azawa, Kouichi Hiramoto, Masaki, Reina Akikawa, Takayuki Kuroki, Tatsuya Shima, Yamanaka, and Yasu-san. They each have their signature car.

The other game modes are Time Attack with time trials and Free Run where it is possible to drive anywhere on the Shuto Expressway. In the One Match mode another character can be challenged for a quick race and Wangan Connection is the online multiplayer mode for up to four players. Two additional modes can be unlocked later on: Maximum Speed (drive any car on the Yatabe Test Course and go as fast as possible without blowing up the engine) and Survival (beat a designated amount of rivals without losing). The survival mode can three classes with 20, 50 and 99 rivals respectively, and not a single race can be lost.

Several other characters and cars can be unlocked, from the manga as well as from Genki's Tokyo Xtreme Racer \ Shutokō Battle series series. Cars have a large amount of customization options. This is tied to a card system used to tune the car as well as unlock additional vehicles, game modes and character scenarios for the story mode. The Ability cards that provide customization come in five types: Body (yellow), Engine Resistance (purple), Miscellaneous (blue), Setting (green) and Tuner (rose). There are 128 cars in total to collect. Upgraded parts are usually provided through the cards and cosmetic tuning allows the player to alter the bonnet, muffler and rear spoiler. Vehicles have paintjob presets and stickers as well.