Side By Side Special

The Side by Side games allows the player to select import sports cars from major Japanese automakers, namely Toyota, Nissan, Honda, and Mazda, with Mitsubishi and Subaru added in Side by Side 2. Tracks generally resemble Japanese mountain passes, known as touge. The first Side by Side (1996) proved to be a hit in Japan.

While the first two Battle Gear games retain the same gameplay as Side by Side games, starting from Battle Gear 3, online features such as online leaderboards (previously present in the Japanese PlayStation 2 version of Battle Gear 2) and vehicle customization are included through the NESYS network in both arcade and home versions; in the arcade versions, devices resembling an actual car key is used instead of save cards used by competitor titles such as Initial D Arcade Stage and Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune, in which the player turns the ignition key after inserting a coin to play with their saved data. Battle Gear 4 saw the inclusion of European and American makers for the first and only time, namely Renault, Peugeot, Citroën, Mini, Volkswagen and Ford, with additional Japanese manufacturer Suzuki also included in Battle Gear 4 Tuned. All NESYS servers for the games have since been shut down, the latest being that of Battle Gear 4 Tuned on March 31, 2019.

The Side by Side and Battle Gear games have been featured on monthly Japanese arcade rankings published by Game Machine, with the first Side by Side listed as the second most-successful dedicated arcade game of the month in the September 1, 1996 issue, Side by Side 2 Evoluzione in the fifth place in the September 1, 1997 issue, the first Battle Gear ranking third in the August 1, 1999 issue, and Battle Gear 2 in the second place in the September 1, 2000 issue.