I’ve been meaning to write about one of the Choro Q games for years…better late than never, as they say, as I’ll begin with a quick post about why I think Choro Q Park on Sega Saturn is a unique game that’s worthy of your time.
Game: Choro Q Park (チョロQパーク)
Released: March 1998
Platform: Sega Saturn
Developed by: NexTech Corporation
Published by: Takara
Genre: Racing
Having played a bunch of these games over the past three years, I think the Choro Q games, based on a series of wind-up chibi car toys that debuted in Japan in the 1970s, are one of the best licenses to hit video games historically.
Why? It all comes down to development circumstances. Publisher Takara, who also made the toys, wanted to release games across multiple platforms - Game Boy Color, PlayStation, Saturn, N64, Game Boy Advance, PlayStation 2, etc etc. - but the only way this would be feasible is to enlist the help of multiple developers.
This multi-developer, multi-platform approach massively expanded the definition of what a Choro Q game could be. In the case of Choro Q Park, we have a racing game that’s faithful to the toys in unique ways that its peers aren’t.
Choro Q cars are wind-up toys, and Choro Q Park understands this.
Simply put, each circuit has a fixed number of checkpoints, and before each race you see a top-down view of the course, with the ability to place a Choro Q car on each checkpoint:
Each car has its own stats and class - some are more suited to cornering, others might be better suited to short sprints.
The most important stat is the number of wind-ups a Choro Q can do, which ultimately determines its mileage. As you can imagine, the very best cars have the lowest mileage, so you’ve got to be strategic in how you place your cars across the course, based on its layout and how much distance you think you can pull off without losing pace to your opponents.
Combining the above with some inspired course design that takes place across locales that include a traditional circuit, a Japanese village, a ski slope, a rocky mountain, a castle garden, and a labyrinth cavern, and it all comes together rather well.
This setup works because the balance between car stats and driving skill is, for the most part, well tuned. There are two projectile items that can be picked up mid-race and shrewd deployment of both can also tip the scales in favour of victory. The only disappointment comes from the final race, which cannot be won without having obtained the fastest cars.
But the progression otherwise is quite organic - you’ll always have several courses available to play, and some new vehicles are hidden in the courses themselves.
If you’re looking for a racing game with its own unique sense of character, Choro Q Park is a pretty good pick. I can’t think of anything else quite like it, which may well be the highest possible praise given how saturated the genre was in the 90s.