"Very fun Mario Kart-ish game!"

I'm sure all of you have paye Mario Kart or one of its many ripoffs... it's just one of those things everyone's done. Choro Q Park, while similar to Mario Kart in that there are weapons and odd tracks (one goes indoors at times, and there is the now-mandatory Rainbow Road-ish one, called the Illusion Race), is otherwise entirely different.
Choro Q Motors (''Choro'' being pronounced with the ''ch'' like ''cheese'' instead of ''chorus''), extremely popular in Japan, are little SD pull-back cars available in the USA at Penny Racers (the licensed ones aren't nearly as good as the real deal, however... try to track down a Choro Q Motor sometime...).
Choro Q Park is a licensed videogame based on the CQM cars and, to be honest, absolutely rocks. Sure, the visuals aren't Naomi-caliber, but what on the Saturn is? ; ) Seriously, though, the graphics run at a solid 30fps, and are kinda blocky though (but that's just due to the drawing style). The idea is, obviously, to come in first. Woo. What racing game ISN'T like that? : P However, there are several wrinkles to it...
1) The car can change up to 4 times each lap. The upshot to this (or downside if you wanna think of it that way...) is the fact that there is a Turbo Gauge at the bottom of the screen that shows how much longer you can keep your speed reasonably fast. After it empties your car slows down almost intolerably. The thing is, the gauge fills up every time your car changes.
2) There are 80 different cars. I'm not going to beat around the bush here. Some are just the prizes for certain races, others you have to buy and/or find (more on Rare Cards later).
3) The Rare Cards. These are cool... on each track is hidden (sometimes VERY well) a Rare Card with a stylized Q on it. If you pick this up and go to the Rare Card Tower, you can trade it for a new car. The cool thing is that you can get very good cars this way, so start searching for those cards! (If you own this. : P)
4) The music is very good. I'm not talking, say, MvC2 good (because the music is, to a point, fairly good, but it doesn't belong in an action setting!), but really, actually good. The music fits into the situation well, and will have you humming it very quickly. This is partly due to the fact that the audio tracks the music streams off of are about two minutes long apiece... not very long. However, the music is still quite nice.
5) The Coloring Tower. This is a fun little feature allowing you to color your cars and rename them... not very exciting, but novel nonetheless.
6) Everything else. The loads are short, the two-player is excellent, and the controls are top-notch, as well as allowing the Steering Controller/Analog pad.

THE MAJOR CAVEAT: It's got some serious Japanese, but you'll find your way through it quickly enough. It's not like you desperately need to be able to read the text ''Final lap!'' or ''Goal in!'' when it shows it...

IN OTHER WORDS: I love it, and I'm not even a racing game fan... if you can find it (*cough*www.wolfgames.com*cough*), BUY IT! It's worth it, and it's kinda rare... good luck finding it!
-Greg

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/11/00, Updated 08/11/00