By Elias Dounis on August 12th, 2004

Takara’s ChoroQ series has been around for quite a long time. The quirky racer’s customization options and super-deformed versions of licensed cars has earned the series enough popularity to keep it alive since its debut almost a decade ago on the original PlayStation and SEGA Saturn. Unfortunately, when brought overseas as the Nintendo 64’s Penny Racers, Takara’s CAR-PG didn’t fare too well amongst North American audiences and critics alike. The game had been criticized for its primitive visuals, slow pace, and sloppy gameplay. However with ChoroQ for the PS2, Takara plans to offer the most refined ChoroQ title yet, featuring slightly improved visuals, more cars, parts and extras than any other previous version.

Are graphics everything?

At times I like to believe that this is not the case, but despite my own personal opinions, a game’s visuals do play an important role. Even though ChoroQ features “slightly improved visuals” over its Nintendo 64 predecessor, from screenshots it can be concluded that the PS2 version is by no means an impressive looking title, or in fact a good looking one. However, if the game features a solid frame-rate, which I’m sure it will, hopefully players will be able to look past the game’s primitive shroud and appreciate the gameplay ChoroQ has to offer.

“ChoroQ can best be described as a CAR-PG – a slick combination of a fantasy style racer with the depth and story of a traditional role playing game.” said Akibo Shieh, Project Leader at Atlus. “With its endless customization options, 160 crazy fantasy tracks and lengthy story mode you’ll never run out of things to do in ChoroQ.”

While most will question the depth of the game’s story, past games in the series have proven that ChoroQ will indeed feature a good amount of customization options, with fully customizable vehicle bodies featuring interchangeable parts and colors. Not only this, but the game’s large assortment of tracks spans across many different locales, including earthquake country, zero-gravity space, haunted castles, mid-air highways, and even underwater. Because of these traits, the addition of two-player head to head multiplayer, and over thirty mini-games, Takara is promising that ChoroQ will offer hours upon hours of gameplay. Now we just need to know if the gameplay will deliver.

ChoroQ is scheduled for release October 5th, 2004 for the low suggested retail price of $19.99.