0 to Z of Playstation 1 Games - Boku no Choro Q

      

Boku no Choro Q is a part of the Choro Q series of toy car games, the series is more commonly known to western audiences as the Penny Racers games, the series has also been localised under other names such as Gadget Racers and Road Trip.

 

Boku no Choro Q moves away from the usual racing games that the series is best known for and opts for a collection of mini games aimed at younger gamers. this Children's game was Developed and published by Takara the game released exclusively in Japan on the 7^th of March 2002.

Instead of the usual racing games that are the usual staple of the Choro Q, the game features a collection of mini games, with the player taking control of a boy in the various mini games on offer. For example driving a truck to avoid some workers, a firefighter helping to put out a fire in a building, driving a train and question solving mini games.

 

The game features a variety of different vehicles to solve the various different mini games, the game features a world map in the form of a town, appearing on the map are blue and while circles with a yellow star in the middle signifying the location of the various activates.

 

Movement is controlled with either the D-Pad or the left analogue with a pointing hand appearing on the map screen to show where the cursor is on the screen pressing the Circle button will select the mini game you are hovering over on the map.

The D-Pad and left analogue stick are also used in the truck mini game, with left or right used on either the D-Pad or Left Analogue stick. The game also features a question mini game, these questions are very basic and clearly show the game is aimed at children of a young age.

 

For example one type of question is guess what the silhouette is, with the options available being a helicopter, police car and forklift, each of the options available are linked to either the Square, Triangle or Circle face buttons.

The game also features a whack a mole type mini game, a maze navigation mini game where the player controls a car as they try to make their way through the maze to the finish line. Another type of game is a match the part to the image, for example match a pair of caterpillar tracks, with the available options being a plane, helicopter or bulldozer, the game also features many more mini games than this

This being a Japanese only release and a late release in the Playstations lifecycle, as a result critic reviews for the game are none existent. So we head over to GameFAQs for their user stats, here we find a the game sitting at an average user rating of 3.90/5 from a total of 5 user ratings.

Taking a closer look the user ratings we find the game did not rate below a 3/5 from the five user, with one user rating the game at a 3/5. Another two users rated the game at a solid 3.5/5, with another single user each rating the game at either a 4/5 or a 5/5.

Moving on to the games difficulty we again find 5 users rating this category, with a significant swing in favour of the game having just the right difficulty level, the remaining single user rated the game as having a tough difficulty level, averaging out the game has a just right difficulty level.

Lastly we have the games lifespan, here we find an even split between the four users that rated this category. With the first user spending around 12 hours with the game, another user spent a good 20 hours with the game. The final two users spent significantly longer with the game, with one spending 40 hours with the game, while the final user spent an impressive 60 hours with the game. Averaging out this comes to an average lifespan of 33 hours.

This is the part of 0 to Z where is visit four online retailers and see what the availability of the title is, and what price you would be looking at if you wanted to pick this title up, the sites that I will be using for this are Amazon.com, eStarland.com, retrogames.co.uk and Gamedude.com I know the last one is very location specific, but from a podcast I listen to, I’ve heard they have a huge stock of older games, Ebay has now been dropped unless the game is unavailable at other retailers.

 

So lets get down to business with Gamedude, where unsurprisingly this Japanese only releases is not available from Gamedude. The same goes for Retrogames.co.uk and eStarrland.com, so we head over to Amazon.com in the hopes of finding at least one copy of the game.

We do find the game listed on Amazon.com, where we find a decent supply of the game available, the first three copies on offer are all acceptable in condition and do not confirm their completeness the same goes for the next copy a good condition copy as well.

Another good condition copy is available, this again does not confirm the completeness of the copy, this copy is priced at $25.92. Three very good condition copies are also available but like the previous copies does not state the completeness, these copies are priced between $28.61 and $35.72.

New copies of the game are more abundant than used copies of the game, they are also much cheaper as well, with a new copy of the game available for just $11.53 and comes with free shipping. Another seven copies are available from this price point up to $15.88 all of which come with free shipping.

Written by

P J Gibbon