''Penny Racers'' (released as ''Choro Q'' in Japan) is a 1996

racing video game Racing games are a video game genre in which the player participates in a racing competition. They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to fantastical settings. They are distributed along a spectrum between more realistic raci ...

developed by

Tamsoft is a Japanese video game developer founded in 1992, best known for their work on the ''Battle Arena Toshinden'', '' Onechanbara'' and '' Senran Kagura'' series. Its former president, Toshiaki Ōta, previously worked at Toaplan as one of the si ...

and published by

Takara was a Japanese toy company founded in 1955. In March 2006, the company merged with Tomy, Tomy Company, Ltd. to form Tomy, Takara Tomy. The Takara motto was("playing is culture"). The company focused on traditional toys and board games. They cr ...

for the

PlayStation is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...

Sony Computer Entertainment Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (SIE) is an American video game and digital entertainment company that is a major subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate Sony, Sony Group Corporation. It primarily operates the PlayStation brand of video game co ...

released the game in PAL regions. The game features cars based on Takara's line of miniature Choro Q / Penny Racers toys, and was the first game based on ''Choro Q'' released outside Japan since

Taito is a Japanese company that specializes in video games, Toy, toys, arcade cabinets, and game centers, based in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The company was founded by Michael Kogan in 1953 as the importing vodka, Vending machine, vending machines, and Juk ...

's 1984 title on

MSX MSX is a standardized home computer architecture, announced by ASCII Corporation on June 16, 1983. It was initially conceived by Microsoft as a product for the Eastern sector, and jointly marketed by Kazuhiko Nishi, the director at ASCII Corpo ...

. Successors were made for the PlayStation although only released only in Japan: ''Choro Q 2'' (1997), ''Choro Q 3'' (1998) and '' Choro Q Wonderful!'' (1999).

Gameplay

There are two main modes: Freeplay and Grand Prix. In Grand Prix, the player progresses by winning races and using the prize money to upgrade their vehicles at the autoshop for better performance. Different tyres can be installed for the various terrains in the race tracks. There is also a split screen multiplayer mode.

Reception

The game received mixed to negative reviews. ''Official Australian PlayStation Magazine'' gave it 5/10, giving criticism to the graphics and the controls for cornering. The ''

Official UK PlayStation Magazine An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate, regardless of whether it carries an actual working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority (either their own or that of thei ...

'' also rated it 5/10, calling it a "cutesy racer which lacks that elusive driving feel". ''PlayStation World Magazine'' rated it 2 out of 10. The Polish ''Gambler Magazine'' gave it 40% each for graphics and sound and 15% overall. German magazine ''Maniac'' scored it 56%, calling it not as good as ''

Motor Toon Grand Prix 2 is a 1996 kart racing video game developed and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation. It was released in the US as ''Motor Toon Grand Prix'' since its predecessor never left Japan. Polys would follow up this game with '' ...

''. Meanwhile in Japan ''

Famitsu , formerly , is a line of Japanese Video game journalism, video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly f ...

'' scored it a more positive 32 out of 40.

References

{{Notelist 1996 video games Choro Q video games Multiplayer and single-player video games PlayStation (console) games PlayStation (console)-only games Racing video games Sony Interactive Entertainment games Takara video games Tamsoft video games Video games developed in Japan