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So I'm currently on a short vacation and was looking for more content to upload and I came across something a little odd on GameFAQs: games with unusually low ratings. We're not just talking about well-known games with varying critiques, but more like niche titles with varying forms of review bombing (more for mature or adult titles than anything, but I've seen it for all sorts of games). Part of the criteria I have for uploading games is not just the rarity, obscurity or "import nature" of the title, but what (if any) info is floating out there and any contrasting views I can offer. I hadn't done anything for the ol' Saturn in a while and went through to see what games I own that I could shed some light on, and "Code R" seemed as good a title as any.

Code R (also seen as コードＲ) was developed by Quintet and their one-off internal group, Team Seven, in the later years of the system in 1998, and is one of a handful of dating / racing / RPG hybrids such as "Wangan Trial Love" (which we covered many years ago), "Wangan Dead Heat" (the original Japanese version of "Highway 2000", which didn't have its romance features gutted), Zero4 Champ, and others. Averaging two out of five stars, I had to wonder if it was really bad, or if there was something else going on....

First and foremost, it's worth pointing out that Code R is a shameless imitation of Shuichi Shigeno's extremely popular "Initial D" franchise and would've likely been a near 1:1 "Inspired Parody" if Quintet and co. didn't learn partway through development that the first official 3D "Initial D" game was being developed in parallel and would also be releasing on the Sega Saturn. While Code R spent about a year and a half overall in development, their cycles were so close that they released less than a month apart from each other. Code R also has a few licensing issues that probably couldn't exist today, particularly the game's advertising, product placement and affiliation with the American gas company, Esso (as of 1961~ - 2020~, ExxonMobil), which is featured prominently in the game (and also featured in Initial D, also shown as "Essa" and later "ENEOS"). So similar are some of its themes and imagery, that some people jokingly refer to the player character's best friend as Iketani Kouichirou and the game also pulls elements from Michiharu Kusunoki's "Wangan Midnight" with other recognizable cars and character lookalikes (the player drives a blue "S30 Fairlady Z"). While Initial D (and other influential works) popularized various aspects of Auto culture for a wider demographic, the similarities here can't be understated.

That said, Code R has a neat and lengthy main campaign. The main character buys a car with money his deceased mom left him (not knowing they were for his future academic endeavors) and gets hate from his dad and flack from some of his friends as he doesn't go to school anymore and works part-time jobs to keep his head above water and fund his new dream of ultimately being a street racer. The player's main goal is to gather information which can lead to new discoveries and locations while flirting with ladies (up to ten) and souping up your ride to take on tougher racers and earn street cred. The player has gasoline and a changing day-night cycle to contend with and the characters have different schedules they follow, so learning their migration patterns is key. The graphics during the adventure segment are serviceable with nice character illustrations and about 100 event CGs but the dialogue gets extremely repetitive outside of events and it takes a long time for the game to really go full-swing (the in-game deadline is about half a year).

To make things worse, the job system is not handled very well (you don't have clear guides of what time one job ends to begin another and they take place on a dull black screen) and you can't really juggle more than two jobs at a time, and that's even a stretch (fatigue). You also won't do much racing as true races only take place at night and the actual racing is... questionable. The graphics during races is decent, but Quintet managed the draw distance in both a genius and tacky fashion -- the game quickly loads graphics in and out of memory to maintain a good framerate and uses some techniques that would serve them in later games like Brightis. There is a pure race mode at least, but handling is not that good no matter how you tweak it and the drifting aspect is relatively poor. The soundtrack and VO's are quite good.

The coolest part of the game are race replays; they are reenacted with character commentary and different moves will illicit various reactions and improve your odds of becoming more popular and meeting more people. It feels kinda like a motion manga springing to life with the panels and reduced framerate. Overall, Code R is a clunky but rewarding racing / dating hybrid for the patient gamer with a few surprising story beats and poppycock; WHAT A HELL ARE YOU GONNA MAKE?

Enjoy.