Game:

Zero4 Champ (1991)

Duration: 18:50

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Ever wanted a game about drag racing? Probably not. Sure, there are fans of drag racing, but the initial concept seems too linear (literally and figuratively) at a glance to base a whole video game around. However, Yutaka Kaminaga and the good folks over at Media Rings Corporation thought otherwise with Zero4 Champ (also seen as Zero 4 / Zero-4 Champ) and said "Why should the game strictly be limited to just the racing?" Good question... most people don't just drive around a super-car overnight: it takes practice, tuning, lots of time, money, planning, and interpersonal relationships with enthusiasts, fans, rivals, and sponsors, among other things, to really flesh things out in reality.

With that being said, Media Rings started one of the few (and most successful) niche drag racing sims when they made Zero4 Champ in 1991. It went on to spawn over a half dozen iterations over the period of over ten years (though the PS2 game has standard racing), but got its start on the PC Engine and PCE-CD. You'll either love its approach or hate it for being too boring, as racing is secondary to tuning and the simulation aspects involved. Most games featured a variety of codes or cheats to manage how quickly you get to the meat and potatoes of the game.

Visually, the game is mediocre (perhaps slightly above average) and nothing to write home about... the cars during races have a decent amount of detail and one or two stills have some detail as far as buildings and objects, but everything else is reminiscent to adventure games on other platforms from the mid 80s to early 90s (think of examples such as "Hoshi o Sagashite...", "Miracle Warriors: Seal of the Dark Lord", "The Multitude of ICOM Simulations Titles", etc.) and the music is a little better (the title and intro theme are nice, and the security guard battle themes are cool parodies of those from Dragon Quest), but the gameplay is a bit involved for a PCE HuCard.

At its core, Zero4 Champ is a menu-driven adventure game starring Monogusa (by default, he's the "hero" of the first two games) as he gets smoked by a rival car at a red light one evening and becomes fascinated by the 400 (and 1000) meter adrenaline rush that is drag racing. It was likely inspired by earlier manga such as "Shakotan Boogie", and had logical successors like "Wangan Midnight", "Initial D" and the "Shutokou Battle" video game franchise (featuring Touge Racing).

With options ranging from reading automobile magazines (which change tidbits from time to time), setting up major race dates, doing unsanctioned street races (to earn a little cash and prep for the real deal), shopping for cars and parts and tuning performance (with actual manufacturer licenses), taking on part-time jobs (in this case, working for a game center complete with mini-games or as a security guard in a very basic First-Person RPG), and getting regular evaluations as you move up the ranks, the game lets you do more than just race. Racing itself, as expected, is very basic and mainly about tuning and timing, but you can also choose between manual and automatic transmission. The speed and accuracy between shifting gears and starting is the main component needed to win races, with a little story to move things along as well. You can use passwords as well as save your game to the system, and the versus mode allows you to access just about any car and configuration within the game through basic settings and cheat codes.

The game is a fairly humble start to what would become a rather interesting series over the years. This is a video of the game in action. Enjoy.

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