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~ ZERO4 CHAMP ~
Media Rings
HuCard
1991
Having already played its CD sequel by the time I purchased the original Zero4 Champ, I thought I had a pretty good idea of what the card has to offer. I was excited about the apparent prospect of another mini-games-heavy adventure providing context for brief-but-strategy-involving racing sequences. Indeed, straight-ahead one-on-one speed competitions constitute Z4C's main events...
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...but there isn't much of an adventure to experience here. Money must still be earned for the acquisition of parts and souped-up vehicles...
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...but options as to how you may accrue the requisite fortune are few. Much of your time will be spent loitering in a lame arcade or stumbling about dark hallways in search of odd miscreants to pummel.
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Despite the limited nature and disappointing simplicity of the affair, players unable to read Japanese will find that the menus here--sadly and ironically enough--aren't as easy to figure out and navigate as those in the much more involving followup.
A fine sense of humor is one trait this title does share with its sequel, however. Funny-looking fellows and bumbling hooligans star in chuckle-inducing sketches that grant the repetitive goings-on a little personality...
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...and there's even a smidgen of smut for those on the lookout for such things.
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The spirited soundtrack does what it can to help matters and hilariously irritates a mild-mannered female character by becoming Smoke on the Water-ish during one of the more amusing sequences.
Unfortunately, I hardly found it hilarious that I myself was irritated by the game's repetitiveness and dearth of options. Understand that this isn't merely a case of a title paling in comparison with its advanced successor. Zero4 Champ would prove slightly interesting but ultimately dull even if it hadn't been followed by a sequel it simply can't compare with.
[Image] The real winners are the folks who go right to Zero4 Champ II.
"Zero4 Champ"
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