Okay we've done it. We've defeated the Mormons and conquered the salt flats of Utah!





: Yay, yay!


: Oh no, I lost.


: There's no point in beating someone like me.


: Whether it can be helped or not is not an issue. I want to be the best at 0-4. So I can't lose to anyone



Literary anyone - Hiro can seemingly never back down in sight of any competition. Doesn't even have to be Zero 4.


: Hmm, is that so? Then I'll give you a great item. It's very effective on wet courses.


: Here, I'll give you this road wiper. Use it to wipe away the water that has accumulated on the road. It'll bounce them off.



Interesting. Is this the wet road equivalent of the Road Dryer? Come to think of it, this race was a bit easier than I remember other ice courses being. I think these items are starting to work.


: You can definitely become number one. Good luck!


: Many thanks!



Now, we may have bested the Mormon King, but we're not quite done here in Salt Lake City…

We didn't check if there was a Store!


: Since we're doing the Zero-Yon, there must be one.



This game likes to do this trick a lot. Since there's a limited number of options, you have to sometimes do things in a certain order.

By selecting the Store option, Hiro lets us know that he thinks there should be a store. With this in mind, if we choose Talk again, it will hopefully be done in the context of Stores and confirm to us that there is, in-fact a store.


: Sorry






: Oh, it's you again.

: Are there any car shops around here?


: It's down that alley.


: thank you



See? Now that we've established that there is indeed a store here, we can now push the Store button… Again.





And indeed a store is here! I wonder if the developer enjoyed making so many different variants of this exact same room. Since they're all the same basic colour scheme, it's not obvious that each one is a unique illustration. But they are! This one has a second story.

Unlike those other stores however, the salesman / mechanic here doesn't look too friendly. But he's still a fan of rockabilly, so he can't be all bad.

I took a quick flip through the cars available here, and unfortunately they're all ones we've seen before in other shops. Have we finally seen all the cars this game has to offer?

Similarly, the parts menu doesn't have anything new. We've actually purchased at least one of everything.

…Everything, bar one. The Nitrous system.





: Using nitro is cheating because you can win with the select key.

: It's fine because the store makes a profit.



Ahhh, capitalism at work. Cheating is fine as long as we profit. Seems like this must basically be a cheat code, not unlike the nitro in the first game.

But at $750,000, the price is absolutely crazy. I don't think we've spent anywhere near that much, even with our copious multi car buying spree.

I can't even imagine saving that much without the tool assists of an emulator, and even then it would take forever.

At any rate, I think the way we're supposed to win these races is to experiment with combinations of various small turbos, big turbos, mid turbos superchargers and cars to get things that best suit the race conditions.

But this all takes money....

Maybe Salt Lake City has a Part Time Job?


: Oh, there was a postcard over there looking for part-time workers.


: It said, "Animal lovers wanted." That's it!



Animal lovers wanted? We got pretty good at walking dogs back in LA. This is perfect for us.




Oh… this appears to be a pet store… and not your average pet store either. Is that.. an Alligator?





: I like it!



Uh. I'm sure you do, guy. Who the hell is this? I don't think I like the way either he, or his snake are looking at us.


: Ugh, what is this place… Gross!


: That's so mean, you're so cute...


: You came here because you like me too, right?


: Who was that?! I just looked at the paper.


: Eh? So you're looking for a part-time job?


: That was what I was planning to do but I changed my mind!


: I like animals but I don't like weird stuff!


: I see, that's a shame...The work is easy and the pay is high.



Wait, did you say... money? We may be move past Hiro's comfort when there's money involved.


: Huh? The part-time wages are high?


: Well, that's a shame it's so expensive…


: There's no other place that pays as much as part-time work…


:But well, if you don't like it, there's nothing you can do…



C’mon Hiro, swallow your pride and work with the weird snake man. We need to save up for more car parts!


: If you look closely, they're really cute.Well, maybe it's pretty cute.Maybe I should get a part-time job.


: But you say you don't like weird stuff…


: Huh? Did I say that?



We never said anything of the sort. Why, in actual fact we love weird stuff! Have you ever heard of vending machine panties?


: Actually, I like reptiles.


: I also loved Masked Rider…



Masked rider? This must be a reference to Kamen Rider!





I know absolutely nothing about Kamen Rider except that he's absolutely everywhere in Japan.

When I was hanging out with a group of AE86 drifters I met in Japan (I can't believe I haven't shared that story yet!), whenever an old, modified car would roll past they would giggle and exclaim ‘Kameeen Riideeeerr’ to each other.

…I have no idea why. Harperdc, as the font of all Japanese wisdom, do you have any idea?





: I don't know what it is, but oh well. Let's get it done.


: The job is easy, just feed them.






Wait… feed these guys?

These look uh….kind of dangerous…

Each animal gives us the payment for feeding them, with a poorly translated, vague description of how we're supposed to do it.

Helpful, when our life is on the line.

Ok Goons. We've got another question for you…



Which animal should we feed first?

Spider:

($500)
: Before this child bites. Be careful because I'll bend over.


Cobra:

($400)
: When the fangs are not out. Please feed them.


Turtle

($200)
: A red face is proof that you're angry. Be careful.


Bulldog

($300)
: When you spread your frills. Hold your hands.