Okay. Although we've officially completed Zero4Champ RR, I expect there is some stuff we haven't seen yet, if Zero 4 Champ 2 is any indication. So i’ll spend a post or two covering some extra things.

Starting with the title screen.





Now. I had to double take here. Was mini games always here?

... I checked by resetting some earlier save states and confirmed - it wasn't. It seems that this unlocks when you complete the game.





It allows us to go back and play any of the mini games again. I didn't do any more extensive playing of these, but I believe it's the exact same as the Story mode versions, just available at will should we get sudden hankering for some Cockroach Panic, Tank Battle or… ugh, Mahjong.





Like the other two games before it, it also has a VS mode which includes multiplayer. This time around there's quite a lot of content here!





First off, you need to select the number of players. There’s also a rankings leaderboard that records the best times.

Like Zero4Champ II, it supports up to four players, which would have needed the Super Famicom Multi-Tap to function.





Since I’m a Nigel-no-friends, I’ll stick with the one player options for now.





There are two categories for the single player - VS.COM and TIME ATTACK.

Time attack is new for this game, and is what you’d expect - you race by yourself and try to beat your times.





Interestingly, in most of the VS modes you get the choice of whether you want the third person view, or a top down view.





The top down view was designed for three / four player modes, but it’s cool to see it be an option here. (Because how many people actually owned a multi-tap?)

I couldn’t be bothered configuring my emulator inputs, but here’s what four player would look like courtesy of the games manual.





You also get to tune your car with as many upgrades / parts as you want prior to the race. I expect in four player each ‘lane’ would have their own tuning options.





You even get your very own mini Leperflesh chart!





Looking back, this time attack mode would have been really useful for testing each car and upgrade before spending the cash in the story. Oh well.

And it’s not just a Zero4 you can do in a time attack… you have a whole suite of options:


You can choose between Zero 4 (400m) and Zero Sen (1km), Top Speed (which presumably bases the win on the top speed the car hits, not quickest to the finish line.) Medley - which i’ll get to in a second, and Specify Time.

I don’t quite understand what ‘Specify Time’ is. The counter goes down, rather than up, and has a random starting second counter. It also seems to stop the race at the 400m mark.





But perhaps the most interesting things about these modes its they give you another race option we didn’t see in single player…





They give you the option for Wet and Ice races! Just like in Zero4Champ II.







I’m curious we never got any of these in the Single Player.

Other than the ground sprite, there’s no new particle effects or anything, so if I can hazard a guess, they were a late edition to the game / a holdover from Z4C2 and either didn’t fit in the story or test well.

These play very similar to how they did in the last game - aka they’re a bastard and you have to relearn and re-adjust how you shift accordingly.

Then, the final Time Attack mode here is ‘Medley’, which seems a top down only mode.





This one is interesting. You have to go as fast as possible, and once you hit the 400m, brake as hard as possible. Once you’re stopped, the track changes to wet, and you do the same again. Then, it changes to ice.

I suspect this mode would help balance out multiplayer sessions and add an additional layer of skill to it.

Finally, let’s check out the VS COM mode.

For the most part, the options are the same as time-attack, so I won’t get into them. But the key difference is, instead of being able to pick from any mod you want, you have a limited variety of points to choose from.





You really do have a limited amount of choice, so you have to choose wisely.





You then go into the first round. I picked a Starlet and was put up against another one.







The races are extremely close - this one was effectively a draw, but they gave the win to me.





After a race win, it gives you a lucky spin, but instead of parts, this time you get money.

With some healthy save scumming, I was able to get enough money and parts to make my way through 6 battles to the ‘final’










Since I had save-scummed my way to all the upgrades, I was able to defeat them quite handily.

Now. I almost didn’t bother to do this. I thought this post was going to be ‘hey look there’s a multiplayer mode’ and leave it at that.

I figured, since there wasn’t much ceremony around this mode, there would be no way I’d get anything interesting for finishing it. We wouldn’t, for example, get something weird, like that bit in Zero4Champ 2 where we had to select from spinning lips to receive a kiss from a random character.

And of course, every time I doubt this series it proves me wrong…

…Because you get another lucky spin. This time with ladies…





And. like in Zero4Champ 2, you get a kiss, depending on where the spin lands..

Landing on the blue or yellow, the largest slices of the wheel, grants you a nice sloppy kiss from this gentle person.





… I really only do have myself to blame here for saying this out loud.

Isometric Bacon posted:

Come to think of it, this game hasn't had any of the usual homophobia or transphobia that the last couple did.

Getting the green or red seems to land us with a nice wet sloppy grandma kiss.





The orange and the purple, give a more realistic depiction of a lady.





That leaves two of the rarest ‘striped’ sets. Where as one lets you live out your anime waifu dreams…





The other gives us our worst nightmare...





This was doubly disturbing since I naively assumed “oh this will be the one with the lady in the underwear’, like the last game…