Penny Racers
Penny Racers — frequently asked questions
- What platforms is Penny Racers on?
- Penny Racers was released on Nintendo 64.
- When did Penny Racers release?
- Penny Racers was first released on July 17, 1998.
About Penny Racers
The premise of PENNY RACERS for N64 is simple: race your car the best you can and be among the top three to reach the checkered flag. To achieve this objective, you must avoid missiles launched by your competitors, among other things. One way to counter this is the barrel roll maneuver, which is a quick and effective way to avoid unexpected hurdles on the tracks. In the beginning, you drive a pretty unimpressive racer. However, if you beat the competition and place in the top three, your reward is the chance to upgrade your car. Be merciless and steal the losing racers' special features, such as engine and armor upgrades, special attack abilities, and enhancing cosmetic features for the car. You have 13 different racer body styles and nine tracks to choose from. The cartoony racers zip through city streets, ice caves, and a volcano, and with the Track Create mode, you can design the wildest track you can imagine. When you toss four-player racing into the fray, the fun quadruples as the action intensifies and the losers are utterly humiliated.
Summary via IGDB.
Game details
- Platforms
- Nintendo 64
- Developer
- Locomotive Corporation
- Publisher
- Takara
- Game modes
- Single player, Multiplayer, Split screen
- Themes
- Action, Comedy
Details via IGDB.
Reception
Collector value & authenticity
Nintendo 64 · PriceCharting sold data · Verified 2026-10-22
Other releases and variants
| Release | Loose | Complete | Sealed |
|---|---|---|---|
| PAL release | $29 | $113 | — |
| Japanese release (Choro Q) | $12 | $29 | $72 |
How often it sells
- Loose: about once a week
- Complete: about once a month
- Sealed: about once a year
Prices marked “few sales” rest on about one recorded sale a year, so treat them as a rough guide: the next copy could sell well above or below. Expect to wait for one to come up.
Sales frequency from PriceCharting's completed-sale records, as of 2026-10-22.
Price over time
- Loose
- Complete
A loose copy sold for about $6.00 in Jan 2007, $15.36 five years ago, and $17.99 as of Oct 2026.
Show as table
| Month | Loose | Complete |
|---|---|---|
| Jan 2007 | $6.00 | — |
| Jan 2008 | $3.99 | — |
| Jan 2009 | $3.34 | — |
| Jan 2010 | $2.44 | — |
| Jan 2011 | $2.00 | — |
| Jan 2012 | $2.30 | — |
| Jan 2013 | $4.39 | — |
| Jan 2014 | $5.05 | $10.00 |
| Jan 2015 | $6.00 | $9.50 |
| Jan 2016 | $6.95 | $20 |
| Jan 2017 | $8.35 | $25 |
| Jan 2018 | $9.29 | $30 |
| Jan 2019 | $10.91 | $34 |
| Jan 2020 | $10.62 | $44 |
| Jan 2021 | $13.91 | $68 |
| Jan 2022 | $18.84 | $105 |
| Jan 2023 | $19.28 | $114 |
| Jan 2024 | $18.99 | $95 |
| Jan 2025 | $18.00 | $113 |
| Jan 2026 | $26 | $116 |
| Oct 2026 | $17.99 | $110 |
Monthly price estimates from PriceCharting's completed-sale records, sampled quarterly, through Oct 2026.
Release record
| Territory | Date | Cartridge serial | Known board |
|---|---|---|---|
| North America | 4 February 1999 | NUS-NCRE-USA | NUS-01A-02 |
| Europe / PAL | 5 March 1999 | NUS-NCRP-EUR | — |
| Japan | 17 July 1998 | NUS-NCRJ-JPN | — |
- Region
- NA+EU+JP
- Released
- 1999
- Authenticity
- Low
A cute, customizable toy-car racer that critics put well behind Mario Kart 64 and Diddy Kong Racing, with a big gap between loose and complete prices.
Penny Racers is the North American and PAL name of Choro Q 64, Takara's toy-car racer developed by Locomotive. It came out in Japan in 1998, and THQ released it in North America and Europe in early 1999. It is a customizable racer with 114 parts in eight categories, and GameFan's 1998 preview counted nine courses, 14 cars, a custom track designer and up to four players.
Reviewers compared it to the genre's best and found it lacking. Computer and Video Games (March 1999) called it a cute kart-style racer with super-deformed cars and weapons to collect, but said it was not in the same league as Mario Kart or Diddy Kong Racing in looks, design or gameplay, and IGN and GameSpot made the same comparison. Locomotive also made a Japan-only sequel, Choro Q 64 2: Hachamecha Grand Prix Race.
How it was made
Developed by Locomotive Corporation; Takara and THQ published it. The Japanese release is Choro Q 64.
What the press said at the time
| GameRankings (aggregate) | 56% | |
| CNET Gamecenter | 6/10 | |
| Computer and Video Games | 1/5 | |
| Electronic Gaming Monthly | 6.625/10 | |
| Famitsu | 25/40 | |
| Game Informer | 5.75/10 | |
| GameSpot | 4.6/10 | |
| Hyper | 70% | |
| IGN | 6/10 | |
| N64 Magazine | 56%, 58% | |
| Nintendo Power | 6.9/10 | |
| Official Nintendo Magazine | 68% | |
| 64 Magazine | 79% | |
| Arcade | 1/5 | |
| Gamers' Republic | B | |
| N64 Pro | 48%, 73% |
“Overall, Penny Racers is a title that will offer hours of entertainment in both single and multiplayer modes.”
“In general, racing cartoon cars drift-style through Mario-Kart inspired environments is entertaining in and of itself. Throw in the multitude of car mods, combat and track editor options and you have an interesting game overall.”
Undated scores are from the review table in the game's Wikipedia article, limited to reviews of the Nintendo 64 version.
Before you buy
Low fake risk. The US cart sits about at the library median on loose price, but complete copies cost many times the loose price, so a loose cart is the easy way in. PAL copies cost more loose and about the same complete, so there is no reason to import. The Japanese Choro Q cart is cheaper than the US one, but it is a separate Japanese-language release.
Penny Racers screenshots
Watch on YouTube
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