Sprinter Monogatari: Mezase!! Ikkaku Senkin

Sprinter Monogatari: Mezase!! Ikkaku Senkin (スプリンター物語 めざせ一攫千金) is a Super Famicom sports game where the player teaches an athlete how to ride his bicycle faster.

Gameplay


The player must instill physical strength, tactical skills, and endurance in his bicycle racer just like a real coach would do. Bicycle racers become tired after training too hard; the coach must eventually assign free days when the athlete is tired. This would allow him to recover so that further exercise is possible. While spa vacations cost money, having the cyclist stay at home and rest cost nothing and accomplishes the same thing. Promoting the rider on television or other media may also bring in more money at the cost of training time.

Occasionally, the player has to let his protégé compete in a bicycle race at a velodrome. The only control the player has over the competitor is to tell him when to start racing and how aggressive he should race. Balancing between all-out aggressive racing tactics and passively following the leader's draft is important to gain the crucial championship win at the end. A generous amount of money is also given out for the win, even though all positions give out some form of monetary reward like in the stock car racing circuits.

Character profile
The AI-controlled cycler (using hiragana letters of the Japanese language for his name) will start out as a young twentysomething. The colors that the racer will use to identify himself will vary from team to team. This would allow the player to recognize what team that he is a virtual member of; provided that he is familiar with the Japanese professional cycling scene. He would be 20 years old at the start of the game and a rookie of the bicycle racing team of the player's choice. Logic assumes that the virtual cyclist was born sometime in the year 1975 because the game was released in 1995. As the player progress through the years of his professional cycling career (in addition to the months and days), the virtual athlete will gradually age and lose some ability on the velodrome. Eventually, he will become an aging veteran and will have to retire from his career.