Chocobo Racing

"Not bad at all, if you like challenge."

Chocobo racing is an ultra-cute racing game from the good Squaresoft people. With a cast of 8 characters and several secret characters, devastating magic spells, and crazy racing, Chocobo Racing is an decent racer with noticeably unique features. The cute bird like creature from the Final Fantasy series, Chocobo, stars in his very own game to provide people with the joy of racing.

Gameplay 8/10 - The racing here is standard and different drivers have different strengths. For example, the Chubby Chocobo has great control, while Chocobo is all around versatile. Each driver has a special ability of their own, but you can select from whichever ability you wish (not in story mode though, since the abilities are preset with each character) The most noticeable feature is the ability to cast magic to slow down your opponent or to aid yourself, with the use of magic stones. The bad part about this is that the game seems to heavily depend on the use of magic to slow others down and increase your chances of winning. Also, most of the characters' abilities implement the influence of magic, direct or indirect. This results in the player having to also master the ability to use magic stones in conjunction with keeping an eye on the road, as well as using one's abilities appropriately. This may actually be a good thing if you like challenge, but then it's pretty easy to master the ability system and the magic stones. Magic spells range from simple fireballs to horrendous blasts of ultimate magic that eat up several seconds of the enemy's time. Abilities include a barrier to protect from everything but the strongest spells, and stealing other racers' magic stones. The tracks grow with increasing difficulty and are filled with sharp corners and pitfalls that seriously slow you down. The harder ones almost require you to memorize them since the risk of falling off course or repeatedly bumping into the walls is high. This is great if you like to be challenged. A unique feature of the game is the ability to customize your own racer. This can become quite hard since you need good driving skills to get a near perfect racer. I was quite shattered to see after my best attempt, I got 99 points! One away from the perfect racer! After repeated play though, you will soon have mastered the game.

Story 7/10 - Cut the story some slack, it's better than a fighting game but worse than a RPG. Then again, racing games are void of storyline... The basic story, is that Chocobo must race against others to get pieces of a blue crystal. The story mode explains this in detail so one can see for themself.

Audio/Video 7/10 - You probably wouldn't like the music so much that you would like to hum it since you'll be focused on the driving and magic. The sound is ok and the sound effects are thankfully, not annoying and repetitive. The graphic package isn't too bad if you think about a real popup storybook....that moves. The colorful visuals are done quite well. The graphics are ok for people today but of course a lot will hate them due to the simplicity. They're not bad at all.

Replayability 8/10 - You'll want to refine your skills by getting ALL the course crowns (there's more than you think), unlocking some secrets, and getting the perfect character, so replayability will be high for perfectionists. It's also fun to race against a friend if they don't get bored of it after a short while.

To buy or to rent? - This will be to rent since it is easily mastered, in my opinion. You'll buy this only if you are confident that you'll have fun racing other people.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/07/02, Updated 08/07/02