Chocobo Racing ROCKS!

Klonoa · Post by **Klonoa** » Mon Apr 23, 2001 4:39 am

Hello folks. A couple of weeks ago I bought a really cool game for the PlayStation that actually came out a couple of years ago. Now, this was a game that all the game reviewers out there slammed, but I bought the game recently anyway and I'm here to tell you that sometimes you shouldn't listen to game reviewers. Most of the time you SHOULD listen to game reviewers because for the most part they know what they're talking about. But this game is cool. What game is it that everyone seemed to hate? It's Chocobo Racing!I guess if anyone doesn't want Chocobo Racing "spoiled" for them, they shouldn't read any further (just covering my butt, there). Now, Chocobo Racing is really just another hackneyed kart racing game, this time with popular Final Fantasy characters. As a game, it's only above average. It would be a great game if it wasn't for the fact that kart games like Mario Kart 64 and Crash Team Racing are a lot better. But, like Brave Fencer Musashi, Square made Chocobo Racing for younger players and there's nothing wrong with that. It's a pretty simplified racing game and not terribly hard either. However, it's quickly becoming one of my favorite Square PlayStation game because it tries to be a VIDEO GAME and not a movie-like some of the past Final Fantasies have been. They really did mix the Final Fantasy aspects with a kart game pretty well, though. You can pick different abilities (some found in the FF games) like Mug (steal others' weapons) and MP Plus (powers up your weapons). There are spells that you can pick up on the track from FF games, like Fire, Bolt, Ice, Haste, Mini, and even Ultima! And I like it when you win and they play the FF fanfare tune. Other classic FF songs are there as well, like Chocobo's theme (duh), the Moogle theme, Cid's theme from FF4, and lots of others. But the coolest thing about Chocobo Racing has to be all the secret characters! There are 8 playable characters and TEN secret ones! You get a secret character each time you beat the game! I think I'll tell you who all the secret characters are (here are the "spoilers" bubs).1.Bahamut: He's the boss of the Story mode. You have to race him on a track where you can fall off the edges. They play the final boss music from FF3. Bahamut can fly and he uses Megaflare on you during the race, so it's kinda tricky at first. Since he can fly, you don't have to worry about obstacles on the ground to slow you down.2. Squall: YUCK! Yeah Squall is a character you can race as. I think this game came out around the time FF8 was coming out. The second time you beat the story mode, it says "Here's comes a new challenger!" and you have to race Squall on new track, the FF8 Circuit. It's just a bunch of ridiculously hard turns and I think they play the battle theme from FF8 in the background. Squall looks just as wussy in SD, and his car is wussy, too. His ability is the Gunblade, which makes you go faster and slice everyone in your path until you are in first place. Luckily his ability doesn't charge up very fast. All other secret characters don't have their own track and ability. You just highlight Squall and press an L or R button for the secrets.3. Cid's Tank: Well, that's what it says, but onscreen all you see is just a little toy tank. It's not too fast but it corners pretty well. I only wish that since it says 'Cid's Tank' that maybe Cid's big head would be on top, like all the other characters.4. Baby Red 13: Actually in the game they call it Mumba, but I don't know what Mumba is. Maybe it's a character from FF8, I dunno. Never played FF8. But -I-think it looks like a little Baby Red 13, so that's what I call it! He runs on the track on all fours. He's not terribly fast, but he can keep up with the others fairly well. Very cute.5. Cloud: He may be a wuss, but he's not as wussy as Squall. He has his big sword and rides a motorcycle in Chocobo Racing, just like in FF7.6. Cactrot: Square sometimes calls it Cactrot, other times calls it Cactaur. I like Cactrot better. Cactrot is a little cactus enemy from some of the FF games. He doesn't have a car in this game, he just runs on his own two feet. Needless to say, he's very slow and you'll never win with him. He's a joke character. When he stands in place he bends down and pants and sweats like he's tired. And when you make him slip on something, he'll spin around with his arms in the air! And when you make him turn he looks at you like how his pose looks in the other FF games.7. Aya: That's the lady from Parasite Eve, isn't it? I haven't played that game in so long I don't remember. I stopped playing that game when in the game some horses got burned up. I thought that was kinda gross so I stopped playing it. Actually that whole game was gross. I used to know someone that looked like Aya. Cute lady, but rather psycho. Well, Aya in Chocobo Racing is a bit of a disappointment. I was hoping for a super-deformed version of her in a go-kart, but all you get is a little police car that looks like a toy. I felt like I was playing Penny Racers (Choro Q to you Japan-savvy gamers). The only cool thing is when you get hit the car makes a siren noise. Oh well. At least the last 3 secret characters made up for it. 8. Classic Chocobo: This is a flat, 8-bit sprite of what the Chocobos looked like in the older FF games. It even has the 2-frame walking animation. VERY cool.9. Airship: It's another 8-bit sprite, this one of the airship from FF1. Hey all you FF gamers. Remember when you first played FF1 and found the airship? Remember how ridiculously fast it went? Well the same applies here. Most racers' top speeds in the game average about 80 mph. Well the airship's top speed hovers around 200 mph! You'll lap other racers easily. And since the airship flies, you also don't have to worry about obstacles on the ground, like grass or ice. The catch? The Airship has NO cornering ability. You'll be bouncing off the walls on all the tracks, and on the tracks with no sides, you'll have NO chance whatsoever. Still it's cool to go that fast!10. The last secret character is definitely the coolest. It's another 8-bit sprite, but this one is the guy from freakin' 3-D WORLDRUNNER! One of Square's first games on the NES! He even does his little jumping animation when he gets hit! On screen they gave him the name 'Jack.' I haven't played 3-D WorldRunner in so long I don't remember what his name was supposed to be. Was it Jack? Anyway, since he's running with his feet, he's slow-even slower than Cactrot! Still, it's pretty cool. The only thing that would've been cooler is if a secret character was the 8-bit sprite of the car from Rad Racer. They could've even messed with the controls so that you can hardly control the car, just like in the original game (I bad mouth Rad Racer so much, but when I was little I used to play that game all the time!). Anyway, those are all the secret characters in Chocobo Racing. Cool, huh? Another cool thing when you beat the story mode is that you earn points based on your performance. You can use those points to customize your own racer. You pick one of the non-secret characters, choose a color (I have a green Chocobo and a green Bahamut), and divvy out your points to attributes like speed, cornering, etc. The ending credits are cool, too. There's animations of all the characters in crayon. They even play a song in the background sung in English (which lets you know that Square just didn't rush this game out the door). According to the credits, the song was sung by Vicki Bell. I used to know someone named Vicki Bell when I was little. I wonder if it's the same person? Nah, probably not. Oh, by the way, the non-secret characters in the game are Chocobo, Moogle, Goblin, Black Mage (Jeff says it's Vivi), White Mage, Fat Chocobo, Golem, and Behemoth. Each character has their own track, too. The Fat Chocobo's Gingerbread track is the coolest. Well that's all I have to say about Chocobo Racing. Should you buy it? Well it's pretty old and hard to find now, so good luck! If you are a die-hard fan of Square's older games, than you should get it. If not, well, you know.I like Chocobo Racing anyway.--Klonoa

Yamcha Hibiki · Post by **Yamcha Hibiki** » Mon Apr 23, 2001 4:56 am

Yup, Jack is the name of the character in 3D World Runner, in fact if I remember right, the japanese name of the game was "Jumping Jack".------------------
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