These generally correspond to typical karting game weapons – projectiles, droppables and so on – but the twist is that players have three separate item slots, and by collecting two or three of the same item they can be merged to make more powerful ones (a la Diddy Kong Racing). Running over item jars will give you a type of Magicite (this is a Final Fantasy spin-off, after all). The item system also proves to be compelling and well balanced, with plenty of tactical nuance. Some, like this joke about Cid’s numerous forms, are funny, but most fall flat The Story mode has numerous Final Fantasy nods. There’s even the potential to learn a bit of snaking, which should prove interesting once the community gets to spend a bit of time with it. Handling is solid, with the game outright lifting the hop and drift mechanic from recent Mario Kart titles. What’s more, it manages to do this while still ensuring its characters and tracks are full of welcome detail and immense charm. The game runs a solid 60 frames per second on both docked and handheld mode, giving it that slick Mario Kart style feeling of polish that so few karting games manage on the Switch. It’s on the track where it really counts, though, and it’s in this respect where Chocobo GP absolutely shines. Almost every track with a short variant also has a long variant in the same location, however. Our one main criticism, however, is that some of these tracks are a little on the short side and are over a little quicker than they should be. It’s not an enormous offering compared to Mario Kart – especially with its huge DLC on the way – but the courses that are here are well designed, have their fair share of secret shortcuts and are supported by some really brilliant music. In all, there are 21 tracks, based on nine different environments. There are 12 of these in total, each consisting of four races, but they repeat themselves a number of times throughout. “Each driver has their own distinct personality and vehicle, and while hardly any of the initial roster are exactly household names (at least not until the Season Pass characters arrive), enough care and attention has gone into each that they really come into their own.”Īs well as the story mode, there’s also the Series Races mode, which provides a more traditional Mario Kart style range of Grand Prix cups. These make a real difference too – heavy characters have to be handled notably different to lighter ones. There are also Fortnite-style Season Passes planned for the game, the first of which will allow players to unlock Cloud and Squall from the Final Fantasy series.Įach driver has their own distinct personality and vehicle, and while hardly any of the initial roster are exactly household names (at least not until the Season Pass characters arrive), enough care and attention has gone into each that they really come into their own.Ĭompleting the Story mode – which is basically a series of races interspersed with brilliantly bizarre cutscenes – also unlocks the ability to buy a couple of different forms for each vehicle, changing their stats and adding a degree of customization to the process. The idea here is presumably to ensure that the tournament mode remains heavily populated, even if a healthy percentage of players are Lite version owners. To facilitate this massive mode, Square Enix is releasing Chocobo GP in two versions: a full £40 / $50 game, and a free ‘Lite’ version which contains a couple of characters and access to the online tournament mode. Players take part in a series of 8-player races, with the top four in each race moving through to the next round, until a winner is eventually crowned in the final race. The latter is the most exciting because it’s essentially a huge online tournament supporting up to 64 players. But on Nintendo Switch, the fact is that a kart racing game remains the console’s highest seller to date, and in the wider history of video games, it’s a kart racing series that for three decades has provided some of the greatest multiplayer moments ever. Here we have another racing game receiving a higher score, but one that has totally different goals, for a totally different audience, on a totally different platform.Īnd on top of that, it’s in a sub-genre that is often looked down upon by purists. It’s a stance that feels particularly relevant for this review of Chocobo GP, coming as it does – through nothing other than sheer coincidence – a day after our three-star Gran Turismo 7 review. He wrote: “It’s unsportsmanlike to penalise a meal for not being a sea bream fillet with citrus fruit, peppers, and caramelised ventrèche when it is plainly a hot dog with mustard.” “Yes, really: four stars.” That’s how Matt Zoller Seitz’s review of Jackass Forever on begins, seemingly anticipating the seas of raised eyebrows that awaited him for daring to suggest that such a ‘lowbrow’ movie deserved a high rating.
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