Chocobo GP Review (Nintendo Switch OLED)

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We start our engines and prepare for a new racing experience with our Chocobo GP Review that’s full of magic and mayhem. Chocobo and friends are off on a quest to enter a new racing tournament with an unbelievable prize: a single wish for anything their heart desires! You’ll meet many interesting characters and fellow competitors along the way, all vying for victory. Unlock new playable characters† and exciting new courses† as the story unfolds, and complete extra objectives to earn even more goodies!

Chocobo GP Review Pros:

  • Decent graphics.
  • 6.8GB download size.
  • Racing gameplay.
  • Free to play.
  • Six game modes – Chocobo GP, multiplayer, story, time attack, series races, and custom race.
  • How to play section.
  • 3 control types for single pads and for each individual Joycon.
  • Battle Pass with free and charged tiers.
  • Story mode has beginner and master speed option, rewards are the same and this just affects the racing speed.
  • In-game cutscenes that can be skipped.
  • Full drifting model, the longer the drift the more colors your wheels change and the bigger the boost at the end.
  • Has a speed start mechanic, hold down accelerate as it hits 2.
  • Story mode begins with a brief tutorial on the speed and drift boosting.
  • Can move and control the drifting.
  • Unlock and use new backgrounds on the main menu.
  • The story is split into chapters and each one has a list of completion rewards along with optional missions and rewards.
  • Can replay levels.
  • Each character has unique stats and abilities.
  • Special ability is charged when racing and you can watch a video on them at the character select screen.
  • Anything that needs unlocking will give details on how to unlock or let you pay real money.
  • Before a race you get to pick your character, customise colour/costumes/sticker and select your ride.
  • Play data shows all stats.
  • Daily and weekly challenges and rewards.
  • Chocobo GP is online and you race with the top four winners moving on to the next round, 4 races total. Like a battle royale.
  • 2 – 8 local player support.
  • Crystal’s will spawn on the track, and 10 will give you a speed boost.
  • Crystal’s will actually go towards a crystal gauge outside of the race and everytime you fill it you get a ticket shop ticket.
  • Provoke button.
  • Chocobo GP has optional racing team stickers to represent – Avalanche, Balamb Garden and Chocobo Racing.
  • Online leaderboards.
  • Fast matchmaking.
  • Series races reward you with tickets, and new series events.
  • Online mode has friend and randoms.
  • Online is create or join a lobby with a simple list of available lobbies shown.
  • Three currencies – tickets (earned), coins (earned), and Mythril (real money).
  • The shop has stickers, colors, backgrounds, ost tracks, and tier skips for the Battle pass. The shop is split into coins, Mythril, and tickets.
  • Can fill in slots on online races with CPU.
  • Magicite is the Final Fantasy way of saying power-ups, you can collect duplicates to upgrade them and improve the power.

Chocobo GP Review Cons:

  • Feels and looks like a mobile game, especially in the menus.
  • Cannot rebind controls.
  • Drifting takes a bit of getting used to because if you touch the grass you lose all drift charge instantly. in-app purchases are everywhere.
  • A lot going on outside of the racing  like all the currency types.
  • You easily spin out when touched by another player.
  • Provoke does nothing.
  • Any update will automatically disconnect you from online regardless of if you are racing or not.
  • Any network errors or disconnects won’t count your in-progress race.
  • Battle pass progress is only earned from playing online.
  • It’s very hard to catch up on online games.
  • Tracks feel quite small especially width-wise.
  • Can only collect 10 crystals in each race.
  • You lose crystals so easily.
  • The screen can get very chaotic and hard to play.
  • There are not enough ways to negate enemy projectiles.
  • No accessibility options like Colourblind or auto accelerate.
  • The battle pass offerings are really bad with it mostly being small amounts of coins and the occasional wallpaper or sticker that you will never use.
  • At this point you are buying the battle pass purely for Cloud.
  • You earn nothing from playing the online game modes outside of the Chocobo GP.
  • Cheap Ai.
  • Battle pass progress is so slow from the points you earn to the loading times.
  • Loading times in Chocobo GP are the worst because of how many extra screens it insists on using.

Related Post: Hero’s Hour review (Steam)

Chocobo GP:

Official website.

Developer: Square Enix

Publisher: Square Enix

Store Links – 

Nintendo

  • 7/10
    Graphics - 7/10
  • 7/10
    Sound - 7/10
  • 6/10
    Accessibility - 6/10
  • 6/10
    Length - 6/10
  • 6/10
    Fun Factor - 6/10
6.4/10

Summary

Chocobo Racing aka Mario Kart Final Fantasy edition early access. The game instantly feels like a cash grab with its buy the premium currency ad style pop-ups and get the battle pass, the battle pass.. Psh it’s a long-winded line of poor rewards from measly coin amounts to the odd ill never use that sticker, you will buy the Battlepass for just the Cloud unlock but even then when you see the speed that the U locks happen you may think twice. In-game it is very Mario Kart but it’s not as polished which is crazy because I mean how old is Mario Kart!? Collect crystals to get tickets for the shop but you can lose these crystals easier than you can earn them so that sucks, oh maybe get a load of Battlepass exp yeah? Only if you play the Chocobo GP for every other mode is pointless, that’s a lie, story mode unlocks characters but outside of that, they are all crap. The gameplay though man, it’s just not fun, it’s either plain and uneventful or fast and flashy so much so you can’t see anything! Tracks feel cheap with stupid instant to stop dead bits sticking out on corners, getting wiped when hit by an opponent merely looking at you, wall hits can result in a spin-out and when you add in tight almost corridor-like tracks it all adds up to a headache in the making. I really hoped this could have been alright, the GP mode is a good idea where you need to finish in the top four in order to advance in the group stages, it’s all very Battle Royale but with extra screens and menus it slows the pace down and takes up more time than is needed or wanted. The shop offerings are just as piss poor as the Battlepass and in a world where Battlepasses have been around for quite a while now I don’t understand how you can be so stingy with it all unless of course Mr. Money is in charge and then it all makes sense. Chocobo Racing either needs a huge influx of content and polishing or it needs to just quietly drive off into the sunset and watch the better racing games on the TV on a Sunday afternoon and think about what could have been.

Jim Smale

Gaming since the Atari 2600, I enjoy the weirdness in games counting Densha De Go and RC De Go as my favourite titles of all time. I prefer gaming of old where buying games from a shop was a thing, Being social in person was a thing. Join me as I attempt to adapt to this new digital age!