Chocobo Racing

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 06:11:18 +0100

    Chocobo Racing is a racing game developed for the PS one by none other then Square Soft (Squarenix), the creators for the ingenius series known as Final Fantasy. The game was released in North America on August 10, 1999 , whereas the Japanese version was released a few months prior in March 1999. The game received pretty low reviews here in the US, stating that the game was low quality compared to other racing types. Although the game wasn't received to great here by game critics, many of us who owned the game paid no attention because we knew how great the game really was.

    Chocobo Racing was notably compared to other titles such as Mario Kart for the SNES, but in my opinion, far exceeds it. The game stars a cute cast of characters from the Final Fantasy universe that we have all grown to know and love. The main character is none other then Chocobo, the rest of the cast is drawn from recurring characters in the Final Fantasy series. Such characters are Mog, Golem, Goblin, Black Mage, White Mage, Chubby Chocobo and Behemoth which are all instantly available for you to play as. It doesn't stop there though, by completing certain requirements you can unlock additional secret characters such as Bahamut, Squall, Cloud, Aya Brea( From Parasite Eve ), Mumba, Cactuar, the Highwind, Jack, and the Original Chocobo (Snes version). Along with all the secret playable characters comes a create a racer system, once you beat the game you are given points depending on how well you do to spread around for each stat which was pretty neat.

    Another thing that set this game apart from other generic racing games was the addition of Special Abilities, each character had it's own special ability and you could also assign that specific ability to any other character of your choosing. Much like Mario Kart, you could pick up powerups to use during races, these were known as Magic Stones. Magic stones were spheres lain throughout the circuits that you could pick up and use against other opponents or even use on yourself. Picking up one would cast a spell such as Thunder, picking up two would power the stone up to Thundera and picking up three would power the stone up even further into Thundaga. There were a total 8 stones you could pick up which consisted of :Haste Stone, Fire Stone, Ice Stone, Thunder Stone, Mini Stone, Reflect Stone, Doom Stone, or Ultima Stone.

    Players were given 5 different racing mode choices such as Story Mode, Versus Mode, Grand Prix, Relay Race, And Time Attack. Mostly used by me were the Story and Versus mode, The story mode was very neat, as the story would unfold from within a pop up book narrated by Cid the Engineer. The story book is told throughout nine exhilirating chapters as Chocobo encounters new allies who all posses a piece of the Magicite Crystal needed to open the gates to Fantasia, the home of Bahamut the king of dragons. Upon completing the game the first time, I saw myself starting the story mode back up because it was such great fun, that I just had to do experience it again( Also I wanted more characters ).

    Ths game was very enticing for games back in the 90's era, the sound track was amazing to boot and paired with awesome FMV sequences made this game a great buy. I don't have many dislikes for this game because you get what you paid for. If you're looking for a great multiplayer racing game that you and your friends can play over and over then stop at your nearest GameStop store and buy it, you won't regret it. I chose to give this game a rating of 9/10 simply because it caught my attention and held it there for more then a week, hell, even more then a year to be honest.

Reviewed By : Anias

Mega Man X3

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 06:11:04 +0100

    First I would like to point out that this wasn't my first run through of this old classic, but it's definitely a very good game to play and does it's predecessors justice. This game brings many new elements to the world of Mega Man X that X or X2 didn't quite include yet, but at the same time brings back all the old ideas we have all grown to love. For instance, you still are greeted with an opening stage and once finalized, are set with a choice of 8 Mavericks to destroy in any order of your choosing.Although, this time around, you can play as our faithful companion Zero anytime in the game except for boss battles ( except for one exception ) as long as he has not died.

    Something new Capcom decided to throw at us this time around, is the addition of armor chips that can be put in any of the 4 upgrades to enhance them even further, the only problem is you can only have 1 ( or so they make you think ). Remember those big rider armors you could ride in Chill Penguin or Wheel Gators stages? Well they've made a come back and are better then ever, once the Chimera armor is collected you can gain different types of rider armors that each have a specific ability ( Collect all 4! ). These are pretty nifty when you just wanna blow shit up or punch a hole in a robots face.

    This game is coupled with multiple endings, although not to much of a difference, give's it replay value over X or X2 . Overall this game was a great experience sure to tingle your retro taste buds. Coupled with a great sound track, genius enemies and badass stage layouts, this game deserves an 8/10 from me.

Reviewed by: Anias

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Chocobo Racing

Mega Man X3