Chocobo Tales
Ages: Everyone

Is it a kids game? Is it a grownup game? I would say that it is a kids game with hard parts. It's a fairy tale with bits and pieces of Aesops Tales, combined with Final Fantasy and wrapped up in a pop-up picture book. A unique and creative combination.

The game is comprised of three parts: the adventure story where you wander about picking up books, and cards while exploring the space and interacting with characters; the mini and micro games where you race around, swim, and duel with opponents for the highest score; and finally a battle card game.

The story begins when the Black Book of Doom is accidentally opened in quiet Chocoboland, enabling Darkmaster Bebuzzu to trap all the Chocobos in different story books. You must hunt around, find these books and enter into them to encounter the games that will free your friends. Mostly you will need to conquer battle levels 1 and 2 to proceed forward and some are more difficult than you would expect in a kids game - but the cleverness will keep you going. You will draw leaves to climb up and down the beanstalk, race against jailbird Chocobos while avoiding hazardous rocks and bombs, swim to avoid the Leviathan in an undersea adventure, learn dueling and encounter famous opponents such as the Golem, Bebuzzu, and Shiva to name a few.

The battling card game has over one-hundred cards to collect if you are compulsive, but you can play the game with fifteen. Cards have three colors and each one has attack and guard zones. It's turn based, with rewards for fast action. The instruction book that comes with the games provides rules and instruction. If you are doing card battles you probably would prefer to be dueling with real live humans. Nintendo Wi-Fi allows you to do that and a little instruction book tells you exactly how. Square Enix did not stint on the instruction booklet - it is comprehensive with plenty of pictures.

The game uses the touchscreen exclusively – and in such a clever way. Some actions work when the stylus is on the screen – some work when the stylus is not on the screen, sliding, dragging, turning and tapping are also used – even drawing. My touchscreen got a real good workout – yours will too.

Fun Factor: Lots of variety in game play.
Female Factor: I think that Chocobos are parthenogenetic.
Player Friendly: A few frustrating hard parts but otherwise OK.

Reviewed by: Editor - 06/07