So I finally got to put some time into Chocobo DS today, and as expected it's really awesome! It's apparently developed by h.a.n.d.s or something, anyone know anything about them? The 3D graphics in the game is really charming and the music is great. Basically the game lets you pick from a few options at the title screen, mainly between Story Mode and Quick Play. There are other options but those involve multiplayer, wifi and unlocked presents so I haven't really looked into them.
Quick Play is where you can just select from a few minigames and play them. The are only a few options at first because there are many waiting to be unlocked. I suppose when you encounter new minigames in the Story Mode they'll be unlocked here. The ones available that I've checked out in mostly quick reflex single player games. There's one which is a little like minesweeper, but instead of you taking your time to comb the grid, each round starts with one square with an arrow in one direction telling you where the next safe square is. One arrow means the next square, two arrows mean two squares in that direction, etc. You basically keep tapping the squares until you get to the goal before the timer runs down. The other minigame was Cid's Job test where the FF3 (NES sprite version) jobs are all shown on the touch screen but on the top screen a random job sprite will hop across and you have to tap the right job for the next random one to hop across.
The Story Mode is where the meat of the game really is though. You get to name your chocobo character and, it's a full blown Story Mode where you walk around and talk to characters and there are cutscenes. Basically the story goes that you're on a chocobo farm run by White Mage and Black Mage, but then one day Black Mage comes along with this cool magic book which you unlock and unleash an evil demon lord. So he sucks all the chocobos on the farm up and have scatered them all over the world as pages.
As you encounter each page you'll recover one of the chocobos, but some pages are stuck in places you cannot get to, so near them is usually a storybook (which all have been cursed by the demon lord book). As you read each storybook you get to play minigames connected to the stories and by completing the stories you forward the plot. Basically the entire game is a mix of adventure/exploration mixed with minigames. The first storybook was a Squaresoft twist on the Tortise and the Hare, except this time it's the Cauter and the Adamantoise. :lol
After completing the first story minigame where you navigate the Adamantoise up the hill to win the race, you get to the ending of the book where the Cauter is all mad and he gets so mad he hops out of the book and lands on the balloon that was floating the chocobo page you needed. Then an enemy character (hot chick!) is introduced with her evil rival chocobo. He jumps into the storybook and challenges you, so you go back into the book to play the same minigame except this time with an actual race rival. He sucks though, so you defeat him and he goes running away.
Overall the game is really charming and excactly what should be expected out of a fun take on the Chocobo series with all the Chocobo series characters being presented in really nice 3D on the DS. The game is fun, cute, entertaining and seems to be pretty packed with variety.
Quick Play is where you can just select from a few minigames and play them. The are only a few options at first because there are many waiting to be unlocked. I suppose when you encounter new minigames in the Story Mode they'll be unlocked here. The ones available that I've checked out in mostly quick reflex single player games. There's one which is a little like minesweeper, but instead of you taking your time to comb the grid, each round starts with one square with an arrow in one direction telling you where the next safe square is. One arrow means the next square, two arrows mean two squares in that direction, etc. You basically keep tapping the squares until you get to the goal before the timer runs down. The other minigame was Cid's Job test where the FF3 (NES sprite version) jobs are all shown on the touch screen but on the top screen a random job sprite will hop across and you have to tap the right job for the next random one to hop across.
The Story Mode is where the meat of the game really is though. You get to name your chocobo character and, it's a full blown Story Mode where you walk around and talk to characters and there are cutscenes. Basically the story goes that you're on a chocobo farm run by White Mage and Black Mage, but then one day Black Mage comes along with this cool magic book which you unlock and unleash an evil demon lord. So he sucks all the chocobos on the farm up and have scatered them all over the world as pages.
As you encounter each page you'll recover one of the chocobos, but some pages are stuck in places you cannot get to, so near them is usually a storybook (which all have been cursed by the demon lord book). As you read each storybook you get to play minigames connected to the stories and by completing the stories you forward the plot. Basically the entire game is a mix of adventure/exploration mixed with minigames. The first storybook was a Squaresoft twist on the Tortise and the Hare, except this time it's the Cauter and the Adamantoise. :lol
After completing the first story minigame where you navigate the Adamantoise up the hill to win the race, you get to the ending of the book where the Cauter is all mad and he gets so mad he hops out of the book and lands on the balloon that was floating the chocobo page you needed. Then an enemy character (hot chick!) is introduced with her evil rival chocobo. He jumps into the storybook and challenges you, so you go back into the book to play the same minigame except this time with an actual race rival. He sucks though, so you defeat him and he goes running away.
Overall the game is really charming and excactly what should be expected out of a fun take on the Chocobo series with all the Chocobo series characters being presented in really nice 3D on the DS. The game is fun, cute, entertaining and seems to be pretty packed with variety.
