A fun enjoyable Kart Racing game that can be appreciated if you're a fan of Final Fantasy games.
The Bad: Only 6 racers can be in play at a time compared to 8 the other games have. No 4 player mode(there is only two player mode). Storymode does not have a two-player mode. Race tracks are not as interactive as races in Crash Team Racing. Generally, not as good as Crash Team Racing or Mario Kart Racing games.
This is a racing game that includes the popular chocobo, featured in almost all FF games. This racing game is a "Kart Racing" game, which are games like Mario Kart Racing. One thing about this game is that it's not as good as Mario Kart Racing or Crash Team Racing, but I definitely enjoyed it well and spent over two dozen hours playing it(Though, this was the only Kart Racing game I had).
The racers are familiar monsters, allies, classes, and characters from Final Fantasy series. There is the lovable Chocobo, the jealous moogle, the kind White Mage, the mysterious Black Mage. There are also secret characters like Squall from FF8, Cloud from FF7, and so on. Unfortunately, those secret characters do not get any story or plot time in storymode or anything but you can race with those characters. Though, one thing you may not like about Chocobo Racing is that it does not show each racers' stats. So you do not know who is the fastest racer or which racer has the highest stats.
On the race track, there are "Magic Stones"(Items) your racer or other racers can obtain. These MS(Magic Stones) have different abilities. For example, "Fire" shoots a fireball straight ahead and stuns the racer that gets hit. "Reflect", reflects any Magic Stone back at the caster. "Haste", increases your racers speed temporarily. There are of course other magic stones, there are around 10 different Magic Stones which each different abilities.
What's unique about "Magic Stones" is that you can upgrade them by collecting more of the same type of Magic. For example, if you collect two "Fire" MS, it'll upgrade to a more powerful version of the Fire spell. It will now home into the next racer and then stun them. If you collect three "Fire" Magic Stones, it becomes the most powerful version and not only homes on the next racer, but homes on EVERY racer and stuns them for an incredible length of time.
Your racer can carry up to 3 Magic Stones at a time, it will trail off of your racer and other racers can bump into you and steal your Magic Stones. So this gives adds a little strategy to the game and does give the game more of a "Bumper Kart" feeling.
Aside from Magic Stones, you can also give your character an ability. You can select only one ability, and there are 8 abilities by default and 2 unlockable ones(from storymode). These abilities have an ability bar/gauge, every second the ability bar automatically fills up. When the ability bar fills up all the way, you can use that ability. Depending on what ability you have, it may fill up faster or slower than others. Abilities consist being able to move faster for a temporary time, gaining a protective shield which blocks one spell or ability aimed at you, upgrading a magic stone to a more powerful version, a powerful attack which instantly stuns all racers for a huge length of time, and more.
The stronger the ability sounds, the longer it takes for the ability to be charged and used. So, while the powerful attack that instantly stuns all racers may sound "cheap" or "too powerful", it is not due to the fact it takes a long time for the ability to be charged and used.
The storymode is interesting and can be amusing. The storymode features almost all the racers in the game in a quest to save the world and fine blue gems which grants them certain powers. I won't get into further details into the story though but the story is good but pretty basic "Save the world" stuff.
Beating storymode allows you to unlock a new character everytime you beat it. You start with 8 characters, but beating the storymode will unlock a new character and a new race track. You can beat it again to unlock another new character and a new race track. There are 10 race tracks but 18 characters, of course you unlock those characters by beating storymode multiple times. Beating Storymode also allows you to customize your own racer. You can pick any of the existing racers and change their color and edit their stats. You earn points in storymode depending on how well you do in story mode. These points can be spent to increase one of the five stats that each racer has. You need 100 points to max out all stats of your customized racers.
Storymode generally takes about 3-4 hours to complete on your first try and generally just an hour or two on your next playthrough once you learn all the tricks of this racing game. To unlock all the characters, you must beat storymode a total of 12 times. So this game does have a lot of re playability.
Other than story mode, there is also a Grand Prix mode. This mode allows you to pick four race tracks and race them. Getting First Place on a race track in Grand Prix mode unlocks a higher difficulty on that race track. And if you get First Place on a track, on that higher difficulty setting, you'll unlock another difficulty setting.
There are 10 race tracks and 3 difficulty modes. The difficulty modes are "Chocobo", "Behemoth", and "Bahamut". If you get First Place on all race tracks, on "Bahamut" difficulty mode, you'll unlock mirror mode which allows you to play the race track in "mirrior". So if a race track has a right turn, in mirror mode, it will become a left turn. This is just one example, it causes the entire race track to become "opposite" of what it was, hence the "mirror" mode.
There is also a Spectator Mode, which allows you to watch computers race against each other, so if you're bored you can just watch the computers race against each other.
There is a Versus Mode which is generally just a one on one racing mode, there is a Time Attack Mode which is a solo racing mode where you must race to beat the clock. Finally, there is a Relay Mode which is a 1 on 1 racing mode except after you finish a lap, you'll switch to a different racer character. While the game may not be as good as Crash Team Racing or Mario Kart Racing, I am fond of this racing game and enjoyed it very much. It's a great game to add to your collection if you like Chocobos or Final Fantasy games.