Older players will suffer through a childish plot. Younger players will suffer through difficult gameplay.
All creatues move at once. You take a step, the enemy takes a step, no matter where they are in the dungeon. All actions you take (with the exception of turning around) counts as a turn. The whole game is built on grids, and you'll soon realize that if you approach an enemy, it means you won't get the first attack. The most important rule to surviving Chocobo Dungeon is remembering to waste turns until the enemy approaches you.
However, on occasion you'll be attacked by creatures with a range attack (meaning they won't approach) or multiple creatures at once (meaning you'll be surrounded and almost definately be defeated, especially early in the game.) This means you'll soon learn rule #2 of Chocobo Dungeon- find a hallway and funnel your enemies into your attack range.
You'll pretty much follow these two rules for the entire game, which makes the game sound repetitive but with the addition of a Job system (sort of like Final Fantasy Tactics) you'll be able to switch things up and make the game more exciting. There aren't a lot of different Jobs, but the ones that are there are decently fleshed out with abilities your Chocobo will learn. Also, changing jobs will change your Chocobo's outfit.
Chocobo Dungeon is a Rogue-Like RPG, meaning when you die you will lose all of your items and money. Sometimes in rogue-likes you will also lose the levels you've gained, but that is not the case with Chocobo Dungeon. Also, the game is forgiving in the fact that it lets you store items and money in a bank, so when you die al of your valuables will be safe. Just remember to visit the bank often.
The story of Chocobo Dungeon is cute, however, cute doesn't equal good. The citizens of a town have all lost their memories due to this mysterious Tower of Oblivion. Every time it rings people lose their memories. Fortunately for Chocobo, a green haired baby falls from the sky in an egg, and he has the ability to open portals to people's memory dungeons, where you can retrive their lost memories. This may not sound too bad at first, but when accompanied with terrible voice acting and cliche characters, the plot comes off a little boring and awfully predictable.
There are side quests you can do to escape the dungeons for awhile. For example, when you complete certain parts of the game you will recieve mail with hidden words. Decipher the hidden word and you can win playing cards for a card game you can play against computer opponents or online against friends. The card game isn't very complicated, but it's a welcome bonus to the game.
Overall:
Chocobo Dungeon isn't the most inventive title. It's a cliche RPG with a few interesting additions. The story was made for children while the difficulty of the game often suggests the game was made for adults.
While the story will drag and the dungeons will get repetitive, Chocobo Dungeon still provides enough fun to warrant a purchase. As a side note, there aren't any other games like it available for the Wii, and it could very well be the RPG some Nintendo fans have been waiting for.