Chocobo Racing

Chocobo Racing is a racing game spun off from the dashingly popular Final Fantasy series for the PlayStation. As one of the spinoffs from the Chocobo subseries, the characters, settings, and story are given Lighter and Softer takes. The game starts with eight playable characters based on recurring characters and monsters from the main series, with two additional characters that require unlocking (and more if you grind a lot of Story Mode...). Every character has his/her own vehicle or means of transport that allow him/her to race (for example, Chocobo wears motorized roller blades, Mog drives a scooter, etc.). The game also starts with eight Abilities associated with the respective character, also with additional two requiring unlock first. Each Ability is unique and can help a racer in various ways from giving a burst of speed to outright attacking nearby opponents, but using it requires filling up its gauge first. This game's take on Mascot Racer items is in the form of Magic Stones, based on recurring magic in the main series. So, the player can speed up with Haste, attack an opponent in front with Fire, freeze opponents with Blizzard, etc. These stones can be leveled up by picking up the same type of stone as the one currently held in the backmost as long as they can be upgraded or the inventory is not full. However, as the stones trail behind a racer when he/she picks them up, they can be easily stolen by other racers driving right behind him/her. The Mug ability can also steal a Magic Stone.

The game also has a Story Mode where the player can see the explanation on various things ranging from how Chocobo got his Jet-Blades to the source of the racers' Abilities, all told in a pop-up storybook format with Cid as the narrator. Completing all nine chapters of this will allow the player to create a custom racer based on the nine featured racers. There are some hidden treats if the player keeps replaying Story Mode over and over...

The game was released in Japan on March 18, 1999, a few months after the release of Chocobo's Dungeon 2, so the cast in this game can seem familiar to those who have played the latter. Meanwhile, US and Canada got this game on August 10, 1999, but Chocobo's Dungeon 2 was not released yet over there until more than two months later. This game was also released in Europe on October 11, 1999. A PlayStation Network re-release was published on February 10, 2009, but only in Japan.

Tropes used in Chocobo Racing include:

Always Night: The Black Manor and F.F.VIII Circuit always take place at night.
Artificial Stupidity: AI racers will immediately use their non-passive Ability whenever its gauge is full. While there is nothing wrong with this, AIs are not strategic in using them, which can result in them bumping into walls or falling off the track while Dashing or Charging on winding paths or sharp turns.
Attract Mode: If the game is left at the title screen for long enough, this will play.
Awesome but Impractical:
- Megaflare. One of the very few Abilities with a long recharge time, but when used, it will stall all opponents without exception. Yes, this even bypasses any form of shield like Reflect or the Barrier Ability.
- Gunblade. Also an Ability with a long recharge time, but it can be useful as a Comeback Mechanic. When it is used, the user will gain increased acceleration and can attack nearby racers to stall them. The best thing about this is that this Ability will not wear off until the user reaches first place.
Big Boo's Haunt: The Black Manor.
Big Fun: Golem quickly mellows out with Chocobo and Mog upon joining them, as well as being friendly with the other characters they encounter. He then provides some amusing moments when Mog is not trying to ruin everything. Also helps that much of Story Mode has Golem as the largest character in the cast until Chubby Chocobo joins in.
Black Mage: Exists as a playable character. The Ability associated with him, Magic Plus, powers up the backmost Magic Stone (provided it is still upgradable and his inventory is not full), fitting for an offense-oriented class focusing on magic.
Boring but Practical: The Handicap option for Story Mode runs. When activated, it increases the driving performance of the affected player. It is an outright Game Breaker against the AI because of this (as long as the player can handle it; see Bottomless Pits), but it finds a better use for grinding Story Mode over and over quickly thanks to said brokenness.
Bottomless Pit Rescue Service: If a racer falls off the track, he/she will come back with Cid repairing him/her (even if they have magic-based transports or no vehicle at all) before letting him/her go. Hilariously, the player can see multiple Cids if there are multiple racers falling off the track near each other.
Bottomless Pits: Some tracks have railless parts where racers can fall off.
Character Name Limits: A custom racer's name is capped at 10 characters.
Color-Coded Elements: Each Magic Stone has its own color which distinguishes itself from other Magic Stones of a different effect from a distance. For example, Fire is red, Blizzard is dark blue, Thunder is green, etc.
Cool Bike: Cloud's Hardy-Daytona.
Death From Above:
- The Ultima Magic Stone, the only Magic Stone that targets all opponents by default. Normally only causes the victims to spin out, at higher levels Ultima instead sends them flying.
- The Megaflare ability involves the user raining down flame shots on all opponents to send them flying.
Defeat Means Playable: Basically how the player unlocks the hidden characters.
Deflector Shields: The Reflect Magic Stone. Just holding one (not necessarily using it) can allow the holder to deflect incoming magic attacks back to the attacker. Abilities coming from opponents can not be deflected, however.
Double Unlock: Unlocking Bahamut's Grand Prix FMV requires the player to unlock Bahamut first from Story Mode before racing (and winning) as him in Grand Prix.
Extreme Omnivore: Chubby Chocobo ate a Magicite shard. After Mog basically bets their lives on a race against him, Chubby does not outright object when told about it, though he admits that he does not find them quite tasty.
Fake Longevity: Inevitable for simple racing games like this. The only way to unlock everything is to replay Story Mode and Grand Prix over and over again. Thankfully, subsequent Story Mode playthroughs allow the player to skip the storybook sequence.
Final Boss, New Dimension: Bahamut, the boss of Story Mode, is faced in Fantasia, the realm of the Espers separate from the real world.
Fire, Ice, Lightning: All three elements are represented in the form of damaging Magic Stones.
Flight: Some racers float instead of ground-bound, like both mages (one rides a cloud, one rides a magic carpet) and Bahamut (who flies with his wings).
Foregone Conclusion: Considering the theme of the main eight's Abilities having something to do with their crystals, it is no surprise to the player that Mog already has a Magicite shard to begin with.
Funny Background Event: At one point in Chapter 7, White Mage's carpet can be seen chasing Black Magician's cloud in the background while the party is chatting with Chubby Chocobo.
Greed:
- Mog is motivated by this throughout the Story Mode, always wanting all the blue crystals for himself. When it turns out that after giving up all the crystals to open up Fantasia, the supposed fully-formed Magicite does not return, he became furious.
- This is also the reason why the Magicite was broken up into the blue crystals the cast know today. According to the legend, people kept fighting each other over the Magicite crystal until Ming-Wu shattered it. Naturally, White Mage calls out Mog, who had listened to her story, for wanting the entire crystal for himself.
Green Hill Zone: Moogle Forest, an easy track (1-star difficulty) taking place in a forest. The challenger in the Story Mode, Mog, is also easy to beat.
Guest Fighter: Among the secret characters, Aya Brea of Parasite Eve fame and Jack from 3-D WorldRunner are playable in this game.
Guide Dang It: While unlocking Squall to fill the missing character spot can be easily done by players interested in creating lots of custom racers (thus eventually running into him), the worst part is unlocking the other secret racers and then playing as them. The former is done by beating Story Mode a certain number of times, but the latter requires holding down specific button(s) while the cursor is hovering over Squall and then confirm the selection. The only hint that they become playable to begin with is when both players or multiple AIs in Spectator Mode all pick Squall.
Hoist by His Own Petard:
- It is possible to get damaged by the user's own magic if it gets deflected by the target's Reflect.
- Blizzard and Blizzara are the only spells that leave ground-bound traps, so it is possible for the user to run over their own ice sheets.
Homing Projectile: The Fira and Firaga spells.
An Ice Person: The Blizzard Magic Stone. Blizzard sets down a sheet of ice on the road which can result a racer to spin out when he/she runs over it. Blizzara sets down multiple sheets of ice, which can potentially block a narrow enough path. Blizzaga freezes all opponents first, causing them to slip and lose control before the ice explodes and sends them flying.
Incredibly Lame Pun: Oh so many in the Story Mode, in the localization, at least. And that's not only including the Pun-Based Title on the chapter titles.
It Was with You All Along: Mog's crystal turns out to be hidden on his head-bopper.
Joke Character:
- Cactuar, despite being known for its high speed in the main games, is the slowest racer here. Does not help that it cannot be customized to have better stats.
- Jack is also a slow racer much like Cactuar. His only gimmick is that he runs much faster in reverse.
Just Like Robin Hood: The playable Goblin in this game turns out to be the infamous Gobin Hood, who, well, steals from the bad and rich and gives what he stole to the good and poor. He does not take having his identity exposed well, especially with Mog thinking about snitching him.
Justified Tutorial: The first chapter has the player race alone on Cid's Test Track, with basic controls explained earlier by Cid in the storybook sequence. This is explained in-universe as Chocobo doing a test run with the newly-built Jet-Blades, just so Cid can see Chocobo's performance on the track with them. Later, the first rival race against Mog in Chapter 2 basically serves as a tutorial for utilizing Magic Stones.
Leitmotif: The eight starting characters have a unique theme music for each of them. Music names tend to have Added Alliterative Appeal in the localization.
Lethal Lava Land: Vulcan-O Valley.
Level Ate: Gingerbread Land.
Level Map Display: The course's map is seen as the player races on said course.
Like You Would Really Do It: Before leaving Gingerbread Land, Chubby Chocobo asks the party about the food deal, which Mog interprets as Chubby eating them, even though they already beat him. He is actually talking about bringing some food with them and using breadcrumbs to keep track of where they are going.
Living Statue: Golem.
Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: The Barrier Ability will protect the user from magic attacks and instances of Mug. Does not protect from damaging Abilities like Megaflare.
Magic Carpet: White Mage's Cosmic Carpet.
Medium Awareness: Mog is aware that he is in a racing game and he will not forget to remind himself and everyone else that. Chubby Chocobo even lampshades this by questioning Mog's challenge against him.
Meta Guy: Mog tends to casually reference things that are more relevant outside the universe or outright talk about racing game mechanics (even being aware that he is in a racing game!). At two different moments, he wishes for a Hostile Show Takeover where the Chocobo games are named after him. His thoughts even lean on the fourth wall... but considering he is a fictional character in a visual media with an audience (the player), perhaps it is a bad idea to think about how to make good use of the Haste stones to beat Chocobo with the player around...
Mythology Gag: Mysidia is both the home of White Mage and the location of the Floating Gardens track. Not to mention, White Mage makes a mention of Ming-Wu/Minwu in her story.
Nitro Boost:
- The Haste Magic Stone. Gives a short burst of speed at its lowest level, but lasts longer at higher levels.
- The Dash ability.
- The Charge ability is much shorter than Dash, but its gauge recharges faster and this allows the user to spin out other racers by bumping into them while Charging.
No Export for You: The PSN re-release is Japan-only.
Off-Model: Mog's sprite is missing the blue scarf shown on his character render.
Oh Crap: Cid's expression when he realizes he has not done anything for Mog's request in the first chapter.
Old Save Bonus: This game's save allows the player to obtain a special item in Legend of Mana, provided both games are saved to the same Memory Card.
Palette Swap: A racer has up to seven color variations not counting the default, especially in case if two players or multiple AIs in Spectator Mode choose the same character. Squall is the only one that does not have this. Instead, his "alts" result in an entirely different character with their own stats, provided the player has unlocked them.
Playing with Fire:
- The Fire Magic Stone. Fire just shoots a small fireball forward in a straight line. Fira aims for one racer in front of the user a la Mario Kart's Red Shell. Firaga travels the entire track to strike all opponents on the way.
- The Megaflare Ability, which rains down flame shots on all opponents.
Point Build System: Creating a custom racer involves allocating points to his/her parameters, each with a minimum of 0 and a maximum of 20. How much points the player can allocate in total depends on the score they earned in Story Mode, with a maximum of 100.
Power Crystal: The Magicite. In its shattered form, each shard grants the holder a special Ability.
Power Gives You Wings: Mog's crystal grants him the Flap Ability, allowing him to bypass bad terrain (but not bottomless pits).
Pun-Based Title: Most of the Story Mode's chapter titles, like "Mind Your Manor!" and "Won't you be my lava?!". One notable example goes to the last chapter, "Final Fantasia", which combines the series' title and the name of the realm the cast ends up in before ending their journey.
Recurring Element: Even in a Final Fantasy spinoff:
- The titular Chocobo is the most obvious.
- Mog the Moogle, one of the recurring creatures.
- Somebody named Cid. In this game, he is an inventor and mechanic who created the racing machines for Chocobo and Mog. He retains the same appearance as in Chocobo's Dungeon 2, albeit in a white jumpsuit.
- The summon monsters appear in this game, but among them, only Bahamut is playable. The rest of the monsters appear as background cameos in the Fantasia course.
- Even some of the common monsters appear in this game in some form: Bombs appear as the race countdown, the player can play as Behemoth and Cactuar.
- This game also involves crystals. In this game, the crystals are Magicite shards that allow the eight main characters to use Abilities.
- As mentioned in the Story Mode, some of the spells' names still utilize the -ra and -ga naming convention.
Ruins for Ruins' Sake: The Ancient Gate, taking place at a ruined village guarded by Golem.
Score Screen: Displayed after the Story Mode's credits roll. The score displayed will then be used as the custom racer's Point Build System.
Shock and Awe: The Thunder Magic Stone. Thunder casts a single bolt of lightning near an opponent in front (or behind if the user is at first). Thundara casts three bolts of lightning. Thundaga is the same, but harder to avoid and strikes all opponents.
Shout-Out: After Chubby Chocobo suggests leaving a trail of breadcrumbs so that the party will not get lost, Mog furiously shouted that their journey is not the tale of Hansel and Gretel. It happens while Chocobo and Mog are spontaneously dressed up as the aforementioned characters. As a cherry on top, before the chapter ends, Cid the narrator says, "Let's leave our friends here before they have a "Grimm" ending!"
Secret Character: Squall is the character filling the top-right spot in the racer select screen. To unlock him, the player has to beat Story Mode at least twice, then win against him in the sudden challenge race. But that is not all. Beating the Story Mode multiple times will add more secret characters hidden behind Squall, accessible using button combinations while Squall is being selected.
Secret Level: F.F.VIII Circuit, which is unlockable after defeating Squall in his challenge race post-Story Mode. It is not as long as Fantasia, but its many sharp turns still land it in the 5-star (highest) difficulty.
The Smurfette Principle: White Mage is the only female in the cast. Even if one counts Aya Brea, those are still two females in an 18-character roster.
Sound Test: The player can listen to the game's music and sound effects in the Sound Room.
Spell My Name with an "S":
- Ming-Wu/Minwu.
- Moomba is spelled "Mumba" in this game. Meanwhile, Cactuar ends up being named "Cactaur".
Sprite Polygon Mix: The environment is 3D, but the racers and some course objects are 2D sprites.
Squashed Flat: A racer can be squashed by the hurled boulders in Vulcan-O Valley. Racers affected by three instances of Minimize (smallest size) can also end up like this if a much larger racer runs over them.
Tank Goodness: Cid's Tank.
Time Trial: Would not be a racing game without one. The Time Attack mode allows players to set record time on any of the tracks.
The Unintelligible: Chocobo only speaks in "kweh"s, Black Magician only speaks in "..." (until the last chapter). Fittingly, the two get along well. Somehow, other characters in the scene except for Mog can understand how the two communicate with each other. Yes, even Chocobo and Black Magician understand each other, which is how their friendship is formed.
Unlockable Content: The game has two unlockable racers (with eight more as complete secrets) and two unlockable courses. The game's FMVs other than the opening can be unlocked by playing much of the game.
Unwinnable by Mistake: Gingerbread Land has a drop about 3/4ths into the course, normally passable by any racer as long as they move at top speed (or use certain Abilities), but moving too slowly or getting hit mid-drop will cause them to fall to a previous part of the course, forcing them to climb up again to have another try, often costing their current position. However, if the chosen racer has too low top speed (most often seen on custom racers) and no speed-boosting Abilities to back him/her up, he/she will get stuck on the "diamond" part of the track over and over until the player quits.
Video Game Stealing: The Mug ability allows the user to steal a racer's Magic Stone.
Voice Grunting: Every racer has his/her own sounds for when he/she is selected, using a Magic Stone, and taking damage.
Wacky Racing: It is a mascot racing game featuring Lighter and Softer takes on Final Fantasy characters!
White Mage: The character with this class exists in the game, but the only remnants of her actual combat role are in the short dialogue in Chapter 6 where the party become tired and request her to cast Cure on them.
Won't Work On Me: Racers that fly (including ground-bound racers that use the Flap Ability) can not be affected by the sheets of ice generated by Blizzard/Blizzara.
X Meets Y: Final Fantasy meets Mario Kart.
Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: Black Magician in the last chapter, after spending most of his time speaking in "...".
You No Take Candle: Golem's speech pattern.