Last updated: 08/11/2006 by Ryan Winterhalter

Square has spun off the Final Fantasy chocobos into racing games and dungeon crawls. Recently announced in Japan, The Chocobo and the Magic Picture Book for the Nintendo DS is yet another spin off, featuring the loveable workhorses of the Final Fantasy games.

The Magic Picture Book begins when the Black Mage Kuroma brings a picture book into the village. When the book is opened it awakens the demon Bebuzu, who is still trapped in the book.. In order to resurrect and free himself from his prison, Bebuzu begins to suck chocobo after chocobo into the book. Realizing the danger, one of them avoids capture and, along with his companion, set out to thwart the evil that’s plaguing the land.

In order to save the world from the great demon you’ll have to engage in card games, as that’s what Magic Picture Book’s battle system revolves around. Each of these cards depicts a spell or an item. Even traditional Final Fantasy summons like Shiva have cards. You’ll gain more cards by defeating more enemies.

Mini-games abound in The Magic Picture Book. The stylus gets a lot of use in these games. The character art used for these mini-games looks like it was inspired by older games in the series. 8-bit versions of classic Final Fantasy I characters like White Mage and Fighter make appearances.

No details on a release date or a North American version have been given.