Review Update (3/12/2022): After spending time with Chocobo GP’s Prize Pass and Chocobo GP mode after the game’s March 10, 2022 launch, I came away disheartened about the future of the game and the viability of its premium seasonal content, even if the Chocobo GP mode is cool.

As I hoped for in the initial review-in-progress, the Chocobo GP mode is really cool. You start off with a pool of 64 racers, split into eight eight-player races, and then the top four from each race move onto the next round until you have a final group of eight. It makes for thrilling races, not just for first place but also for landing in the middle of the pack. The only problem is that the Chocobo GP mode works best as a part of the greater package of the game - including the adorable Story Mode, local multiplayer, and more. If you want to dabble into the game’s premium Prize Pass content, which includes access to new characters Cloud and Squall from Final Fantasy, you can only access them through Chocobo GP as far as I can tell.

For the purposes of the first season, you can get access to the Prize Pass essentially for free, as every player is given 800 mythril (the premium in-game currency), but if they keep that payment structure, successive seasons will cost roughly the equivalent of $8 of real money. A Premium Prize Pass also exists for 2400 mythril (approximately $24 of real money) that unlocks the new characters right away. So for about half the cost of the full game, you can get access to some more stickers and two fan-favorite characters. That’s a dystopian value proposition for a game that costs $50 at launch.

On top of that, the Prize Pass is a slog to level up. You have to reach level 60 to unlock Cloud and frankly, I doubt I’ll have the will to reach that in the two-month period of this first season. I played somewhere in the ballpark of 15-20 Chocobo GP races and am barely past level 10. Furthermore, the rewards along the way amount to largely cosmetic rewards or gil, the third currency in Chocobo GP. Gil does let you do things like purchase Squall as a playable racer (which isn’t quite the gargantuan feat as acquiring Cloud) and other content, but the presentation of the level rewards in the Prize Pass is dismal. If this was a free-to-play game, the $8-$24 cost for the Prize Pass would be more reasonable, but as an addendum for a dang-near full-price video game, it’s borderline offensive.

Overall, it’s a shame, but Chocobo GP is a fun video game. The story mode is enjoyable and the racing feels good. Even if I was muttering under my breath about the monetization, I had fun zooming around stages to Final Fantasy music remixes. I just progressively had less fun as I realized that one of the most popular characters in Square Enix history was being locked behind the biggest paywall this game could figure out to engineer. Chocobo GP is a good game dragged down by capitalism.

Note: Below is the original review-in-progress from March 3, 2022, before the Prize Pass and Chocobo GP mode were accessible.

As far as revivals 20 years in the making, I didn’t anticipate the PlayStation 1 game Chocobo Racing getting a sequel in 2022. Starring the stalwart Final Fantasy feathered friend, the 1999 original was a by-the-books kart racer that didn’t stack up to the Mario Karts and Crash Team Racings of its day. While the Chocobo spinoff series from Square Enix has had a number of releases over the years, most recently the remake Chocobo's Mystery Dungeon Every Buddy! that came to Switch in 2019, the racing series hasn’t been followed up despite a failed attempt to bring it back on 3DS. That changes with the Switch exclusive Chocobo GP, which follows up on the by-the-books kart racing of the original and winds up being an enjoyable adventure, even if it feels short-lived and reliant on questionable post-launch content.

At the center of Chocobo GP is the Story Mode, which is more or less mandatory to play if you want to experience the full game as the majority of the tracks and characters are unlocked here. It’s an achingly cute story that takes the titular Chocobo and his gang of Final Fantasy-referencing characters on a race-laden journey to compete in an event that will grant the winner one wish. Presented in a storybook style with static graphics and voice-acting, the plotting of the story isn’t anything to write home about, but it’s adorable enough to stay engaging. With characters from Final Fantasy VI and IX appearing, there are a lot of winks and nods to various Final Fantasy tropes and staples, including some amusing fourth-wall-breaking moments. The dizzyingly goofy agent of chaos Moogle called Racing Hero X is equal parts obnoxious and hilarious. I also enjoyed the recurring gags of the character Camilla’s Pa not actually having a real name and no one really giving a hoot about Gilgamesh despite his clear villainy. Some of the vibes are highlighted best in the boisterous soundtrack, which features some wildly energetic lyrics that detail the cast. I’m not sure if the soundtrack is good or not, but you will not forget it easily.

The Story Mode is quaint, but it serves as a solid introduction to the gameplay, which is primarily a riff on kart racers where you make use of drifts and items to put yourself in a position to win. The handling is good enough (this isn’t going to hold much of a candle to the prowess of Mario Kart 8) and the challenge and sense of speed in higher difficulties reach a nice level of enjoyment. Items are found in magicite - magical shards lifted from the world of Final Fantasy. They are slowly introduced in Story Mode, which makes their utilities crystal clear as you go. Most of them have a clear function, whether it’s a projectile fire attack or a speed boost, but some of the wilder ones, such as summoning Bahamut, get a little more out there. While the concept of being totally screwed near the end of a race by an item despite relatively flawless racing isn’t a new idea in kart racers, it is more maddening here because your acceleration never feels that speedy, even if you’re using a character that has a high stat value in it.

Outside of Story Mode, you have a suite of other modes that are typical for the genre, including Series Races, Time Trials, and local and online multiplayer. Online was fine in our limited testing and while we weren’t able to try out full eight-player local play, it is possible to do so across multiple systems. The most interesting mode isn’t accessible until launch day, however. That would be Chocobo GP, which involves a 64-player bracket split into various races that whittle down the players until a final group of eight go head-to-head for victory. The novelty of the mode is intriguing, but since I wasn't able to experience it, I will wait to score the game until I get a chance to play this mode.

Also not accessible during the review period is one of the potentially problematic elements of Chocobo GP: the seasonal Prize Pass. Using real money, you can buy mythril (one of many in-game currencies) to then buy a Prize Pass, which allows you to earn gil (another in-game currency that you can’t buy in the real world) at a faster rate and also unlock exclusive rewards. For the first season, you can unlock Cloud from Final Fantasy VII and Squall from Final Fantasy VIII as racers. All players will receive enough mythril at launch to buy the first Prize Pass, but after that, it appears that any new characters will have to be earned during seasons in which you have to pay real-world money for a Prize Pass. In a way, this isn’t that different from typical DLC, but the presentation of this in a game that costs money to buy is off-putting. That being said, a Lite version of Chocobo GP will be available at launch that allows players to compete in the 64-player Chocobo GP mode, though they won’t be able to earn the Prize Pass rewards.

Chocobo GP is a totally fine kart racer, featuring a good deal to unlock and more than 20 characters. This isn’t the new gold standard for the genre, but it’s still a fun ride, especially with the syrupy sweet story and good deal of Final Fantasy references. The true potential is in the potential of the titular Chocobo GP mode, which is also the stand-out feature for the entire game. The fact it’s accessible with the Lite mode might give it a longer tail. Some of the season pass content rubs me the wrong way, but the base game is satisfying enough that it’s a good time even if you don’t shell out real-world money to race as Cloud.