I had heard of Chocobo Tales before, but the good reviews somehow managed to slip under my radar. However, this game is right up my alley. After all, it is cute, clever, and screamed Final Fantasy. After a friend told me of his interest in this game, Chocobo Tales flew to the top of my list of DS games to buy. Fortunately, I received it from a perceptive friend for my birthday.

The opening movie for Chocobo Tales was short and sweet. The chocobo theme blared out of my little DS and the screens flashed bright, happy colors. The story is rather ridiculous: an ancient book comes to life, as it is inhabited by a demon, and captures chocobos on cards. This ancient book wants to rule the world, with the help of a few bumbling henchmen and an evil girl with cones that resemble party hats sticking out of her head.

After the opening movie, you gain control of the chocobo. The controls consist almost entirely of the touch screen. You move the stylus and the chocobo follows your lead like a lost puppy. From the base world, there are several pictures books into which the chocobo will jump, each leading to a mini-game. I have described before how I have low tolerance for mini-games, and over half of this game was the mini-games.

I found the mini-game format of many of these games to be superior to many I have played before, making Chocobo Tales much easier to enjoy. The mini-games are all split into five levels. Level one could often be beaten with your eyes closed, but the levels become more difficult at a rapid rate. Fortunately, the story can be moved forward most of the time by only passing the third level. I found this to be a great system, since at that point you have played the game once or twice before, improving your skills. Instead of being prohibitively difficult, each mini-game will let you work up to levels to match your ability. For example, if I won an easy race very quickly, I could advance to level three or right away.

After conquering a few mini-games, I encountered a masked moogle. This moogle was pretending to be a superhero. I had never seen anything so silly in a Final Fantasy game, but I thought it was fantastic. Not only was the game about chocobos, but my all-time favorite Final Fantasy characters, moogles, also had a place in the game. This particular moogle explained the fighting system. The combat system is based on cards. One of my friends found it to be similar to Pokémon or Yu-Gi-Oh cards. I didn’t have much time to explore it yet, but it seems fun.

I have only played Chocobo Tales for a few hours so far, but it is very engaging. The mini-games seem to be very well-designed, systematically as well as artistically. The mini-games are in a 2D style that suits the game very well. The same style carries through into the battles, where characters jump off the cards into the battle. The rest of the game is 3D, in an anime style like the older Final Fantasies. I am really enjoying the game. It is very fast-paced, and I am looking forward to the hours ahead.