|
Once upon a time there was a small, peaceful island protected
by the crystals of fire, earth, water and light. On this island
lived a white mage named Shirma, a black mage named Croma
and a farm full of cheerful chocobos. Just when it looked
like everybody was going to live happily ever after, Croma
bought back a mysterious book from his latest journey. Without
thinking twice, he opened the dark tome and inadvertently
invited misfortune upon the island. Every nearby chocobo was
sucked into the magical pages of the wicked book. Unbeknownst
to all, Darkmaster Bebuzzu, who had once laid waste to nearly
the entire world, had been sealed inside the pages of the
book. Luckily for the good guys, his strength was not fully
restored. You take the role of an unlikely hero, a chocobo,
who must rescue his friends while stopping Darkmaster Bebuzzu
from regaining his lexicon of devastating powers...
Final
Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales mixes
an adventure story with mini games, micro games and an interesting
card battle game called Pop-Up. The result is an engaging
offering that will have you glued to your DS for quite some
time.
You
play the game as a chocobo (which are the Final Fantasy
equivalent of horses. These cute little creatures look like
birds, but are used by people to travel long distances), who
has to rescue his/her friends who are
trapped inside picture books. You also have to stop Bebuzzu
from regaining his power. There are four different coloured
crystals to find and collect if you want to complete the game
and restore peace to your village.
There
are over 40 mini and micro games ranging in difficulty from
simple to challenging. Thankfully the developers have not
centred too much on one style of game. The Pop-Up card game
is only used when totally necessary (to beat bosses) and the
mini and micro games are all so varied that you won't get
bored with them.
The
mini/micro games use all of the gadgets that the DS has to
offer - although only one micro game actually uses the microphone
(you have to blow into it to fire darts which burst bubbles).
It even uses the touch screen in imaginative ways. For example,
in the Pop-Up segments of the game, by holding the stylus
over your card and quickly moving it upwards it shoots the
card to the top screen to be used in your battle. This is
so much cooler than just tapping on it.
And
even when you've completed the entire game (it took us just
one day) there is still plenty of replay value in the mini
games and there's also a great multi-player option which will
have you battling against your friends at either mini games,
micro games or a round of Pop-Up. You can also keep playing
in order to rescue all of the trapped chocobos as well as
finding the missing cards to complete your deck.
While
the level of difficulty is not that challenging for the Pop-Up
segments (you can pretty much beat any of the bosses with
the most basic of cards - it's more about luck than anything)
playing against friends (or over Wi-Fi against strangers)
is incredibly challenging.
If
you are looking for an engaging and addictive game to keep
you amused over the summer months you've found it in Chocobo
Tales. While, as I mentioned earlier, most seasoned gamers
will be able to complete the story mode in a day of intense
playing, there is plenty of additional challenges to keep
you going back for more.
Nick
Smithson
Buy
this item online
We
compare prices online so you get the cheapest
deal!
Click on the logo of the desired store below.
|
|
|
£20.98
(Amazon.co.uk)
|
| |
|
|
|
£24.99
(Play.com) |
| |
|
|
|
£17.99
(HMV.co.uk) |
| |
|
|
|
£29.99
(Game.co.uk) |
| |
|
|
|
£24.59
(WHSmith.co.uk) |
| |
|
|
|
£24.97
(Thehut.com) |
All prices correct at time of going to press.
|
|
