This is not a drill—Chocobo Racing is back! Chocobo GP, a brand new entry in the Final Fantasy kart racing spinoff, is making its way to Switch next year. Square Enix announced the new game during a surprise Nintendo Direct this morning, alongside a handful of other announcments.
Chocobo GP sees Chocobo and friends going head to head in kart-style races across various Final Fantasy and Chocobo series locations, complete with special attacks and magicite pickups for those cheeky attacks on other players and come-from-behind wins. Old favourites from the original Chocobo Racing return, like Shiroma, Chocobo, and Mog, alongside a few newcomers—Gilgamesh and Final Fantasy IX‘s Vivi both get some good screentime in the trailer.
Courses revealed so far include Cid’s Test Track, Alexandria, and the Gold Saucer. Game modes include a Story Mode with the Chocobo series’ usual sense of whimsy—this time, a revolving around a racing tournament with a wish for anything your heart desires as the grand prize—custom matches, local and online multiplayer, and a bracket-style tournament mode for up to 64 players.
In essence, it’s a follow-up to the 1997 PlayStation game Chocobo Racing, and while it met with a mediocre reception, it was a fun game that did a neat job of adapting Final Fantasy‘s mythology into an answer to Mario Kart. A sequel has been a long time coming: in 2010, Square Enix announced Chocobo Racing 3D for 3DS, but that ended up getting quietly cancelled, and there hasn’t been much word of the series since. Here’s hoping that Chocobo GP on Switch can be the successor that Chocobo Racing deserves.
As well as Chocobo GP,
Square Enix used the Nintendo Direct to announce (and release!) Actraiser Renaissance, a remaster of the SNES city builder / action game hybrid, and share new footage for Triangle Strategy and Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars. Other announcements include Castlevania Advance Collection (another surprise release!), an expansion to Nintendo Switch Online to include Nintendo 64 and Sega Mega Drive games, a Switch port of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and a new 3D Kirby game called Kirby and the Forgotten Land. We also got fresh looks at Bayonetta 3, Splatoon 3, and Shin Megami Tensei V, and a release date for Rune Factory 5: March 22, 2022.