Chocobo Racing

For the recurring minigame, see Chocobo racing (minigame).

Floor it or get out of the way!

Chocobo Racing Tagline

Chocobo Racing is a video game for the PlayStation, released in 1999 by Square Electronic Arts. It is a kart racing game, and it has often been compared to Mario Kart and Crash Team Racing. Though most characters use cars or buggies, some specific ones just fly, or use scooters, magic carpets, roller skates, a mine car, and even a cloud.

The game's characters consist mainly of popular recurring figures from Square's Final Fantasy series, such as Chocobo, the Moogle and the Black Mage. In true Final Fantasy style, a character named Cid appears.

Gameplay[]

Modes[]

There are five modes of race:

Story Mode: The mode where Cid narrates the story via a pop-up storybook. Player controls Chocobo initially and gains new characters and abilities as the story progresses.
Versus Mode: Players get to race against another player or the computer.
Grand Prix (GP) Mode: The player races against computer-controlled opponents in four selected tracks of his/her choice.
Relay Race: The player chooses three racers to compete in a relay match.
Time Attack: The player selects any stage and try to beat the fastest time record set there.

Magic Stones[]

The standard goal is to reach the finish line first. However, this is not easy with Magic Stones scattered throughout the tracks. Each racer can hold a maximum of three magic stones. If a racer collects several magic stones of the same type, those stones will "level up".

Below is a list of Magic Stones used:

Haste - makes racers go faster. The higher the level, the longer the effect duration.
Fire - shoots a fireball in a straight line, which can miss. Higher levels will not miss, and Fira attacks one racer in front of the user, while Firaga attacks all racers in front of the user.
Blizzard - creates an ice sheet behind the user. Any racer that drives over it will spin out. Blizzara creates six ice sheets on the track which is harder to avoid, while Blizzaga causes all players to spin out of control and crash, stalling them. Flying racers are not affected by Blizzard and Blizzara.
Thunder - Thunder causes lightning to strike in front of a racer. Thundara causes three lightning strikes in front of a racer, while Thundaga strikes all racers.
Minimize - a small angel appears and reduces the size of all racers, slowing them down by 25%. The highest level reduces the racers' speed and size by 75%. If run over, a shrunken racer will be squashed, stalling them.
Reflect - deflects offensive spells back at the user. It is triggered automatically when a spell targets the holder, but it can also be activated manually to create a temporary Reflect shield. This Magic Stone does not level up.
Doom - a skull with a 10-second counter appears over the player. It can be transferred to another racer by bumping into them. Once the counter hits zero, the racer crashes. This Magic Stone does not level up. All CPU racers use it as soon as they get one.
Ultima - causes an attack that stalls all racers. The highest level stalls all racers much longer.

Magic Stones can be stolen by bumping on another racer from behind.

Tracks[]

Track Name	Distance	Difficulty	Chapter	Challenger	Magic Stones
Cid's Test Track	0.77 mi	*	Gadgets a-go-go!	N/A	N/A
Moogle Forest	0.84 mi	*	Moogling Right Along!	Mog	Haste
The Ancient Gate	0.84 mi	**	A Life in Ruins	Golem	Fire
Mythril Mines	1.03 mi	**	The Pleasure is Mine!	Goblin	Blizzard
The Black Manor	1.17 mi	***	Mind Your Manor!	Black Magician	Thunder
Floating Gardens	1.17 mi	***	Crystal Clear	White Mage	Mini
Gingerbread Land	1.55 mi	***	Maybe it's something I ate...?	Chubby Chocobo	Reflect
Vulcan-O Valley	1.46 mi	****	Won't you be my lava?!	Behemoth	Doom
Fantasia	1.63 mi	*****	Final Fantasia	Bahamut	Ultima
F.F.VIII Circuit	1.46 mi	*****	N/A	Squall	N/A

Story[]

Chapter 1: Gadgets a-go-go!

The inventor Cid presents Chocobo with a pair of "Jet-Blades" and offers Chocobo a chance to take a test-run with them on the racetrack behind his lab. After the race, Mog drops in and asks Cid about the progress of the racing machine he had commissioned. Cid promises to bring the machine by tomorrow, but later confides to Chocobo he had forgotten it.

Chapter 2: Moogling Right Along!

The next day, after presenting the doubtful Mog with his scooter, Chocobo and Mog race. After Chocobo wins, Mog confronts Cid over his vehicle's poor performance, but Cid replies that Chocobo won because of the differences in their abilities; Chocobo's "Dash" and Mog's "Flap". He explains that the secret of Chocobo's "Dash" ability is the Blue Crystal on his leg-ring. Mog mulls over his inferior "Flap" ability and decides he wants a Blue Crystal as well, so Cid recommends that the two go on an adventure to find out the secret of the Blue Crystal.

Chapter 3: A Life in Ruins!

The two head out to discover the secret behind the Blue Crystal. At the village gate, they met the gatekeeper Golem who warn them of the dangers beyond the gate and prohibits them from leaving unless they beat him. Mog and Chocobo notices a Blue Crystal on Golem's bracelet, and Mog proposed a race where the winner gets all Blue Crystals. When Chocobo wins the race, Golem decides to follow them, since he did not trust Mog.

Chapter 4: The Pleasure is Mine!

The trio continues on towards the Mythril Mountains, where they need to go through an abandoned mine to cross to the other side. Just then, a Goblin bandit appears, taking Mog hostage and demanding them money. Chocobo and Golem notices a Blue Crystal on Goblin's right earring. Goblin forces them to race him, and the winner gets to keep all Blue Crystals. After beating Goblin, the trio realized that the Goblin is the infamous Gobin Hood, a thief who steals from the bad and rich and gives to the good and poor. With his identity revealed, Gobin Hood demands that he follows the group and Chocobo agrees.

Chapter 5: Mind Your Manor!

Goblin guides them through the Cursed Forest, where they stumble upon the infamous Black Manor. Chocobo bravely enters the manor first and discover a racetrack. After the race was won, the Black Manor's owner Black Magician reveals himself to the party. It was his magic that kept everyone from leaving the place. Somehow, Chocobo and Black Magician became fast friends and so tags along with the party silently. Mog wishes a cute girl would follow them instead...

Chapter 6: Crystal Clear

Black Magician silently leads them to Mysidia, a village of mages. Tired from their travel, the party asks a White Mage to heal them. She notices that they all carry shards of Magicite, which they refer to as the Blue Crystals. The travelers were interested to know about the legend of the Magicite; but White Mage refuses to tell them unless they beat her in a race. When the race was won, White Mage tells the legend:

There are Magicite Shards scattered all over the world. It used to be one large Magicite Crystal... But people kept fighting each other over it. So the founder of Mysidia, the great magician Ming-Wu, broke the Crystal into eight pieces. He then scattered the shards to the four winds. He did so to assure later restoration of the Magicite Crystal...when all eight pieces are brought together again.

White Mage

White Mage then felt responsible for revealing the legend, and so decides to follow them. The party agrees, except for Mog, who mumbles about "democracy"...

Chapter 7: Maybe it's something I ate...?

The party reaches Gingerbread Land, where they met Chubby Chocobo and discovered that he had ate a piece of the Magicite. Eager to get his hands on the shard, Mog proposes a race where if they win, they get the Magicite in Chubby Chocobo's stomach, and if they lose, Chubby Chocobo can eat them all. The race was won, but Chubby Chocobo confesses it is hard to get the shard out the natural way due to his bowel problems, and decides it is better to follow the party instead.

Chapter 8: Won't you be my lava!?

Chubby Chocobo leads them to Vulcan-O Valley, a wasteland said to contain a Magicite shard. Behemoth, a magical monster, appears in front of them. When White Mage reveals their intention to search for Magicite shards, Behemoth reveals to them his own piece, the largest one. Behemoth then challenges them to a race, where the winner receives all the shards. When the race was won, Behemoth stands defeated and hands them his piece. Suddenly, the Magicite pieces begin to glow...

Chapter 9: FINAL FANTASIA

Mog's "head bopper" was in fact a shard of Magicite. With all eight Magicite shards brought together, the portal to Fantasia was revealed when Black Magician officially talks. During this, the opening to the fourth part of Dancing Mad plays. The party arrived at Fantasia, the realm of the Espers, where Bahamut, the great king of Espers, places them in a final trial: master Ultima, the magic stones of Fantasia, and defeat him. After the race was over, Bahamut reveals more details of the legend:

Mankind has fought over the Magicite for aeons, only so that they could open the portal to Fantasia, and exploit the magical power of the Espers for their own selfish purposes. Fearful for the future of humans, the great magician Ming-Wu and I chose to break the Magicite Crystal into pieces and scatter them throughout your world. So that the possessors of the eight crystal shards would not gather together and open the portal to take hold of Fantasia, we gave the eighth Crystal to Behemoth to guard over. It was also at this time that the "Ultima" stones were brought here and sealed in this realm. This was done so that humans could no longer threaten other things with the power of Ultima.

Bahamut

However, relieved that the party, a gathering of different races: chocobos, moogles, golems, goblins and humans, have traveled together in harmony, Bahamut decides to open the portal between the Outer World and Fantasia, declaring that "Fantasia shall exist in harmony with your world from this day on".

Racers[]

Below is a list of the storyline racers, their vehicle and their unique ability.

Chocobo wearing the Jet-Blades CR - Dash: Temporarily boosts top speed and acceleration, similar to the Haste spells.
Mog in the Mog-Mobile R2 - Flap: Allows the character to soar over ground-based hazards on the track; useless on the mages or Bahamut, who are already flying. Can also avoid fire attacks although it doesn't work sometimes.
Golem in the Rockin' Roller V8 - Grip-Up: Allows the character to maintain better traction on the road.
Goblin in the Gob-Cart H4 - Mug: Steals accumulated spells from another racer towards the front and has a stone. A random stone is given is no one else has a stone.
Black Magician on the MagiCloud MK-1 - Magic Plus: Instantly powers up any collected spell that can level up.
White Mage on the Cosmic Carpet - Barrier: Nullifies the effects of magic and some abilities.
Chubby Chocobo in the Phat-Burner Plus - Receive: Adds a magic spell cast upon the character to his or her repertoire.
Behemoth in the Behemo-Buggy 99 - Charge: Gives the character a turbo boost that can be used to ram other racers and make them spin out.
Bahamut with his Dragon Wings - Megaflare: Large-scale magic attack that causes all characters to go flying. Unblockable.

Secret playable racers[]

Aside from Squall, secret characters do not have custom portraits (they appear merely as a generic black figure with a question mark for a face) or their own abilities (they must select another racer's).

Squall Leonhart in the Tempest - Gunblade: Causes the character to accelerate and attack any racers passed until they take the first position or they are hit with a level 3 attack other than Minimize. If used while in the lead, the effect lasts about the same as the Dash. Unblockable.
Cid in a tank.
A Moomba (named "Mumba" in-game) on foot.
Cloud Strife on the Hardy-Daytona.
A Cactuar on foot.
Aya Brea (star of the Parasite Eve series) in a police car.
A classic (8-bit) Chocobo on foot.
The S.S. Invincible
Jack (star of 3-D WorldRunner) on foot.

Music[]

Main article: Chocobo Racing Original Soundtrack

Chocobo Racing Original Soundtrack is the soundtrack produced by Kenji Ito for the game. It uses music from the Final Fantasy series.

Box art[]

Etymology[]

[view · edit · purge]The name "chocobo" derives from a Japanese brand of chocolate malt ball by Morinaga, ChocoBall (チョコボール, Chokobōru?). The mascot for this product is Kyoro-chan (キョロちゃん?), a bird who says "kweh".

食う / くう / kuu is a rough way to say "eat", whose volitional casual form is 食え / くえ / kue ("let's scoff 'em down!"), leading to Kweh!

Trivia[]

Players can get a special item if they have Chocobo Racing save data on the same memory card while playing Legend of Mana. After the completing the event Catchin' Lilipeas, the player should proceed to Polpota Harbor. When they arrive, Skippie will appear, and after dashing around the map, he will give the player the Fastest Wheel ring.