Square Enix announced today a new entry in the Final Fantasy franchise, but it might not be what you expect. It’s a racing game called Chocobo GP and it’s out on Switch next year.
This new racing game looks to be a kart racer in the same style as Mario Kart of Crash Team Racing, but starring a large cast of Final Fantasy characters. In the trailer, it appears the only real rule for this event is that your vehicle must have wheels. Seems open to cheating and is probably too vague to enforce, but sure, whatever works for you Square Enix.
In the video released during today’s Direct, we see characters like Shiroma, Vivi, and a Chocobo.
Players will be able to customize their karts with new parts and features. During races, players will collect power-ups giving them an advantage in the race. Hey, uh, have you ever heard of a game called Mario Kart? Just checking! Drifting will be a part of this upcoming kart racer too, letting players take turns faster with a bit of skill and practice.
During the Direct it was revealed that the game will support 64-player online tournaments.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen FF characters appear in a racing game. Back in the 90s, Chocobo Racing for the PS1 was released offering similar gameplay to other kart racers of the era. This new game, which will be exclusive to Nintendo Switch, appears to be a spiritual successor to that original game.
No specific release date for this cute kart racer was revealed during the Direct, beyond the vague release window of 2022. Expect more news on this upcoming racer from Square Enix and Nintendo in the coming months. In the meantime, you can play Mario Kart 8 on Nintendo Switch and just pretend there are some Final Fantasy characters just off-screen.