Ratings are out of 10.
According to "S.T.A.L.K.E.R.," Chernobyl had another meltdown in 1989. Because of this, you play as a hunter/survivor in the nuclear wasteland, suffering from amnesia and trying to figure out who you are. You also must defend yourself against mutated beings and other horrors.
This first-person shooter works well because it relies heavily on a traditional RPG element, which is an open-ended environment. Instead of working from Point A to Point B, you are free to roam wherever you decide to go. There's a solid mix of enemies to fight — human and nonhuman — but things get a little out of hand at times. It's as if the developers couldn't decide whether to make this a sci-fi or a real-world game, so they went with both.
A nice touch is the random groups of people you can team with and fight alongside with. That adds intensity and a great team survival feeling. The visuals work well, and the audio gets you in the right frame of mind for a "post-nuclear meltdown" kind of landscape.
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The multiplayer is thin, but overall this is a worthy effort to transform a bleak, real-life event into an effective shooter that is fun to play.
Rating: 7
Those who know "Final Fantasy" will love it that the chocobos are getting their day in the sun after all those years of being used to haul you around in previous "Final Fantasy" games.
Of course, if you read the word "chocobo" and think it's a new candy bar, don't fret, because this game is open and enjoyable for just about anyone.
While there is a story behind "Chocobo Tales," it's easy to lose sight of it among the backdrop of all the minigames, microgames, card-based games and what have you. A ton of games is thrown at you, and the style and game play are mix-and-match. That brings a sense of freshness to the game that it doesn't need but works all the same.
The game is driven entirely by your use of the stylus. This is a trend in DS games (ignoring the D-pad and buttons altogether) that never seems to lose its excitement. Also, the environment and scenery are always shifting, going from a storybook layout to a pop-up book to turn-based fighting; it's all here, and the game never seems to suffer from schizophrenia.
No matter how old you are, in a few minutes you'll realize how much fun "Chocobo Tales" is, and why it should be part of your DS collection.
Rating: 7
