Nintendo Wii Fanboy

This week saw the long wait for Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon come to an end. Square Enix fans, Chocobo fans and dungeon crawling fans alike all have something new and fun to play. The critics seemed to like it, is what we're saying. But, what about you all?

Our weekend is pretty much going to be full of Civilization Revolution, until next week arrives and we find ourselves neck-deep in work. Are you going to be playing Chocobo's Dungeon, or is this weekend going to find you playing something else?

Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon is warking on over to the Wii today, and this excites us for two reasons. For one, we're entirely ready for the cuteness overload that is sure to engulf us while playing the game. Seriously, dressing up Chocobos in cute little class outfits? We're not even sure we can handle that level of adorability. The second reason is that it's a roguelike RPG, and we can definitely use some more representation for this niche genre on the Wii.

We don't want to play a bad game, though, so we're interested in seeing what the critics have to say before giving Square Enix our hard-earned $40. If you are, too, then look no further:

1up (B+) found many redeeming qualities about the game, as long as you're willing to embrace the roguelike challenges: "It's difficult, and it's often controller-throwingly infuriating, but the challenge is fundamentally fair -- and the game looks and sounds so good that you'll keep playing to see what comes next. The dungeons are surprisingly pretty for randomly generated affairs, boasting colorful corridors and flashy graphical effects. And the soundtrack is nothing short of amazing, a collection of lush rearrangements of Final Fantasy standbys."

IGN (84/100) thought that this title had a lot of polish, and that Squeenix fans should run to pick this one up: "On the surface, Chocobo's Dungeon appears to be another watered-down entry with its kid-friendly presentation and seemingly simplistic gameplay. But spend a little time with it and layers of depth slowly reveal themselves. This is one of the most engaging, challenging experiences on the Wii, proving that a kiddie presentation doesn't have to mean shallow gameplay."

Gamers anxious for something new to play will only have a pair of titles to choose from, as two new games release for North American Wii consoles this week. The first title is something we haven't really noticed here on the site, but the second game is one we've been talking about for a very long time. Do you plan on picking it up?

• Wonder World Amusement Park
• Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon

In an IGN interview, Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon producer Yuki Yokoyama described the game as a toned-down roguelike, made in such a way that "users who have never played a dungeon crawler can enjoy it as well." Item and experience loss after death, then, is gone to make the experience friendlier. Good for new players, but roguelike devotees may be put off!

Square Enix was motivated to return to the Chocobo's Dungeon RPG series, Yokoyama said, after the last Chocobo game on the DS. In Japan, the Chocobo Tales minigame collection was apparently popular, leading Yokoyama to believe it was a good time to make another game in the Chocobo's Dungeon series.

While you're reading about the cutest dungeon RPG this year, be sure to check out IGN's new screens as well.

Square Enix hasn't had their memories of Europe taken away by some enchanted bell yet. The company has just announced that their roguelike-ish Final Fantasy spinoff game, Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon, will be released "across Europe and PAL territories" in the fall of this year.

The game, a turn-based dungeon RPG about a cuddly Chocobo's adventures in random dungeons created from villagers' lost memories, came out in Japan in December. It is being released in North America on July 8.

Along with the new announcement, Square Enix has released new screens, which can be found in our gallery. And in addition to the totally sweet video above, two more videos of Chocobo in action -- as a black mage and dragoon -- are available after the break.

Surprise! Four brand new Chocobo games are available for your enjoyment right now -- exclusively to registrants at the Square Enix Members website. They are, of course, the four adorable web games released in May of last year to promote the Japanese release of Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon.

Now you can read the instructions and understand the nuanced control schemes involved in keeping Jail Bird on top of a stick so he can catch apples in Chocobo's Balancing Act, deftly avoid ice in Chocobo's Snowboard Glide, fly on borrowed wings in Chocobo Flight, and goof off in class in Chocobo's Classmate. Not that you couldn't have figured out how to play those.

Perhaps the updates on Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon have been few and far between, but Square Enix has made up for it with a sudden blitz of media from the upcoming title. The screenshots are bright and beautiful, though for the most part, they seem embiggened versions of the DS's Final Fantasy Fables title. Of course, the two are similar -- they feature a largely similar cast, mini-game elements, and obviously, supercute Chocobo himself. But while the DS game was simply a blend of adventure, mini-games, and card battles, the Wii title is set to focus on more dungeon-crawling, with a heavy dose of RPG elements.

We're a little wary of the watered-down roguelike-lite gameplay in Chocobo's Dungeon, but when push comes to shove, we're suckers for Square Enix (and anything with a job system). Come July 8, any hesitation will probably disappear in a single squee of ultimate joy.


[Via press release]

If you were wondering where you'd get your cuteness fix this summer, wonder no more. Square-Enix just announced that Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon would be hitting North American Wiis on July 8th of this year, confirming earlier rumors that were floating around the internets.

This game is mostly for the Squeenix fans who squeal at the thought of a Chocobo wearing various class outfits, but those of you who enjoy dungeon-crawling RPGs might consider it, too -- especially at the $39.99 price tag. The story revolves around Chocobo and Cid, who find themselves in a town where people have lost their memories. The only way to retrieve the memories of the townsfolk, of course, is to battle through dungeons. The game also offers Wi-Fi card battles against friends and arcade-style minigames that can be found at the Mog House.

The Wii can certainly use some more RPGs, in our opinion, and this is definitely a welcome one. Should this title interest you, you can also check out its official English website here (although there's nothing there, yet).

We love Gamefly. We hear they're okay for sending games to people, which is great. But more importantly, they love to reveal unannounced games to us. Case in point: their "Coming Soon" page includes a listing for Final Fantasy: Chocobo Dungeon. We've long suspected that Square Enix would decide to localize their adorable roguelike, Chocobo no Fushigi na Dungeon: Toki-Wasure no Meikyuu. There's really no reason not to believe Gamefly on this one. It's currently marked for a July 3rd release date on the website.

Also found on the "Coming Soon" page: oddities! Like Space Chimps! Well, that's not really that odd, since there's a CG movie coming out by the same name. Anything called Space Chimps qualifies as odd by default, though, we think. But much more unequivocally odd is Guinness Book of World Records ... the game! Look forward to that this October, according to Gamefly.

Gametrailers has posted a surprisingly comprehensive preview of Square Enix's new roguelike-lite, Chocobo's Dungeon: Toki-Wasure no Meikyuu (Dungeon of Forgotten Time). It does a good job of introducing the basics of the turn-based system, the methods of upgrading your character, and, of course, the storyline.

We were amused by the major fakeout involved in the story: Chocobo and a treasure hunter named Cid head to a big tower, which we think is going to be the basis for the game, like The Tower of Druaga or something. They've got this perfectly serviceable roguelike setting, a tower made up of many floors, full of treasure, and then -- nope! The tower gets hit with some kind of beam that sends Chocobo and Cid into a vortex, landing them in the Land of Forgotten Time. Okay, we thought, so they'll explore this land, then, like Shiren the Wanderer.

Then a space-baby shows up and lets Chocobo go into people's minds to recover their memories. And those are the dungeons.

This glimpse of the opening for Chocobo's Dungeon: Toki-Wasure no Meikyuu makes us long for the game to retain the Japanese voice acting come the inevitable English-language release. It just looks and sounds so good! Of course, we'll probably love it as much in English, but it's hard to argue with this video, which is why we've decided to drop it into our weekly spotlight.

This seems to be becoming a trend, but the handful of Wii games that were released this week in Japan are reported to have had poor first day sales. They were all third-party titles, which is also somewhat worrisome. Here's a look at the numbers:

• Chocobo's Dungeon (Square Enix) - 30,000 (30% sell through of initial amount shipped)
• NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams (Sega) - 7,000 (10% sell through)
• Soul Calibur Legends (Bandai Namco) - 5,000 (10% sell through)
• We Love Golf (Capcom) - 4,000 (10% sell through)
• Shikigami no Shiro III (Arc System Works) - 500

Granted, these are only rumored first day sales, and we'll have to wait until later in the week to get a better grip on the situation, but as of now it doesn't look good.

So, what do we make of these numbers? If they're correct, is it bad news for the Wii and third-party developers, or just more evidence that Japan is shying away from console gaming? While the latter is certainly a factor, third parties certainly can't be happy to see low numbers. However, it's way too early to ring a death knell for any of these games, even if these numbers are correct. We'll just have to wait and see how these games perform in the next few weeks.

[Via Cubed3]