While Final Fantasy: Chocobo Tales may tout the Final Fantasy name, the only thing that ties this game to those games are the creatures found inside. There's no epic RPG element, there are no elaborate invisible monsters you can bump into and there are no potions or Phoenix Downs to be found. You're in a whole new world when you place this card into your DS, and you'll probably enjoy most of it.

When you first switch on Chocobo Tales you are greeted with an extremely nicely detailed 2D pre-rendered cut scene. It shows a little Chocobo reading a book with different worlds appearing and disappearing behind him; after all, this game is all about different books and the worlds they carry within them.

The main story is fairly basic in its inception. When a book is unlocked an evil spirit from within it sucks in all of your fellow Chocobo friends and seeks to do what evil spirits do: destroy everything. It is, of course, up to you to find out how to stop him, but first you need to find him and figure out how to take him out.

Along the way you will find you can only go so far before you need help to progress, and as crazy as it sounds, help comes in the form of completing mini-games. Scattered across the game-map are several books. Each book has its own story and a possible three different outcomes.

Also inside each book is a mini-game that is broken into two different modes. Trial Mode allows you to trial the mini-game and should you manage to get a high enough score you would be rewarded with either an ending to the story or a battle card for your card collection. Battle mode put you head to head with AI controlled players to see who can either get the best time, or get the highest score. There are five different difficulties in Battle Mode and beating certain ones will also see you rewarded.

For every different outcome to the story that you manage to unlock, something will appear or happen in the game world - outside of the book - that will allow you to either progress further or help NPCs out. There is a ridiculous number of books scattered about, and the number of decent mini-games definitely outweigh the bad, all of which become available outside the main story mode once unlocked. Some are basic, and some are just plain evil. The learning curve seems to be all over the place with parts of the game aimed towards a younger audience, while others would challenge even the most hardcore gamer.

It wouldn't be a Final Fantasy game if there weren't some sort of battle system, and Chocobo Tales definitely delivers when it comes to yet another strategy based battle system. Most gamers these days have heard of card battle systems, and a certain distance into the game all those cards you've been collecting slowly become apparent when you come across your first boss fight. Each card has its own strengths and weaknesses and certain coloured cards are stronger against other colours. Before each hand is played out you are shown what colours your opponent has in his hand - you only hold three per round - and you have to strategise which would be the best against any of those three.

The battle system is insanely deep and it feels extremely rewarding to defeat some of the later bosses, but the fun really comes in playing against friends. Whether it's against people in the same room or strangers on the other side of the world, once you have built up a decent deck you need to play this against someone living. It's easy enough to get set up, but the only issue is playing enough of the single player mode to allow you to play online.

When you first start battling in-game you get a training deck of eight cards, and while you may end up with a lot more than eight, you can't play online until the little Moogle character says so - but playing more of the single player game isn't much of a punishment.