Final Fantasy’s new kart racer is rife with microtransactions, despite $50 price

If you’re interested in Chocobo GP, a full-price, $50 kart racer that launched Thursday, realize first that the game is littered with microtransactions and upsells into them. Irate Final Fantasy fans who paid the freight say they feel duped, and those who play even the free, “lite” version available on Nintendo Switch say the whole thing feels like something you play on your phone.

The gameplay is fine. Pick a chocobo or a Final Fantasy character, zip around a course, and boost your speed or take down your rivals with power-ups and magic spells. As for the rest of the game, “everything is [built] around purchasable season passes despite it being a paid game,” wrote one player on the Final Fantasy subreddit. “[I]t’s basically the same currency systems we see in gacha games, only it’s all for minor cart customization shit.”

While racers and levels are unlockable,…