It doesn't look good when Google Stadia-exclusive DLC looks like a pirated copy of a game from the Google Play Store, but that's exactly what Final Fantasy 15's "Crazy Challenge" looks like. The four mini-games were first released a few months ago as a special offer to those who purchased FF15 on Stadia. However, I didn't even know this DLC existed, as Google's streaming platform seemed to have died as soon as it appeared. Now I can't resist.
This is all thanks to Noah on Twitter. He shared some clips of his attempts to beat these crazy challenges. None of them are official DLC made by Square Enix, but more like subpar mods like the ones in the Final Fantasy 15 Steam workshop.
The first of the four challenges is a racing mini-game where you use a monster truck version of Regalia (the car Noctis and his friends drive) to navigate an obstacle course. It would be a tedious distraction, except for the fact that every time Noah bumps into it even slightly, Regalia goes flying through the air. The regalia can't even turn without flipping over, and the obstacle course has plenty of places to get stuck with no way out. Watching it brings back flashbacks to "Big Rigs": Over the Road Racing
The second mini-game in the DLC is somehow even worse. It involves riding in a flying car called Regalia Type-F and picking up as many objects as possible, from tea kettles scattered along the road to enemy soldiers, before dropping them off at a gas station to earn points. This is especially great when Noctis drops off his cargo at Cindy's gas station. Everything he scoops up with his Type-F bounces off the ground.
Each clip in Noah's Twitter thread is worth watching. Because the whole DLC is full of "What the heck! energy, and it's very engaging. My guess is that Square Enix signed a deal to make content exclusive to the stadia version, but then decided not to focus on it. Considering how poorly stadia has performed in the months since its release, it was probably the right decision.
Still, it is odd that a company as large and reputable as Square Enix should put so little effort into it. Even the official page for the stadia version has a dead link to a huge YouTube page that was once supposedly a trailer.
Thanks, USgamer.
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