I don't want to bet on automated NPC choco racing..

I want 8 chocobo's controlled by players, with the ability to bet on them (if not participating). Of course there have to be situations in place so people don't cheat / fix the race. One way to do this would be to have a set steak (assume 1000 gil), totalling 8000 per race. 1st place gets 5000 gil, 2nd place gets 2000 gil, 3rd place gets 1000 gil (or similar). This way no gil or rewards are being generated, and it is simply betting against other players. If this isn't viable, racing against NPC's (controlling your chocobo) is a good secondary option.

What made XI's choco racing so dull and boring was betting on automated races with no control over the outcome.

The FF7 choco breeding & racing system was fantastic, but you could simply take a small slice of that and cut out having to catch the choco's all over the world (although I would think this would be a nice side quest). You could however use the "class" system in FF7 to increase your chocobo's racing stats (perhaps EXP for your chocobo) when you come in the top 3 of a race. Each class level up gives you an "allocation point" to spend on either Speed, Stamina, Endurance (or similar).

As a nice little incentive, if chocobo colour isn't put into the breeding process, you could reward "chocobo dye" to 1st place under the division that you won.

eg.
Class C - Blue, Green, Pink
Class B - Light Blue, Light Green, Dark Pink
Class A - Black, Red
Class S - Gold



On top of choco racing, I would definitely love to see the snowboarding minigame make its way back. Perhaps Yoshi will feel inspired after he comes back from his vacation !