"Chibi-Robo Stumbles a Bit"

Chibi Robo was one of those games that looked interesting but didn't get enough attention. With it's cute, simple graphics, and the interesting twist to both storyline and gameplay over other games out there at the time, Chibi Robo just didn't get the recognition it deserved. Generally, however, many who picked it up fell in love with it, myself included. With the strange task of cleaning up a household and working your way into the hearts of the family and their rather "lively" toys who come out when no one is looking. The game showed that it could really grab you and pull you into the gameplay.

Almost two years after its initial release on the Nintendo Gamecube, the little robot that could is back. And this time he's fighting on the green team as "Blooming" Chibi-Robo, and his task is to turn a desolate park into a flowering paradise. Armed with his Music Box and Squirter of unlimited water, Chibi Robo is ready to get his groove on and take on the vile Sargeant Smoggler who will stop at nothing to deter you from your valient quest.

Sounds a little unusual, doesn't it? Well, fear not, the game does its best to remain true to the basic format of the original game, but is not without its fair share of problems, as most console games suffer from when making that leap of faith to the handheld genre. We'll cover these short-comings more in their individual sections.

Gameplay - 7/10

When you begin your game, after the lengthy cutscene, you'll discover your Park is a fairly desolate wasteland of sand - from Chibi's point of view, and yours. There are but a few scattered patches of live-giving soil for which to grow flowers in, but as you continue to play, you can Tiller the sand and turn it into soil for you to spread out with. The Park Building aspect of the game is quite fun, and probably makes up a good chunk of the gameplay you'll encounter in the game. Not unlike its predecessor, which is a definite plus, as the seemingly mundane chores to you and I are a grand undertaking when performed by someone who is merely a few inches tall. Apart from raising flowers, you must make the park more appealing and garner more and more visitors which will help make people happy.

In the original Chibi-Robo, you came across a multitude of unique and useful tools to aide you in your task of cleaning up the household you lived in. However, Park Patrol only has a few with which to get the job done. It here that we start to see some the game's short-comings. Inventory space. Your limited capacity to carry things around becomes quite clear as you find more items to carry. Important Gameplay related items such as Cartridges, Skill Chips, and Flowers are found in the Pause Menu and not counted as actual inventory. Chibi's cute little head is limited to four items only. This can be anything from trash, to useful items you give to your toy friends, to key items like a replacement Control Pad for the Chibi-PC.

Along the way, as Chibi explores the Town next to his park, he'll come to encounter a number of toys who move on their own much like in the original game. However, unlike the original game, the toys in Park Patrol have no real explanation for why they're moving about. There is even a French marionette (puppet) on strings, and said strings are suspended above his head totally being ignored and anything and everything that might be passing through them. By far the most unsettling of the new friends Chibi encounters on his mission. And the evil Sargeant Smoggler isn't just attacking your park, he's attacking your friends, as well. Draining them and turning them back into inanimate toys, which Chibi must then recharge using his own Battery. And yes, friends are important in this game, perhaps far more so than in the original. Because you soon discover you can't really do ANYTHING in the Park besides grow flowers and battle Smogglings - the game's re-occuring baddies who try to turn your flowers black and kill them. - without the aide of your friends, who typically run out of juice after two tasks, regardless of what they entailed.

Let us look at the controls, now, since of course controls are often what makes or breaks a game. Chibi Robo on the GCN had some beautifully well done controls, and while Park Patrol tries to, it ultimately falls short of having the same magnificant controls. The first of which to become painfully obvious is the Music Box itself. This is what you use to make Chibi dance and bring cause flowers to produce seeds. Perhaps I am just horrible at this sort of touch-screen feature, but I find it incredibly difficult to use the Music Box. Touching the record with your stylus and making a circle in a specific rhythym and pacing is not the easiest thing to do. More often than not, I find myself failing, wasting both time and Battery Life. Some songs/dance are simpler than others, such as the Snake, which is what I find myself using often as it is one of the few songs I've ever gotten 100% on.

In that same vein, the Touch Screen is the main focus of the controls. There is no Action Button, no Camera Button, everything is done using the stylus on the Touch Screen, and those controls are limited. You drive your vehicles using a combination of Touch screen motions and the movement buttons, which can make it hard to pull off some maneuvers. The controls are designed to be used by left or right handed people. The face buttons on the right do the same exact thing as the d-pad on the left. This can be confusing and downright annoying after a while as you find youself wanting to simply push a single button to say Yes or No when asked questions. The Camera does its best to keep up, but rarely turns unless you tell it to with the stylus. Likewise, you simply can't zoom out far enough at times, making the Map Button a must if you hope to find your way throughout the game.

I think that they tried a little too hard to place emphasis on the Touch Screen, which makes playing Park Patrol for more than a few hours rather difficult, as your hands will soon ache from too much use of the stylus and/or holding the DS with one hand. That isn't to say that everyone will be turned off by these controls. Perhaps my hands just lack the coordination that this game sometimes requires. I personally feel that the Touch Screen controls are somewhat unnecessary at times. There is a particular mini-game you can play where you whack Smogglings like a Whack-a-Mole style game. But you have to look at the upper screen, and react on the Touch Screen, which can make the game nigh-impossible without good hand-eye coordination and reflexes. I am not crazy about it, but perhaps others will be.

Story - 9/10

The premise of the story is simple: fight pollution, and keep the park clean. But as with the original Chibi Robo, you'll soon find that there is more than meets the eye. An ever-present villian who is trying to stop you from restoring the park and wishing the cover the world in "beautiful life-stealing garbage." The story is most often told in a series of cutscenes which do their best to look and feel like their GCN counterparts. More often then not, these scenes will have some humour in them, as humour is very much a part of Chibi-Robo's story. You can see that they did their best with what they had available in the cutscenes, some of which are quite long.

The characters you meet, likewise, have their own stories you can discover as you progress through the game. A French puppet who strives to be free of his strings; a pair of snow-boarding penguins who love soda, but can't seem to get along very well; and a car who wishes she was new again are just a few of the characters you will encounter and befriend. Aaand of course, everyone talks in that 'wonderful' gibberish you've come to love and hate in games that refuse to use voice acting... but more on that later.

Graphics - 9/10

The graphics are, putting it quite plainly, wonderful to look at. They are admittedly not as clean as the graphics in the original, but we're talking about a console entry, and this is a handheld entry, which will no doubt have limitations. There isn't any obvious clipping, the textures are simple and do their job nicely. The overall impression is not unlike the original game, and that only further adds to the appeal of the game. However, you can really see that the Nintendo DS isn't quite up to handling what the GCN could. You will never see more than a part of the Human you are talking too, most often the legs and maybe a hand. The scope of the game feels... smaller than the original did. With large characters like the Sandersons who lived there, Giga Robo, and scenes showing whole sections of the house, Chibi Robo: Park Patrol feels small and clostrophobic at times in comparison. But not for nothing, the graphics are still quite beautiful, even if some of the toys give you the creeps.

Sound - 7/10

For those who have ears, sound plays an important factor in games. The music, the sounds, the... gibberish. Chibi Robo: Park Patrol has some really impressive music, the problem is, there simply isn't enough of it. There are only a handful of tracks that I know of, and there is no music being played at certain times of the day, such as morning. To be honest, the only real indicator that time is passing is how bright or dark the surrounding area becomes, which is kind of a dissappointment, considering how wonderful and varried the music was in the original. There are the 'tracks', if you will, that play when you use the Music Box, but seeing as how you make those play yourself, and their quality is connected to how well you play them, I can't really give a solid rating on them. The ones I've heard played well are quite nicely done, though.

The sound effects are overall what you'd expect from the series. Many have returned from the original game, which I found particularilly enjoyable. But otherwise, there isn't much to say about them.

And finally we get to the gibberish. The voice-overs which aren't. For the most part, they're fairly harmless and aren't that bad, either. Many of them actually fit the characters you're talking to. For instance, Tampa the Free Ranger sounds like the other Free Rangers you talked to in the original game. Francois the marrionette sounds fairly french in his gibberish, as well. But the one voice everyone who plays the game will never be able to forget without some serious aide is... Chet. Your helpful, yet often forgetful, little companion who through "poor design by Citrusoft" is unable to leave the Chibi-House. But don't think for a moment that will stop his screechy, annoying voice. He'll talk to you via Chibi's built-in transciever from time to time to keep you up to date. Whether it's about a new item you got, helpful tips, or just to tell you that it's gotten late and you need to stop doing the hard work you were designed for. For what it is worth, Chet's voice alone is what's keeping me from giving this a 8/10. The fact that you hear it so often, and since the DS can't handle a large ammount of text at one time for some reason, you get to hear it everytime he says a new line of text - his conversations can be quite long, at times.

Play-Time/Replayability

Depending on how you play, how well you play, and whether you attempt any of the other stuff such as collecting Stickers and solving the problems of the various toys... I'd say you could probably get through this game in about 20-30 hours, give or take a few. Since I personally like to do everything on my first play through, it's obviously going to take longer than that for me to finish.

As for replayability, well, you can design the park however you wish, so you have the fact that each individual playthrough won't necessarilly be the same. To be honest, considering that the park building aspect is at the very core of the game, I'd say it has a fair ammount of replayability. Especially as you get better at it. There are plenty of little things to do besides the main story that can keep you entertained. Driving around in the car and mowing down weeds, doing tricks on your bike, playing the various mini-games or other not-as-obvious distractions, such as throwing a paper airplace and seeing how far you can get it to go. These can keep you entertained for hours if you need a break from the main storyline or get tired of park building.

Final Thoughts

Chibi-Robo: Park Patrol is a fun and engrossing game with a few quirks due to its jump from console to handheld. Those who have not played the original may find themselves totally unaware of the changes and short-comings as compared to the previous game. The controls, as far as the main game is concerned, are a bit quirky and definitely may take some practice to get used to - if only when trying to keep your camera focused on what Chibi is supposed to be seeing - and really don't take away too much from the game. Certainly not enough to warrant not playing the game.

If you are a Chibi-Robo fan, get this game and give it a go. I assure you that it'll still be fun and worth the purchase. Remember that it is only being sold at Wal-Mart for some reason, unless you can find it used or online. But to everyone else, give the game a serious chance. I know that Chibi-Robo can work his way into your heart just like he has for so many others.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/06/07

Game Release: Chibi-Robo: Park Patrol (US, 10/02/07)