Chibi-Robo! Park Patrol
Posted October 5, 2007
Every few months, a quirky title with a ridiculously odd premise will come along and take me by surprise. Chibi-Robo: Park Patrol, developed by Skip Ltd. and published by Nintendo, is easily one of the strangest games I’ve played in recently memory. A large corporation has manufactured a line of robots, named Chibi-Robo, in order to battle the ongoing effects of pollution. They have distributed for free, across the nation, in any area that’s lost the natural luster of nature. The player’s point of view follows one specific robot and his quest to revitalize a city park. 
How does Chibi-Robo create plant life within the park? Well, by playing music and dancing of course! Once he’s made a nearby flower happy with his musical prowess, it spits out seeds across the nearby soil. A couple squirts with Chibi-Robo’s water bottle and they are full-grown. Chibi-Robo’s reward come in the form of Happy Points which converts to electricity for Chibi-Robo’s power. As a final twist on the crazy plot, an evil robot toy causes destruction on the revitalized sections of the park due to its love for garbage. While the narrative borders on complete silliness, I do appreciate the attempt at true originality.
Gameplay
As the game plops Chibi-Robo into the City Park, you will first notice his little house. This acts as a base of operations. Chibi-Robo can recharge, deposit his Happy Points, and purchase new items to help him build up the park more quickly. Players will also notice Chet, a robot eye attached to the house that helps Chibi-Robo on his quest to save the park. Chet will keep you apprised of how many flowers are growing in the park and what items are available for purchase at the store.
Due to power constraints, Chibi-Robo requires a recharge on a constant basis, perhaps too quickly. Sadly, the presentation is designed to make the player sit through endless dialogue scenes and without a method to skip them. Players are forced to run through an entire ordeal every time they arrive back at the house. Chet runs through the exact same speech every time and the player doesn’t have an option to fast-track their way through the process. The wasted time spent talking to Chet irritated me constantly throughout the game. Additionally, the speedy day / night cycle forces the player to talk to Chet even more. Apparently, robots aren’t allowed to work in the dark.
Chibi-Robo is armed with a boom box and a water squirt gun stored inside his helmet head. When the boom box pops out, a turntable appears on the DS touchscreen. The player must start spinning the disc and keep a solid rhythm to gain favor from the nearby flowers. If the player spins the disc correctly, the music will sound normal and flowers will spew several seeds. Any problem with the rhythm will cause the music to fall into an overly slow / fast pace, basically warping the pitch of the song. The squirt gun uses a simpler interface, basically a lever at the bottom of the touchscreen that’s pushed vertically up.
The more interesting aspects of the game kick in when you start to interact with the world outside of the park. Flowers can be collected and sold at the local Florist. Meeting new characters in the game will often open up objects for use in the park. Access to vehicles kicks in and Chibi-Robo can zip around on a bike rather than walking everywhere. New dances can be learned, although it doesn’t make much of a difference, if any, in the amount of seeds that are produced. The game does lack a level of exploration though. The entire environment is available to Chibi-Robo at the start of the game and there’s nothing much hiding in the corners of the world nor areas to unlock as a reward.
There is no multiplayer mode built into the title, which struck me as strange. It seems like a diverse online world is exactly what this game needed to launch it into must-own territory. Hypothetically, 2 to 4 player teams could work in shifts to build up a smaller version of the park and the results would be transmitted to an online leaderboard. Even a multi-cart or download play option could have been an inventive way to boost the quality of the title.
Graphics
Visually, the title is colorful and rife with detail. The level environments feel very much full of life as flowers sway in the wind and react to Chibi-Robo’s movements. The character models are sharp and the animations are absolutely fantastic. Chibi-Robo’s range of movement is impressive and works well with gameplay aspects like dancing. Unfortunately, camera angles are occasionally wonky, especially when attempting to rush through flower creation before your power runs out. There are a couple camera adjustments on the touchscreen to straighten out the view, but the interface is clunky and non-responsive.
Audio
The music is light, bouncy, and fits the nature of the game to an absolute tea. You will recognize some of the music that Chibi-Robo for his flowers as re-mixes on children’s songs while other tracks sound original. The sound effects are pretty basic, but convey the actions within the little robot’s world. They also come into play during the dialogue scenes. Words aren’t spoken as toned gibberish takes its place. Unfortunately, the repetition of that type of language begins to takes its toll and you will appreciate the volume slider after a few hours into the game.
Overall
Despite the originality of the story, I had an extremely tough time becoming involved in Chibi-Robo’s world. The gameplay feels incredibly slow and repetitive at first. It takes a few hours of play to gain access to the more entertaining aspects of the game, such as the side-quests and mini dune buggy. This is a title that doesn’t offer much replay value either. After you finished with the single player quest, there’s essentially nothing left to do due to the lack of multiplayer. Chibi-Robo: Park Patrol is a DS title that should be checked out by adventure seeking players, but not at the MSRP. Unfortunately, Wal-Mart is the only retailer that’s allowed to stock the title at the moment, so wait for a discounted copy to pop up on Ebay.
How does Chibi-Robo create plant life within the park? Well, by playing music and dancing of course! Once he’s made a nearby flower happy with his musical prowess, it spits out seeds across the nearby soil. A couple squirts with Chibi-Robo’s water bottle and they are full-grown. Chibi-Robo’s reward come in the form of Happy Points which converts to electricity for Chibi-Robo’s power. As a final twist on the crazy plot, an evil robot toy causes destruction on the revitalized sections of the park due to its love for garbage. While the narrative borders on complete silliness, I do appreciate the attempt at true originality.
Gameplay
As the game plops Chibi-Robo into the City Park, you will first notice his little house. This acts as a base of operations. Chibi-Robo can recharge, deposit his Happy Points, and purchase new items to help him build up the park more quickly. Players will also notice Chet, a robot eye attached to the house that helps Chibi-Robo on his quest to save the park. Chet will keep you apprised of how many flowers are growing in the park and what items are available for purchase at the store.
Due to power constraints, Chibi-Robo requires a recharge on a constant basis, perhaps too quickly. Sadly, the presentation is designed to make the player sit through endless dialogue scenes and without a method to skip them. Players are forced to run through an entire ordeal every time they arrive back at the house. Chet runs through the exact same speech every time and the player doesn’t have an option to fast-track their way through the process. The wasted time spent talking to Chet irritated me constantly throughout the game. Additionally, the speedy day / night cycle forces the player to talk to Chet even more. Apparently, robots aren’t allowed to work in the dark.
Chibi-Robo is armed with a boom box and a water squirt gun stored inside his helmet head. When the boom box pops out, a turntable appears on the DS touchscreen. The player must start spinning the disc and keep a solid rhythm to gain favor from the nearby flowers. If the player spins the disc correctly, the music will sound normal and flowers will spew several seeds. Any problem with the rhythm will cause the music to fall into an overly slow / fast pace, basically warping the pitch of the song. The squirt gun uses a simpler interface, basically a lever at the bottom of the touchscreen that’s pushed vertically up.
The more interesting aspects of the game kick in when you start to interact with the world outside of the park. Flowers can be collected and sold at the local Florist. Meeting new characters in the game will often open up objects for use in the park. Access to vehicles kicks in and Chibi-Robo can zip around on a bike rather than walking everywhere. New dances can be learned, although it doesn’t make much of a difference, if any, in the amount of seeds that are produced. The game does lack a level of exploration though. The entire environment is available to Chibi-Robo at the start of the game and there’s nothing much hiding in the corners of the world nor areas to unlock as a reward.
There is no multiplayer mode built into the title, which struck me as strange. It seems like a diverse online world is exactly what this game needed to launch it into must-own territory. Hypothetically, 2 to 4 player teams could work in shifts to build up a smaller version of the park and the results would be transmitted to an online leaderboard. Even a multi-cart or download play option could have been an inventive way to boost the quality of the title.
Graphics
Visually, the title is colorful and rife with detail. The level environments feel very much full of life as flowers sway in the wind and react to Chibi-Robo’s movements. The character models are sharp and the animations are absolutely fantastic. Chibi-Robo’s range of movement is impressive and works well with gameplay aspects like dancing. Unfortunately, camera angles are occasionally wonky, especially when attempting to rush through flower creation before your power runs out. There are a couple camera adjustments on the touchscreen to straighten out the view, but the interface is clunky and non-responsive.
Audio
The music is light, bouncy, and fits the nature of the game to an absolute tea. You will recognize some of the music that Chibi-Robo for his flowers as re-mixes on children’s songs while other tracks sound original. The sound effects are pretty basic, but convey the actions within the little robot’s world. They also come into play during the dialogue scenes. Words aren’t spoken as toned gibberish takes its place. Unfortunately, the repetition of that type of language begins to takes its toll and you will appreciate the volume slider after a few hours into the game.
Overall
Despite the originality of the story, I had an extremely tough time becoming involved in Chibi-Robo’s world. The gameplay feels incredibly slow and repetitive at first. It takes a few hours of play to gain access to the more entertaining aspects of the game, such as the side-quests and mini dune buggy. This is a title that doesn’t offer much replay value either. After you finished with the single player quest, there’s essentially nothing left to do due to the lack of multiplayer. Chibi-Robo: Park Patrol is a DS title that should be checked out by adventure seeking players, but not at the MSRP. Unfortunately, Wal-Mart is the only retailer that’s allowed to stock the title at the moment, so wait for a discounted copy to pop up on Ebay.