Despite today being infamous for being a prankster holiday, this isn't a prank post. Instead, I want to shed light to a niche gem of the Gamecube. Now, this is going off of memory with what I remember of it, as I don't own this game or the system anymore. The game I am going to speak of today is Chibi Robo.
Game: Chibi Robo!
Released: (In America) February 6th, 2006
Story: Welcome to the Sanderson family! As the newest addition, you play Chibi Robo, accompanied by a little television named Telly Vision (clever, eh?). As the newest addition, you are meant to be a little girl's birthday present, but your aid is much more valuable than simply being a plaything. You clean up around the house and do everything you can to keep the family happy, but there's only so much that you can do, being so tiny compared to everything else.
The Sandersons have other problems, though. The husband is unemployed and can't be bothered budgeting his money. This disturbs his wife, the stay-at-home mom, and the little girl, Jenny, is withdrawn and speaks only in ribbits for the most part. The parents fight and feud over the dwindling cash, which upsets the little girl, and apparently this was brought upon by something in their past. A hulking giant named Giga Robo dwells within their basement, its past tied directly to the woes of the parents. Then there's the toys around the house that seem to come to life at night.
Gameplay: You play as a tiny robot. On the scale of the characters, you are about as tall as a toothbrush. This isn't to say that your tasks are difficult due to your size. Think of them more as obstacles and challenges to overcome, as Chibi definitely doesn't let his miniature physique stop him from earning Happy Points and Moolah. Happy Points is a form of ranking for the Chibi-Robos, and the more he earns, the higher up on the leaderboards he can rise to. Moolah is spent on upgrades and extras.
Using the tools he can purchase as well as ones found throughout the house, you have to do your hardest to keep the place clean as well as help out the Sanderson household with their problems. Not only do you have the humans to deal with, there are also the toys that come alive at night and their difficulties that Chibi can help out with. Ultimately, you are trying to rise through the rankings and become the #1 Chibi-Robo, but you also have an obligation to assist the Sandersons with their family trouble and discover the history surrounding Giga-Robo, your predecessor.
The game tries to take cleaning into a different direction, almost like how Harvest Moon could end up making farming fun. To some degree, it succeeds, but not on a degree that can extend the game for too long. In the other example, it allows for extended play time well into the main goal of the game, but for this game, outside of wrapping up all of the stickers and reaching the maximum amount of Happy Points, there isn't much else you can do once you wrap up the story.
Sound: The music is definitely a burst of happiness that you would expect from the console it was on. The idle start screen, the menu, and even the introduction song is very up-beat and places you into a positive mindset. During the day, everything is shining and bright, a typical sunny day in a household with activity. When night descends onto the household, it still retains a positive beat despite the change in your surroundings. Then you have the fact that the characters, when speaking, make little boops and grunts similar to the Bebenese of Animal Crossing, rather than being fully voice-acted or making no sounds at all. It is through this you can get an idea of the pitch and tone of the characters, giving them a greater depth and expecting your imagination to fill in the gaps.
Additional: I knew that they were going to make a sequel to the game, but I didn't know much else about it. Apparently, there have been a few handheld sequels to the game, but not receiving as much public notice over here as it has over in Japan. Personally, I thought this game deserved a continuing sequel line on the consoles, but I can imagine the reasons they might have had for putting it on the Nintendo handhelds. The game could be rather short, and it might not have been as noticeable compared to the other Nintendo giants they have holding the consoles up. One of the games even has you play a Chibi-Robo involved with an adult version of Jenny, which I find to be quite a nice homage to where the series comes from.
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