Chibi-Robo!
Encyclopedia
, fully titled Chibi-Robo! Plug Into Adventure!, is a platform
-adventure
video game for the Nintendo GameCube
console
. It was developed by Skip Ltd.
with collaboration from Nintendo
. The game was first released in Japan
on June 23, 2005, in North America
on February 6, 2006, and in Europe
on May 26, 2006. Chibi-Robo! puts the player in the role of the titular character, a 10-centimeter-tall robot
owned by the Sanderson family. Gameplay revolves around navigating a household and collecting "Happy Points". These points are accumulated by completing various tasks from housework to helping solve the dilemmas of the Sanderson family and the numerous living toys that inhabit their household. Every action by the game's battery
-powered protagonist consumes energy, requiring the player to recharge using the home's electrical outlets.
Originally conceived as a point-and-click
adventure game, Chibi-Robo! was put on developmental hold until Nintendo producer Shigeru Miyamoto
gained interest in the title and overhauled its production. Chibi-Robo! was generally well-received by critics, with most reviewers finding the game to have an interesting premise, a charming storyline, and excellent sound design. However, reactions to its various gameplay mechanics were decidedly mixed between those that found them unique and rewarding and those who found them boring and tedious. Its graphics were also seen as dated and certain elements unpolished. Sales of Chibi-Robo! were modest, but it did spawn two sequels for the Nintendo DS
. The first, Chibi-Robo: Park Patrol, was released in 2007. The second, Okaeri! Chibi-Robo! Happy Richie Ōsōji!, was released in 2009 exclusively in Japan. The original Chibi-Robo! also saw a Japanese re-release in 2009 for the Wii
as part of the New Play Control!
label.
-style American
home and revolves around a tiny, highly-advanced robot
of the same name. He is given as a birthday gift to a socially withdrawn, eight year-old named Jenny Sanderson by her father. This is much to the dismay Jenny's mother, a homemaker who is constantly stressed over how much money her husband spends on toys despite his unemployment. Chibi-Robo is packaged with a small "Chibi-House" and an assistant named Telly Vision, who speaks on Chibi-Robo's behalf. Each of the one million Chibi-Robos in the world is supposed to collect "Happy
Points" by doing good deeds for their owners, and must occasionally charge their batteries
at electrical outlets. During the night or when humans are not around in the Sandersons' house, several toys come to life. This cast includes the superhero
action figure Drake Redcrest, a group of egg-shaped army men called the Free Rangers, a wooden pirate named Plankbeard, and others. Chibi-Robo eventually finds a large robot in the basement called Giga-Robo, who was once a companion of the Sandersons', but had to be deactivated due to its high electricity consumption. Chibi-Robo attempts to bring Giga-Robo back to life by fully charging its massive battery and makes it a goal to find Giga-Robo's missing leg. At this time, Chibi-Robo is attacked by spider-like robots called Spydorz.
When Mr. Sanderson purchases yet another toy, his wife locks herself in her room and tells him that she wants a divorce
, prompting the rest of the family to do the housework. Meanwhile, Chibi-Robo finds a strange pattern
in the backyard and uses his radar to contact an alien species. Once the aliens land and greet him, Chibi-Robo uses a time machine
made by the visitors to go into the past to find a code to a safe in the master bedroom containing Giga Robo's leg. He returns to the present to open the safe, but several larger Spydorz are also released from it and capture the Sandersons. It is revealed that Mr. Sanderson originally created the Spydorz to be friends with the Chibi-Robos, but his toy company reprogrammed them to be hostile, causing Mr. Sanderson to quit his job. Mr. Sanderson upgrades Chibi-Robo's blaster weapon, allowing the small robot to defeat the Queen Spydor, recover Giga-Robo's missing leg, and rescuing the Sandersons. Chibi-Robo reactivates Giga-Robo, and the aliens meet them in the backyard. The aliens explain that the toys are able to walk and talk due to a request from Giga-Robo to the aliens to give them life, and to give all Giga-Robos infinite battery power to prevent their energy consumption. The aliens could not do the latter at the time, and returned to their own planet to obtain the item necessary to grant Giga-Robo's wish. They then give Giga-Robo this ability, who shares it with Chibi-Robo and the rest of the robots in the world as well, eliminating the energy problem.
-adventure game
that puts the player in direct control of a tiny, battery-powered robot that does housework for humans. The objective of the game is to become the top-ranked "Super Chibi-Robo" in the world by accumulating Happy Points, a collectible that is gained by doing good deeds for the family and for various toys within the Sandersons' home. In order to do this, the player must control the 10 centimeter-tall protagonist and explore the Sandersons' humble, human-scaled home. During exploration, Chibi-Robo can find a wide variety of things to collect, including "Moolah", the currency
of Chibi-Robo!. An important task of Chibi-Robo's in gaining Happy Points is to clean up messes around the house, such as disposing of trash or scrubbing dirty footprints. The player can also interact with and help with the personal problems of the Sandersons and the toys. This ranges from solving a plot-driving crisis or completing a subquest of simply locating a lost object as a favor. With Chibi-Robo's assistant Telly Vision as his speaker, the player is often prompted to give either a positive or negative response to each question or request. The player loses battery power with every step and action. If his battery is not charged before it empties, Chibi-Robo will collapse and re-emerge in the Chibi-House, having lost half of his Moolah. Throughout the house are electrical outlets, which the player can plug into to recharge his battery or save his progress. The player's exploration is limited by a timer representing a full day or full night. Once the timer expires, Chibi-Robo automatically returns to the Chibi-House.
At the start of both day and night, the player always begins in the Chibi-House. Within it, the player can charge Chibi-Robo's battery and save at the electrical outlet. The player can also connect to the Citrusoft "Chibi-PC
" to purchase a variety of items and power-ups with Moolah, as well as use scrap
metal to build "Utilibots", robotic helpers that ease the navigation of the Sandersons' home. The gear available from Citrusoft includes the "Chibi-Copter", used to reach far-off points or to fly down from a high place safely; the "Chibi-Blaster", used to eliminate obstacles and fend off the hostile Spydorz; and the "Chibi-Radar", used to detect hidden objects. There are several other items of the Sandersons' that Chibi-Robo can find and use. These include the toothbrush, used to clean up stains; the coffee mug, used for protection; the spoon, used to dig holes; and the squirter
, used to hold fluids and squirt them. Chibi-Robo can also gain special costumes throughout the game, each of which has its own unique function. For instance, if the player poses for Mr. Sanderson while wearing The Drake Redcrest costume, he will give Chibi-Robo Happy Points. As more Happy Points are acquired, the player's rank increases among all the Chibi-Robos in the world. At certain ranks, Citrusoft will send the player bonus batteries, allowing Chibi-Robo to roam longer without having to recharge.
, the creators of the Japan-exclusive GiFTPiA
for the Nintendo GameCube
. Chibi-Robo! was first announced in early 2003 with publishing rights held by Bandai
. Its original projected release date was June 2003 in Japan and spring 2004 in North America. Unlike the released version of Chibi-Robo!, the beta version entailed the player training Chibi-Robo to defend the home of his inventor from a pair of burglars. The gameplay was different as well; instead of a platform-adventure game, it played like a point-and-click
adventure title, where the player was not in direct control of Chibi-Robo, but was rather conveying commands to him clicking a cursor around the area. The protagonist was also to learn and develop depending on the choices the player made for him. However, this incarnation of Chibi-Robo! was ultimately put on "indefinite hold
" and disappeared from the media. Shigeru Miyamoto
was eventually introduced to the game by fellow Nintendo
producer Kensuke Tanabe
. Miyamoto took a personal interest in the character of Chibi-Robo and signed on as the game's senior producer. The development of Chibi-Robo! was revamped with Nintendo acting as its new publisher. Chibi-Robo! was in development for four years from start to finish.
Director Kenichi Nishi
has previous development credits such as Chrono Trigger
, Moon: Remix RPG Adventure
and Incredible Crisis
. Nishi's approach to game design, even with Chibi-Robo!, was to always take a standard, orthodox method and "crash it, twist it, or create a totally different direction". The reason Nishi chose to make the majority of the cast toys is because humans are "too big to interact with [Chibi-Robo] and create all the drama" and that it added a sense of fantasy
to the experience. The family dog Tao had appeared in Nishi's previous games: Moon: Remix RPG Adventure and L.O.L.: Lack of Love
. The director based the dog on his own pet because he felt that the "black-and-white color is very simple and universal". Despite the game's overall happy attitude, the game designers put some emphasis on serious topics such as divorce, loneliness, pollution, and loss. "If we only concentrate on cheerful fun, we'll lose depth," Nishi explained. "There's nothing surprising for people if the game looks cheerful and the experience is cheerful. There are no surprises or unexpected things." Still, rather than use these topics as major themes for the player, Nishi felt it would be more effective to bring them in as "ordinary things to enhance the adventure of daily life".
All the music and sound in Chibi-Robo! was composed by Hirofumi Taniguchi. He wanted to make unique sound patterns and motif
s for each character, and even used human voices
to create the system sounds, such as on the menu selections. All of the noises made by Chibi-Robo's actions were phrased
. Taniguchi used both woodwind
and electronic
instruments for the character's actions, the former because "Chibi's actions are not ordinary robotlike actions" and the latter because he did not want to totally eliminate his mechanical characteristics. Different background music is played for the day and night cycles, but they lack melody
because Chibi-Robo's footsteps create a melody at random. The tempo
of his footsteps was designed to match the background music; if he picks up his plug to walk faster, the music speeds up. All of the game's music was compiled on the Chibi-Robo! Limited Soundtrack, a CD
released alongside an official 142-page guidebook and published by Shogakukan
in Japan in August 2005.
, Mathew Kumar of Eurogamer
, Bryn Williams of GameSpy
, Shane Satterfield of G4
, and Matt Casamassina of IGN
all applauded the game's charming setting, compelling storyline, and complex characters. Casamassina found that the fashion in which the main plot and objectives are sewn together is merely part of the reason the game is enjoyable. Mueller, Kumar, and Satterfield noted endearing, charismatic qualities among the various toy characters. Kumar heeded Chibi-Robo! as "honestly one of the most touching games I've played in ages" in which the player often becomes engrossed in "events that pan out like miniature plays, with love triangle
s (nay, love dodecahedrons) between toys, and some scenes with a real pathos
behind them". Considering the joyous atmosphere of Chibi-Robo!, Satterfield was pleasantly surprised at its inclusion of controversial topics like divorce and its possible distortion of a target audience. This attribute was criticized by Jinny Gudmundsen, a columnist for USA Today
, who thought that the interpersonal issues negate the game's overall charm and render it inappropriate for younger children. Writers for Computer Games Magazine
praised Chibi-Robo by interpreting deep, symbolic meaning in its more subtle aspects. The publication found the game to use "overarching narrative arcs" and "stock melodramatic devices" among the Sandersons' dysfunctional interactions, "emotional crisis points, downtime, and rhythms and cycles of action" between its day and night events, and "evocative music" as a way for characters to communicate their feelings.
Opinions on the gameplay of Chibi-Robo! have been mixed. Among the more positive reactions, Casamassina assessed the cleaning mechanics as "very fun and very rewarding", while Kumar compared the game to the Harvest Moon series due to both entities convert seemingly boring tasks into something fun. James Mielke of 1UP.com
similarly enjoyed the "near-constant sense of discovery" and the tiny details included by Skip with earning Happy Points and Moolah. Casamassina, Mielke, and Williamson were satisfied that they had to frequently recharge Chibi-Robo, but Mueller was dismayed to have to stop one's current task in order to find an outlet. The GameSpot contributor was also aggravated with the mere five-minute intervals for the day and night cycles, which he considered a major interruption of the game's pacing. Contrarily, Kumar felt the pacing was appropriate and Williamson viewed the feature as a "flexible difficulty level
setting". Satterfield proclaimed that although the gameplay is somewhat varied, most of it is constituted by the tedious location and collection of objects for the non-player characters. Jeremy Zoss of Game Informer
was displeased with the game as whole and wrote that it was "not a platformer, but more of a 3D adventure game composed entirely of fetch-quests and repetitive menial labor".
The audio design of Chibi-Robo!, particularly its integration of different instrumental tones for the hero's various actions, was lauded by the press. Kumar felt that its utilization of sound could be "the seed of a new way of using music in games". Casamassina commented, "Few developers would be brave enough to create a title whose main character generates varying musical notes whenever he takes a step, but this is exactly what Chibi does - and it's actually very whimsical and cute." Although many critics appreciated the bright and colorful features of the accompanying aesthetics, they also judged the graphical presentation as dated. Casamassina encountered low-polygon 3D models and a below-average frame rate; Satterfield stated the game operated at "Dreamcast level". Other portions of Chibi-Robo! were assessed as unpolished as well. Several sources noted the game's default system to be unwieldy, combersome, or frustrating at times. However, Mueller noted that switching to the top-down or first-person viewpoints and the ability to center the camera behind Chibi-Robo alleviates most of its problems. Satterfield and Casamassina regarded the cutscenes as awkward and repetitive; the former of the two claimed that they "amount to ugly characters recycling the same animation routine over and over while gibberish comes from their gaping maws". Kumar perceived the game's combat to be "messy", "uninteresting", and "entirely unnecessary".
Chibi-Robo! was not a significant commercial success. According to Media Create
, the GameCube version was the fourth best-selling game in Japan for its week ending June 26, 2005 with nearly 29,000 copies sold. The game managed to sell 97,879 units in Japan alone by the end of 2005. The Wii port of the game did not fair as well; it only sold 11,000 copies in Japan for the week ending June 14, 2009 and a total of 38,573 copies throughout the remainder of that year.
called Chibi-Robo!: Park Patrol
, which follows a different Chibi-Robo as it attempts to revitalize a park. Nintendo established a deal with Wal-Mart
for the exclusive rights to sell it in the United States. A second sequel for the DS, titled Okaeri! Chibi-Robo! Happy Richie Ōsōji!, saw a Japanese release in 2009. It involves yet another Chibi-Robo vacuuming dirt for money within the home of an adult Jenny. The original Chibi-Robo! was re-released as part of New Play Control!
, a selection of Wii
remakes of GameCube games. The remake features special Wii Remote
controls for the game's tools. Aiming the remote allows the player to change perspective, while pointing it at interactive objects with will be identified with a sound. The remake was released in Japan on June 11, 2009, but Nintendo of America did not permit an English release.
Platform game
A platform game is a video game characterized by requiring the player to jump to and from suspended platforms or over obstacles . It must be possible to control these jumps and to fall from platforms or miss jumps...
-adventure
Adventure game
An adventure game is a video game in which the player assumes the role of protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving instead of physical challenge. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media such as literature and film,...
video game for the Nintendo GameCube
Nintendo GameCube
The , officially abbreviated to NGC in Japan and GCN in other regions, is a sixth generation video game console released by Nintendo on September 15, 2001 in Japan, November 18, 2001 in North America, May 3, 2002 in Europe, and May 17, 2002 in Australia...
console
Video game console
A video game console is an interactive entertainment computer or customized computer system that produces a video display signal which can be used with a display device to display a video game...
. It was developed by Skip Ltd.
Skip Ltd.
Skip is a Japanese video game developer that has a close relationship with Nintendo of Japan. Nintendo has published all of their Japanese releases; with the only notable exception being LOL , which Skip Ltd. published independently. The company's staff includes prominent developers from Square...
with collaboration from Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
. The game was first released in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
on June 23, 2005, in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
on February 6, 2006, and in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
on May 26, 2006. Chibi-Robo! puts the player in the role of the titular character, a 10-centimeter-tall robot
Robot
A robot is a mechanical or virtual intelligent agent that can perform tasks automatically or with guidance, typically by remote control. In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and electronic programming. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or...
owned by the Sanderson family. Gameplay revolves around navigating a household and collecting "Happy Points". These points are accumulated by completing various tasks from housework to helping solve the dilemmas of the Sanderson family and the numerous living toys that inhabit their household. Every action by the game's battery
Battery (electricity)
An electrical battery is one or more electrochemical cells that convert stored chemical energy into electrical energy. Since the invention of the first battery in 1800 by Alessandro Volta and especially since the technically improved Daniell cell in 1836, batteries have become a common power...
-powered protagonist consumes energy, requiring the player to recharge using the home's electrical outlets.
Originally conceived as a point-and-click
Point-and-click
Point-and-click is the action of a computer user moving a cursor to a certain location on a screen and then pressing a mouse button, usually the left button , or other pointing device...
adventure game, Chibi-Robo! was put on developmental hold until Nintendo producer Shigeru Miyamoto
Shigeru Miyamoto
is a Japanese video game designer and producer. Miyamoto was born and raised in Kyoto Prefecture; the natural surroundings of Kyoto inspired much of Miyamoto's later work....
gained interest in the title and overhauled its production. Chibi-Robo! was generally well-received by critics, with most reviewers finding the game to have an interesting premise, a charming storyline, and excellent sound design. However, reactions to its various gameplay mechanics were decidedly mixed between those that found them unique and rewarding and those who found them boring and tedious. Its graphics were also seen as dated and certain elements unpolished. Sales of Chibi-Robo! were modest, but it did spawn two sequels for the Nintendo DS
Nintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
. The first, Chibi-Robo: Park Patrol, was released in 2007. The second, Okaeri! Chibi-Robo! Happy Richie Ōsōji!, was released in 2009 exclusively in Japan. The original Chibi-Robo! also saw a Japanese re-release in 2009 for the Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
as part of the New Play Control!
New Play Control!
The New Play Control! series, known in Japan as is a program by Nintendo to upgrade several GameCube games for release on the Wii. These re-releases incorporate graphical improvements, which include 16:9 widescreen support. They also feature reconfigured controls to fit the Wii Remote...
label.
Plot
The plot of Chibi-Robo! takes place in a 1960s1960s
The 1960s was the decade that started on January 1, 1960, and ended on December 31, 1969. It was the seventh decade of the 20th century.The 1960s term also refers to an era more often called The Sixties, denoting the complex of inter-related cultural and political trends across the globe...
-style American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
home and revolves around a tiny, highly-advanced robot
Robot
A robot is a mechanical or virtual intelligent agent that can perform tasks automatically or with guidance, typically by remote control. In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and electronic programming. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or...
of the same name. He is given as a birthday gift to a socially withdrawn, eight year-old named Jenny Sanderson by her father. This is much to the dismay Jenny's mother, a homemaker who is constantly stressed over how much money her husband spends on toys despite his unemployment. Chibi-Robo is packaged with a small "Chibi-House" and an assistant named Telly Vision, who speaks on Chibi-Robo's behalf. Each of the one million Chibi-Robos in the world is supposed to collect "Happy
Happiness
Happiness is a mental state of well-being characterized by positive emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. A variety of biological, psychological, religious, and philosophical approaches have striven to define happiness and identify its sources....
Points" by doing good deeds for their owners, and must occasionally charge their batteries
Battery (electricity)
An electrical battery is one or more electrochemical cells that convert stored chemical energy into electrical energy. Since the invention of the first battery in 1800 by Alessandro Volta and especially since the technically improved Daniell cell in 1836, batteries have become a common power...
at electrical outlets. During the night or when humans are not around in the Sandersons' house, several toys come to life. This cast includes the superhero
Superhero
A superhero is a type of stock character, possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers", dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes — ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas —...
action figure Drake Redcrest, a group of egg-shaped army men called the Free Rangers, a wooden pirate named Plankbeard, and others. Chibi-Robo eventually finds a large robot in the basement called Giga-Robo, who was once a companion of the Sandersons', but had to be deactivated due to its high electricity consumption. Chibi-Robo attempts to bring Giga-Robo back to life by fully charging its massive battery and makes it a goal to find Giga-Robo's missing leg. At this time, Chibi-Robo is attacked by spider-like robots called Spydorz.
When Mr. Sanderson purchases yet another toy, his wife locks herself in her room and tells him that she wants a divorce
Divorce
Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
, prompting the rest of the family to do the housework. Meanwhile, Chibi-Robo finds a strange pattern
Crop circle
A crop circle is a sizable pattern created by the flattening of a crop such as wheat, barley, rye, maize, or rapeseed. Crop circles are also referred to as crop formations, because they are not always circular in shape. While the exact date crop circles began to appear is unknown, the documented...
in the backyard and uses his radar to contact an alien species. Once the aliens land and greet him, Chibi-Robo uses a time machine
Time travel
Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...
made by the visitors to go into the past to find a code to a safe in the master bedroom containing Giga Robo's leg. He returns to the present to open the safe, but several larger Spydorz are also released from it and capture the Sandersons. It is revealed that Mr. Sanderson originally created the Spydorz to be friends with the Chibi-Robos, but his toy company reprogrammed them to be hostile, causing Mr. Sanderson to quit his job. Mr. Sanderson upgrades Chibi-Robo's blaster weapon, allowing the small robot to defeat the Queen Spydor, recover Giga-Robo's missing leg, and rescuing the Sandersons. Chibi-Robo reactivates Giga-Robo, and the aliens meet them in the backyard. The aliens explain that the toys are able to walk and talk due to a request from Giga-Robo to the aliens to give them life, and to give all Giga-Robos infinite battery power to prevent their energy consumption. The aliens could not do the latter at the time, and returned to their own planet to obtain the item necessary to grant Giga-Robo's wish. They then give Giga-Robo this ability, who shares it with Chibi-Robo and the rest of the robots in the world as well, eliminating the energy problem.
Gameplay
Chibi-Robo! is a platformPlatform game
A platform game is a video game characterized by requiring the player to jump to and from suspended platforms or over obstacles . It must be possible to control these jumps and to fall from platforms or miss jumps...
-adventure game
Adventure game
An adventure game is a video game in which the player assumes the role of protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving instead of physical challenge. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media such as literature and film,...
that puts the player in direct control of a tiny, battery-powered robot that does housework for humans. The objective of the game is to become the top-ranked "Super Chibi-Robo" in the world by accumulating Happy Points, a collectible that is gained by doing good deeds for the family and for various toys within the Sandersons' home. In order to do this, the player must control the 10 centimeter-tall protagonist and explore the Sandersons' humble, human-scaled home. During exploration, Chibi-Robo can find a wide variety of things to collect, including "Moolah", the currency
Fictional currency
A fictional currency is some form of defined or alluded currency in works of fiction. The names of such units of currency are sometimes based on extant or historic currencies while others, such as "Kalganids" in Asimov's Foundation series, may be wholly invented...
of Chibi-Robo!. An important task of Chibi-Robo's in gaining Happy Points is to clean up messes around the house, such as disposing of trash or scrubbing dirty footprints. The player can also interact with and help with the personal problems of the Sandersons and the toys. This ranges from solving a plot-driving crisis or completing a subquest of simply locating a lost object as a favor. With Chibi-Robo's assistant Telly Vision as his speaker, the player is often prompted to give either a positive or negative response to each question or request. The player loses battery power with every step and action. If his battery is not charged before it empties, Chibi-Robo will collapse and re-emerge in the Chibi-House, having lost half of his Moolah. Throughout the house are electrical outlets, which the player can plug into to recharge his battery or save his progress. The player's exploration is limited by a timer representing a full day or full night. Once the timer expires, Chibi-Robo automatically returns to the Chibi-House.
At the start of both day and night, the player always begins in the Chibi-House. Within it, the player can charge Chibi-Robo's battery and save at the electrical outlet. The player can also connect to the Citrusoft "Chibi-PC
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
" to purchase a variety of items and power-ups with Moolah, as well as use scrap
Scrap
Scrap is a term used to describe recyclable and other materials left over from every manner of product consumption, such as parts of vehicles, building supplies, and surplus materials. Unlike waste, scrap has significant monetary value...
metal to build "Utilibots", robotic helpers that ease the navigation of the Sandersons' home. The gear available from Citrusoft includes the "Chibi-Copter", used to reach far-off points or to fly down from a high place safely; the "Chibi-Blaster", used to eliminate obstacles and fend off the hostile Spydorz; and the "Chibi-Radar", used to detect hidden objects. There are several other items of the Sandersons' that Chibi-Robo can find and use. These include the toothbrush, used to clean up stains; the coffee mug, used for protection; the spoon, used to dig holes; and the squirter
Syringe
A syringe is a simple pump consisting of a plunger that fits tightly in a tube. The plunger can be pulled and pushed along inside a cylindrical tube , allowing the syringe to take in and expel a liquid or gas through an orifice at the open end of the tube...
, used to hold fluids and squirt them. Chibi-Robo can also gain special costumes throughout the game, each of which has its own unique function. For instance, if the player poses for Mr. Sanderson while wearing The Drake Redcrest costume, he will give Chibi-Robo Happy Points. As more Happy Points are acquired, the player's rank increases among all the Chibi-Robos in the world. At certain ranks, Citrusoft will send the player bonus batteries, allowing Chibi-Robo to roam longer without having to recharge.
Development
Chibi-Robo! was developed by Skip Ltd.Skip Ltd.
Skip is a Japanese video game developer that has a close relationship with Nintendo of Japan. Nintendo has published all of their Japanese releases; with the only notable exception being LOL , which Skip Ltd. published independently. The company's staff includes prominent developers from Square...
, the creators of the Japan-exclusive GiFTPiA
GiFTPiA
is a video game that was developed by Skip Ltd. for the Nintendo GameCube. It was released in Japan on April 25, 2003. Despite that its last showing at Electronic Entertainment Expo was in English, Nintendo cancelled the North American localization of GiFTPiA...
for the Nintendo GameCube
Nintendo GameCube
The , officially abbreviated to NGC in Japan and GCN in other regions, is a sixth generation video game console released by Nintendo on September 15, 2001 in Japan, November 18, 2001 in North America, May 3, 2002 in Europe, and May 17, 2002 in Australia...
. Chibi-Robo! was first announced in early 2003 with publishing rights held by Bandai
Bandai
is a Japanese toy making and video game company, as well as the producer of a large number of plastic model kits. It is the world's third-largest producer of toys . Some ex-Bandai group companies produce anime and tokusatsu programs...
. Its original projected release date was June 2003 in Japan and spring 2004 in North America. Unlike the released version of Chibi-Robo!, the beta version entailed the player training Chibi-Robo to defend the home of his inventor from a pair of burglars. The gameplay was different as well; instead of a platform-adventure game, it played like a point-and-click
Point-and-click
Point-and-click is the action of a computer user moving a cursor to a certain location on a screen and then pressing a mouse button, usually the left button , or other pointing device...
adventure title, where the player was not in direct control of Chibi-Robo, but was rather conveying commands to him clicking a cursor around the area. The protagonist was also to learn and develop depending on the choices the player made for him. However, this incarnation of Chibi-Robo! was ultimately put on "indefinite hold
Development hell
In the jargon of the media-industry, "development hell" is a period during which a film or other project is trapped in development...
" and disappeared from the media. Shigeru Miyamoto
Shigeru Miyamoto
is a Japanese video game designer and producer. Miyamoto was born and raised in Kyoto Prefecture; the natural surroundings of Kyoto inspired much of Miyamoto's later work....
was eventually introduced to the game by fellow Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
producer Kensuke Tanabe
Kensuke Tanabe
is a Japanese video game designer and producer working for Nintendo. After he had graduated from the Visual Concept Planning Department of Osaka University of Arts, he decided to enter the video game industry, and joined Nintendo in April 1986. At first, Tanabe was part of the Entertainment...
. Miyamoto took a personal interest in the character of Chibi-Robo and signed on as the game's senior producer. The development of Chibi-Robo! was revamped with Nintendo acting as its new publisher. Chibi-Robo! was in development for four years from start to finish.
Director Kenichi Nishi
Kenichi Nishi
is a Japanese video game designer. He was born June 20, 1967 in Tokyo, Japan. Over the years, he has helped found a number of notable video game companies and currently develops games at Route24, his own private limited company...
has previous development credits such as Chrono Trigger
Chrono Trigger
is a role-playing video game developed and published by Square for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1995. Chrono Triggers development team included three designers that Square dubbed the "Dream Team": Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of Square's Final Fantasy series; Yuji Horii, a...
, Moon: Remix RPG Adventure
Moon: Remix RPG Adventure
, usually referred to simply as Moon, is a 1997 role-playing game developed by Love-de-Lic and published by ASCII Entertainment. The game was first released on October 16, 1997, and was re-released as part of the PlayStation the Best line on November 5, 1998...
and Incredible Crisis
Incredible Crisis
Incredible Crisis, known in Japan as , is a PlayStation video game developed by Polygon Magic. The game was first published in Japan by Tokuma Shoten on June 24, 1999...
. Nishi's approach to game design, even with Chibi-Robo!, was to always take a standard, orthodox method and "crash it, twist it, or create a totally different direction". The reason Nishi chose to make the majority of the cast toys is because humans are "too big to interact with [Chibi-Robo] and create all the drama" and that it added a sense of fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
to the experience. The family dog Tao had appeared in Nishi's previous games: Moon: Remix RPG Adventure and L.O.L.: Lack of Love
L.O.L.: Lack of Love
L.O.L.: Lack of Love, or simply Lack of Love, is an evolutionary adventure game developed by Love-de-Lic and published by ASCII Entertainment for the Sega Dreamcast...
. The director based the dog on his own pet because he felt that the "black-and-white color is very simple and universal". Despite the game's overall happy attitude, the game designers put some emphasis on serious topics such as divorce, loneliness, pollution, and loss. "If we only concentrate on cheerful fun, we'll lose depth," Nishi explained. "There's nothing surprising for people if the game looks cheerful and the experience is cheerful. There are no surprises or unexpected things." Still, rather than use these topics as major themes for the player, Nishi felt it would be more effective to bring them in as "ordinary things to enhance the adventure of daily life".
All the music and sound in Chibi-Robo! was composed by Hirofumi Taniguchi. He wanted to make unique sound patterns and motif
Motif (music)
In music, a motif or motive is a short musical idea, a salient recurring figure, musical fragment or succession of notes that has some special importance in or is characteristic of a composition....
s for each character, and even used human voices
Vocal music
Vocal music is a genre of music performed by one or more singers, with or without instrumental accompaniment, in which singing provides the main focus of the piece. Music which employs singing but does not feature it prominently is generally considered instrumental music Vocal music is a genre of...
to create the system sounds, such as on the menu selections. All of the noises made by Chibi-Robo's actions were phrased
Phrase (music)
In music and music theory, phrase and phrasing are concepts and practices related to grouping consecutive melodic notes, both in their composition and performance...
. Taniguchi used both woodwind
Woodwind instrument
A woodwind instrument is a musical instrument which produces sound when the player blows air against a sharp edge or through a reed, causing the air within its resonator to vibrate...
and electronic
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
instruments for the character's actions, the former because "Chibi's actions are not ordinary robotlike actions" and the latter because he did not want to totally eliminate his mechanical characteristics. Different background music is played for the day and night cycles, but they lack melody
Melody
A melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity...
because Chibi-Robo's footsteps create a melody at random. The tempo
Tempo
In musical terminology, tempo is the speed or pace of a given piece. Tempo is a crucial element of any musical composition, as it can affect the mood and difficulty of a piece.-Measuring tempo:...
of his footsteps was designed to match the background music; if he picks up his plug to walk faster, the music speeds up. All of the game's music was compiled on the Chibi-Robo! Limited Soundtrack, a CD
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
released alongside an official 142-page guidebook and published by Shogakukan
Shogakukan
is a Japanese publisher of dictionaries, literature, manga, non-fiction, DVDs, and other media in Japan.Shogakukan founded Shueisha which founded Hakusensha. These are three separate companies, but are together called the Hitotsubashi Group, one of the largest publishing groups in Japan...
in Japan in August 2005.
Reception
Chibi-Robo! has enjoyed a mostly favorable critical reception. The GameCube version currently holds an aggregate score of 79.53% based on 40 reviews on GameRankings. Critics Greg Mueller of GameSpotGameSpot
GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
, Mathew Kumar of Eurogamer
Eurogamer
Eurogamer is a Brighton-based website focused on video games news, reviews, previews and interviews. It is operated by Eurogamer Network Ltd., which was formed in 1999 by brothers Rupert and Nick Loman. Eurogamer has grown to become one of the most important European-based websites focused on...
, Bryn Williams of GameSpy
GameSpy
GameSpy Industries, Inc., known simply as GameSpy, is a division of IGN Entertainment, which operates a network of game websites and provides online video game-related services and software. GameSpy dates back to the 1996 release of an internet Quake server search program named QSpy. The current...
, Shane Satterfield of G4
G4 (TV channel)
G4, also known as G4 TV, is an American cable- and satellite-television channel originally geared primarily toward young adult viewers, originally based on the world of video games...
, and Matt Casamassina of IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
all applauded the game's charming setting, compelling storyline, and complex characters. Casamassina found that the fashion in which the main plot and objectives are sewn together is merely part of the reason the game is enjoyable. Mueller, Kumar, and Satterfield noted endearing, charismatic qualities among the various toy characters. Kumar heeded Chibi-Robo! as "honestly one of the most touching games I've played in ages" in which the player often becomes engrossed in "events that pan out like miniature plays, with love triangle
Love triangle
A love triangle is usually a romantic relationship involving three people. While it can refer to two people independently romantically linked with a third, it usually implies that each of the three people has some kind of relationship to the other two...
s (nay, love dodecahedrons) between toys, and some scenes with a real pathos
Pathos
Pathos represents an appeal to the audience's emotions. Pathos is a communication technique used most often in rhetoric , and in literature, film and other narrative art....
behind them". Considering the joyous atmosphere of Chibi-Robo!, Satterfield was pleasantly surprised at its inclusion of controversial topics like divorce and its possible distortion of a target audience. This attribute was criticized by Jinny Gudmundsen, a columnist for USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
, who thought that the interpersonal issues negate the game's overall charm and render it inappropriate for younger children. Writers for Computer Games Magazine
Computer Games Magazine
Computer Games Magazine was a computer gaming print magazine. It was formerly Computer Games Strategy Plus, and before that, Strategy Plus, which had been founded as Games International in the UK in 1988. While its initial focus was on strategy games, it covered a wide range of game genres...
praised Chibi-Robo by interpreting deep, symbolic meaning in its more subtle aspects. The publication found the game to use "overarching narrative arcs" and "stock melodramatic devices" among the Sandersons' dysfunctional interactions, "emotional crisis points, downtime, and rhythms and cycles of action" between its day and night events, and "evocative music" as a way for characters to communicate their feelings.
Opinions on the gameplay of Chibi-Robo! have been mixed. Among the more positive reactions, Casamassina assessed the cleaning mechanics as "very fun and very rewarding", while Kumar compared the game to the Harvest Moon series due to both entities convert seemingly boring tasks into something fun. James Mielke of 1UP.com
1UP.com
1UP.com is a video game website owned by IGN Entertainment, a division of News Corporation. Previously, the site was owned by Ziff Davis before being sold to UGO Entertainment in 2009....
similarly enjoyed the "near-constant sense of discovery" and the tiny details included by Skip with earning Happy Points and Moolah. Casamassina, Mielke, and Williamson were satisfied that they had to frequently recharge Chibi-Robo, but Mueller was dismayed to have to stop one's current task in order to find an outlet. The GameSpot contributor was also aggravated with the mere five-minute intervals for the day and night cycles, which he considered a major interruption of the game's pacing. Contrarily, Kumar felt the pacing was appropriate and Williamson viewed the feature as a "flexible difficulty level
Difficulty level
In general usage, difficulty level refers to the relative difficulty of completing a task or objective.In computer and video games, the term specifically delineates the ease or difficulty with which an average user may complete a game or a part of a game. Arcade games as well as many early console...
setting". Satterfield proclaimed that although the gameplay is somewhat varied, most of it is constituted by the tedious location and collection of objects for the non-player characters. Jeremy Zoss of Game Informer
Game Informer
Game Informer is an American-based monthly magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of popular video games and associated consoles. It was formed in August 1991, when FuncoLand started publishing a six-page magazine, free in all its retail locations...
was displeased with the game as whole and wrote that it was "not a platformer, but more of a 3D adventure game composed entirely of fetch-quests and repetitive menial labor".
The audio design of Chibi-Robo!, particularly its integration of different instrumental tones for the hero's various actions, was lauded by the press. Kumar felt that its utilization of sound could be "the seed of a new way of using music in games". Casamassina commented, "Few developers would be brave enough to create a title whose main character generates varying musical notes whenever he takes a step, but this is exactly what Chibi does - and it's actually very whimsical and cute." Although many critics appreciated the bright and colorful features of the accompanying aesthetics, they also judged the graphical presentation as dated. Casamassina encountered low-polygon 3D models and a below-average frame rate; Satterfield stated the game operated at "Dreamcast level". Other portions of Chibi-Robo! were assessed as unpolished as well. Several sources noted the game's default system to be unwieldy, combersome, or frustrating at times. However, Mueller noted that switching to the top-down or first-person viewpoints and the ability to center the camera behind Chibi-Robo alleviates most of its problems. Satterfield and Casamassina regarded the cutscenes as awkward and repetitive; the former of the two claimed that they "amount to ugly characters recycling the same animation routine over and over while gibberish comes from their gaping maws". Kumar perceived the game's combat to be "messy", "uninteresting", and "entirely unnecessary".
Chibi-Robo! was not a significant commercial success. According to Media Create
Media Create
is a Japanese company that "gathers and analyzes data from the digital entertainment industry, specifically focusing on the Japanese console gaming market...
, the GameCube version was the fourth best-selling game in Japan for its week ending June 26, 2005 with nearly 29,000 copies sold. The game managed to sell 97,879 units in Japan alone by the end of 2005. The Wii port of the game did not fair as well; it only sold 11,000 copies in Japan for the week ending June 14, 2009 and a total of 38,573 copies throughout the remainder of that year.
Legacy
Chibi-Robo! received a sequel in 2007 for the Nintendo DSNintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
called Chibi-Robo!: Park Patrol
Chibi-Robo!: Park Patrol
Chibi-Robo! Park Patrol, known in Japan as , is a video game for the Nintendo DS developed by skip and published by Nintendo. It is the sequel of the original Chibi-Robo! for the Nintendo GameCube....
, which follows a different Chibi-Robo as it attempts to revitalize a park. Nintendo established a deal with Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. , branded as Walmart since 2008 and Wal-Mart before then, is an American public multinational corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse stores. The company is the world's 18th largest public corporation, according to the Forbes Global 2000...
for the exclusive rights to sell it in the United States. A second sequel for the DS, titled Okaeri! Chibi-Robo! Happy Richie Ōsōji!, saw a Japanese release in 2009. It involves yet another Chibi-Robo vacuuming dirt for money within the home of an adult Jenny. The original Chibi-Robo! was re-released as part of New Play Control!
New Play Control!
The New Play Control! series, known in Japan as is a program by Nintendo to upgrade several GameCube games for release on the Wii. These re-releases incorporate graphical improvements, which include 16:9 widescreen support. They also feature reconfigured controls to fit the Wii Remote...
, a selection of Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
remakes of GameCube games. The remake features special Wii Remote
Wii Remote
The , also known as the Wiimote, is the primary controller for Nintendo's Wii console. A main feature of the Wii Remote is its motion sensing capability, which allows the user to interact with and manipulate items on screen via gesture recognition and pointing through the use of accelerometer and...
controls for the game's tools. Aiming the remote allows the player to change perspective, while pointing it at interactive objects with will be identified with a sound. The remake was released in Japan on June 11, 2009, but Nintendo of America did not permit an English release.