Chibi-Robo [GC]

The game moves at a fun, leisurely pace similar to the second Pikmin, but it becomes noticeably more difficult as it advances. Chibi's ultimate goal is to become the best robot in the world, earning him Super Chibi-Robo status. He can only do that by amassing happy points, which ups his overall ranking - a number that incidentally begins at 1,000,000 and moves up by the hundred thousands when his next happy points objective is broken. It's not very taxing to reach the Top 30 Chibi-Robos rank. It might take some experienced players about five hours. People who choose to explore the house, which consists of at least two bedrooms, a living room, basement, kitchen and backyard, will probably spend twice as many hours getting the same rank. However, trying to reach number-one is an entirely different affair - one much longer and more cumbersome, and we expect that most gamers will spend close to 15 hours and quite possibly more getting there.

Chibi-Robo's graphics will not set or pass any benchmarks. The hero himself is extremely well-crafted, in our opinion, and immediately likable, but this is not due to any particularly visual accomplishments. The 3D models in the game are low-polygon in design and therefore lacking both detail and roundness. Textures tend to blur up close, which is a disappointment. And the fluidity should be running at 60 frames per second, but hovers closer to 30, in our estimate. Finally, the camera system, which is controlled manually, has a tendency to get in the way. Even so, there is the occasional area that impresses. Some of the floors shine with reflections as Chibi crosses them and some of the particle effects are explosive and surprisingly well-implemented. The characters - especially Chibi - show smooth animation. And there is also quite a lot of variation in the universe - the house is built to scale so it's very large in size and every room in it looks very unique. The visuals come in slightly above average, but to Skip's credit the charm goes a long way. The audio portion is similarly charming. 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.

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