Chibi-Robo [GC]

Two aspects are pretty sure bets in video games: cute main characters and giving the player a lot of things to do. At first glance, Chibi-Robo seems to satisfy both parameters. Spend some time with it, however, and you'll find that it fails on both fronts, and only the scale of the world saves it from completely running out of juice.

As Chibi-Robo, you're a present given to the frog-obsessed little girl of the Sanderson family. Dad got you as much for him as for his daughter, though, and he's been banished to the couch as a result. Your sole purpose is to make everyone around you -- talking toys included -- happier. Now, that's a nice karmic goal if ever there was one, but there's a dark side to your mission. The Chibi manual (in-game) may state that, "He's perfectly content to wander about, working to make your life the picture of perfection." That's all well and good, but the happiness of the gamer is essentially forgotten.

Some of your most prolific tasks as Chibi-Robo are cleaning stains with a toothbrush and picking up garbage. Boy, do the Sandersons ever live in filth! You get nominal rewards for these types of things -- which can in turn let you level up or buy new goodies -- but it's barely enough to warrant the activities. You feel like a slave in the house; something that other chore games like Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon somehow avoid.

The main fun comes from exploring the gigantic world that is the Sanderson house. You see, Chibi-Robo is only about six inches tall, so each room is a vast environment. Climb books and cords, find secret areas, and use the items you come across to investigate every square inch of space. The copter lets you hover momentarily; a cup can be used to shield you from a brigade of egg soldiers, and a blaster lets you shoot up robotic spiders.

Even these relatively enjoyable gameplay mechanics are hindered by the time limits imposed on Chibi-Robo. Chibi's battery can only support so many actions or take so much damage before you have to rush to find an outlet to recharge. This means you'll be doing a lot of backtracking, especially before you get battery upgrades. Also, the game is broken up into day and night portions. Once the clock is done, you're instantly warped back to your base.

Nothing is more frustrating than reaching great heights or finding an important objective, only to have it negated by the end of the half-day. It's not the easiest game to find fun in, and then it seemingly snatches said enjoyment right out from under you. Perhaps this is to keep children from playing too much at once, or maybe to inspire replay in some twisted way? Whatever the reason, it's lame.

Chibi-Robo really tries to be a cute game, but it ends up being more annoying than anything. The shoddy graphics can partly be blamed, as nothing really looks good. As a character, Chibi is nowhere near the league of characters like Katamari's Prince or Kirby; he's far too plain. The Sandersons have flipper hands and ugly features, and most attempts at engaging character design fall flat. The world may be large, but textures are unforgivably muddy. Just because a game is geared towards children is no reason to skimp on the visuals.

The music is even worse. Chibi-Robo gets points for trying something different; the sound of you walking differs depending on the type of terrain and Chibi's speed. If only any of the sounds were enjoyable. Instead of speech, you get looping moans and blurbs that you'll instantly want to turn off. It's almost forgivable not to have speech since the GameCube discs can't hold much; but if you're going to have painful noises instead, at least give the option to speed up the terribly slow text onscreen. The background music cuts out for no apparent reason, too.

Even with the bad production values, Chibi-Robo could have been a fun little game. Instead, the developers chose to hold you back from immersing yourself in the experience by limiting the time you can be in one area. That's a development no-no if ever there was one. The best that can be said is Chibi-Robo may satisfy patient children. The rest of us will grow weary of the hurdles and slow text, and pull the plug to go looking for something else more our speed.