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jesusraz Really glad I came back to this later in the day (when people had stopped hogging the space around it by using Mario's dance mat) or else my opinion of this would have been very negative!
Chibi Robo (GameCube) Preview
By Adam Riley 
19.06.2005
It is always a shame when a highly promising game gets shelved or left un-translated for the West. Nintendo enlisted the talent of development team Skip Ltd to create GiFTPiA for the GameCube, a RPG-type title that showed immense creativity and had a unique look. However, after a lot of shuffling, the game remained in Japan. Now, though, the team's latest project has been seemingly picked up for a Western release. But does Chibi Robo exude the same amount of charm as GiFTPiA?
The game comes with a long and torrid background, unfortunately. The team, comprised of people who worked on the sublime Chrono Trigger for Squaresoft, seemed rather disillusioned after the relative failure of its highly acclaimed 'communication RPG', GiFTPiA on the GameCube. However, thankfully they picked themselves up, dusted themselves down and got back to work on a new 'unnamed' project. Eventually this came to light as being another unusual product by the name of Chibi Robo. However, this time round it was being published by Bandai, which struck many as strange due to the original belief that Skip had been formed as part of Nintendo's Q Fund that encouraged the creation of small-time developers.
In any case, Bandai ditched Chibi Robo, leaving Skip in the lurch with a game that required a lot more attention before it could hit the market. Luckily, for us and Skip, the legend that is Shigeru Miyamoto had his eye on the project and took a vested interest in it, giving Skip the support required in order to complete the project and bring it to eager GameCube fans everywhere. Now, the game has apparently changed somewhat throughout this whole transitional period, but with the creator of Mario overseeing Chibi Robo's progress, any initial doubts have gone straight out of the window. Therefore, as you can probably imagine, this game was definitely one of the ones I really wanted to get my teeth into at the Post E3 Tour.
Apparently the original build was something of a 'Point and Click' title, but now Nintendo has pushed for full control of the cute little robot as you wander around the disgusting home that clearly has not been looked after by its owners in the slightest. So you will frequently come across pieces of rubbish on your travels. You wander slowly round, controlling the little robot with the analogue stick, either carrying his power cable to go faster or letting the cord dangle down instead, trailing along the floor (...). The former, however, uses up more of the little guy's energy, for he runs off electrical power, which slows dissipates as energy is spent on doing various tasks such as walking. You must keep an eye on the little ticker at the bottom right of the screen, as the number there will rapidly run down over time and if you do not get him over to a plug socket to stick his cord in and suck up the juice then it is bye-bye baby, game over!
In a very Pikmin-esque fashion, the rubbish and pieces of waste shrapnel located in your surroundings can be collected and shoved into your head to help tidy up the house to a certain degree. But, as James has already mentioned in the general event write-up, at first I was simply confused as hell, wandering round aimlessly really having no clue of what to do at all. Primarily my own personal task was to wander over to a big scary-looking girl lay flat on her stomach wiggling her legs in the air, wearing only a short dress. Cue Chibi's zoom-enabled eyes to stare up her skirt...! Obviously twisted, but for the sake of the cameras it had to be done. Backing away from her it looked like she had some sort of green monster head, but from seeing promos of the game I quickly realised that this was the daughter of the family wearing her favourite frog mask.
Leaving her alone I wander over to what I first thought was a plug socket, only to insert my plug and see a door open to the side of me
Final Thoughts
With a variety of masks and costumes to play around with, lots of characters to interact with, tonnes of house cleaning to do and even a day-night system that changes your surroundings as well as the people / enemies you meet, this crazy game definitely MUST come to the West. It would be a crying shame if it remained a Japan-only title as it is quirky as hell, but bloody addictive as well!
Comments
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Looks sweet!
Looks completely f*cked up is what I originally would have thought! But hey, always keeping an open mind about games pays off at times (as it did with the superb Katamari Damacy and Gregory Horror Show on the PS2 as well)...
Sounds like another creative title from Nintendo. Good stuff.
Incidently I'm all for those f*cked up titles like Pikmin, I love the unconventional twist Nintendo gives to their games. Without them I'd be bored of all gaming by now. I'm just no longer amused by the same old realism based mainstream games unless they radically change from the predecessor.
[ Edited by Flaight On 2005/6/19 11:34 ]
Exactly - and that's why I never close my mind to new ideas, however wacky they might seem. That's why I loved Phoenix Wright, this Chibi Robo and the game I've just started writing about, Trauma Centre. New ideas are definitely needed to prevent boredom setting in...
all of the anticipation ratings are so high - I dont' know what to doooooo!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Duffman ~~~~~~~~~
"If you make yourself really small, you can externalize virtually everything", Daniel DennettI'm trying my best not to just hand out stacks of 5/5s, but the 4.5/5s are rolling out pretty fast, I have to agree...and you'll find another high-rated one soon as well in the form of Trauma Centre!! 
Sounds good.
I love crazy stuff like this :
http://www.fanficmaker.com <-- Tells some truly terrible tales.
Last update; Mice,Plumbers,Animatronics and Airbenders. We also have the socials; Facebook & G+. Sounds like a good game....I'm not sure if I'll let my friends see me play it....but a good game all the same :-D
:lol: Ashamed to be playing something like this? Yeah, I can imagine that actually. It's not exactly 'cool'!
it was possible to turn things on by sliding my power cable into them lol
This game sounds weird. Much like Pikmin with the rubbish picking up thingy. Cant wait for the Review, need to know more. Good preview may I add. :-D
[ Edited by monkeyman On 2005/6/19 20:14 ]
King of the 'League of Kings'||My deviantART|| My Photography
Merci, monsieur *takes bow* And trust you to pick up on the little bit of innuendo I put into yet another preview Let's see if I can manage to squeeze something into my preview of Trauma Centre!
One of classic Nintendo problems is that a male player needs to be sure of his manhood, or he will resist playing 'cute' games in order to emphasise to others that he is a man. It's ironic, but those who do so don't seem to realise it.
"Man, cute stuff should stay with Nintendo. Nintendo for kids!"
translates to:
"Man, I'm so insecure of my manhood, I must get my friends into thinking my penis is huge by ignoring Nintendo."
So, gents, if you get questioned about that by your mates, question them of their manhood in return.
:lol: You should be hired to promote this game!
Sounds really interesting, I'm not sure if I'd buy it but I'd like to give it a try.
Flaight, you are a legend, words right out of my mouth.
This title was a complete swerve ball for me, never knew it existed and now I can't wait for the launch.
Keep up the good work Adam :
Barry Lewis [ nin10do :: General Writer :: Feature Writer :: Fountain of Industry Statistics ]
"We're mentalist psychic Scots, which means we can read your mind. If you're lying, your head explodes and we laugh."Too many games to cover, too little time! :eek: Anyway, will try and get Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance sorted soon as poss...and then there's my own take on Super Mario Strikers (in addition to tempo's) and Mario & Luigi 2! :-D
This game indeeds looking quite interesting.
Weird....very weird game....the add doesnt do it any favours(although the musics catchy), but i'll wait for a REVIEW before i decide anything about this game...
...weird
Again, the sound on this was so low it was drowned out by Mario Mix, which had been cranked up to get people dancing more. Shame, as I would have liked to judge the soundtrack better than just from online trailers.
Remember, Famitsu just rated this something like 35/40, which can't mean it's terrible! :-D
Comments
With a variety of masks and costumes to play around with, lots of characters to interact with, tonnes of house cleaning to do and even a day-night system that changes your surroundings as well as the people / enemies you meet, this crazy game definitely MUST come to the West. It would be a crying shame if it remained a Japan-only title as it is quirky as hell, but bloody addictive as well!
Link to this post: Looks sweet!
Looks completely f*cked up is what I originally would have thought! But hey, always keeping an open mind about games pays off at times (as it did with the superb Katamari Damacy and Gregory Horror Show on the PS2 as well)...
Sounds like another creative title from Nintendo. Good stuff.
Incidently I'm all for those f*cked up titles like Pikmin, I love the unconventional twist Nintendo gives to their games. Without them I'd be bored of all gaming by now. I'm just no longer amused by the same old realism based mainstream games unless they radically change from the predecessor.
[ Edited by Flaight On 2005/6/19 11:34 ]
Exactly - and that's why I never close my mind to new ideas, however wacky they might seem. That's why I loved Phoenix Wright, this Chibi Robo and the game I've just started writing about, Trauma Centre. New ideas are definitely needed to prevent boredom setting in...
all of the anticipation ratings are so high - I dont' know what to doooooo!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Duffman ~~~~~~~~~
"If you make yourself really small, you can externalize virtually everything", Daniel Dennett
"If you make yourself really small, you can externalize virtually everything", Daniel Dennett
I'm trying my best not to just hand out stacks of 5/5s, but the 4.5/5s are rolling out pretty fast, I have to agree...and you'll find another high-rated one soon as well in the form of Trauma Centre!!
Sounds good.
I love crazy stuff like this :
http://www.fanficmaker.com <-- Tells some truly terrible tales.
Last update; Mice,Plumbers,Animatronics and Airbenders. We also have the socials; Facebook & G+.
Last update; Mice,Plumbers,Animatronics and Airbenders. We also have the socials; Facebook & G+.
Sounds like a good game....I'm not sure if I'll let my friends see me play it....but a good game all the same :-D
:lol: Ashamed to be playing something like this? Yeah, I can imagine that actually. It's not exactly 'cool'!
it was possible to turn things on by sliding my power cable into them lol
This game sounds weird. Much like Pikmin with the rubbish picking up thingy. Cant wait for the Review, need to know more. Good preview may I add. :-D
[ Edited by monkeyman On 2005/6/19 20:14 ]
King of the 'League of Kings'||My deviantART|| My Photography
Merci, monsieur *takes bow* And trust you to pick up on the little bit of innuendo I put into yet another preview Let's see if I can manage to squeeze something into my preview of Trauma Centre!
One of classic Nintendo problems is that a male player needs to be sure of his manhood, or he will resist playing 'cute' games in order to emphasise to others that he is a man. It's ironic, but those who do so don't seem to realise it.
"Man, cute stuff should stay with Nintendo. Nintendo for kids!"
translates to:
"Man, I'm so insecure of my manhood, I must get my friends into thinking my penis is huge by ignoring Nintendo."
So, gents, if you get questioned about that by your mates, question them of their manhood in return.
:lol: You should be hired to promote this game!
Sounds really interesting, I'm not sure if I'd buy it but I'd like to give it a try.
Flaight, you are a legend, words right out of my mouth.
This title was a complete swerve ball for me, never knew it existed and now I can't wait for the launch.
Keep up the good work Adam :
Barry Lewis [ nin10do :: General Writer :: Feature Writer :: Fountain of Industry Statistics ]
"We're mentalist psychic Scots, which means we can read your mind. If you're lying, your head explodes and we laugh."
"We're mentalist psychic Scots, which means we can read your mind. If you're lying, your head explodes and we laugh."
Too many games to cover, too little time! :eek: Anyway, will try and get Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance sorted soon as poss...and then there's my own take on Super Mario Strikers (in addition to tempo's) and Mario & Luigi 2! :-D
This game indeeds looking quite interesting.
Weird....very weird game....the add doesnt do it any favours(although the musics catchy), but i'll wait for a REVIEW before i decide anything about this game...
...weird
Again, the sound on this was so low it was drowned out by Mario Mix, which had been cranked up to get people dancing more. Shame, as I would have liked to judge the soundtrack better than just from online trailers.
Remember, Famitsu just rated this something like 35/40, which can't mean it's terrible! :-D
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