{"id":14113,"date":"2015-10-23T00:01:13","date_gmt":"2015-10-23T00:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=14113"},"modified":"2015-10-21T00:36:54","modified_gmt":"2015-10-21T00:36:54","slug":"citrusoft-presents-the-chibi-robo-product-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2015\/10\/23\/citrusoft-presents-the-chibi-robo-product-line\/","title":{"rendered":"Citrusoft Presents the Chibi-Robo Product Line!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"CHIBIROBO\"<\/a>Hello everyone and welcome to Citrusoft, the leading manufacturer of fictional robots! Today on this blog tour, I\u2019m going to show you our most successful product line: Chibi-Robo!\u00a0 And yes, this is just a creative way for me to write a blog about all the Chibi-Robo games in the series, in honor of the recently released Chibi-Robo: Zip Lash on the 3DS.<\/p>\n

Chibi-Robo: Plug Into Adventure (GameCube)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chibi-Robo\u2019s first outing was on the GameCube. In this 3-D adventure, Chibi-Robo is a birthday present to Jenny, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Sanderson.\u00a0 Chibi-Robo is a small little cleaning robot, only about four inches high.\u00a0 Most of what you do in the game is explore the giant house, picking up trash and finding messes and stains to scrub away with a toothbrush.\u00a0 But be careful because Chibi-Robo runs on electricity, and if he runs out, you\u2019ll collapse and lose all the hard earned money and Happy Points after your last save.\u00a0 So you\u2019ll need to find plug outlets to charge up Chibi-Robo before that happens (he carries a little plug cord around with him).\u00a0 You use the money and Happy Points to buy upgrades for Chibi-Robo, which will let him stay out longer without having to recharge, among other things.\u00a0 You\u2019ll also have to figure out how to explore the house and get from point A to point B, which is a challenge since you are so small.<\/p>\n

At night when the Sanderson family is in bed, the toys in the house come to life and Chibi-Robo can talk to them and help them and take on missions from the toys. So it\u2019s kind of like a quirky, Japanese Toy Story.\u00a0 You\u2019ll befriend playthings like a Buzz Lightyear-ish action figure named Drake Redcrest, help out a group of egg-shaped army men called the Free Rangers, and chat with a caterpillar squeak toy owned by the family dog.\u00a0 By talking with the toys and helping out the Sanderson family, you\u2019ll learn there\u2019s a story behind all this with a bit of drama.\u00a0 You see, Mr. Sanderson lost his job, but still spends money on toys (such as Chibi-Robo).\u00a0 This upsets Mrs. Sanderson so much that she threatens to get a divorce.\u00a0 This causes Jenny to be socially withdrawn and wear a frog hat and only speak in ribbits.\u00a0 So not only must Chibi-Robo clean the house and help out the toys, he must also show Mr. Sanderson how to help out more around the house, convince Mrs. Sanderson that her husband still loves her, and help Jenny grow out of her frog hat phase.\u00a0 There\u2019s more to it than that, but I won\u2019t spoil it anymore for you.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a reason why this game has such a quirky, dramatic feel to it, and that\u2019s because the game was developed by Skip. Even before Skip was called Skip, they had a reputation for making really quirky, unusual games.\u00a0 One title they made while they were a company called Love de Luc was a PS2 game called Chulip.\u00a0 The goal in that game was to kiss everyone in town, so you had to learn their schedules and figure out when would be a good time to smooch.\u00a0 It was kind of like the parts of Majora\u2019s Mask or Harvest Moon where you have to learn the town schedules to talk with certain people.\u00a0 Surprisingly, Chulip came to the US, but it wasn\u2019t very much fun, unfortunately.\u00a0 Other games Skip made include a Japan-only RPG called Moon, where you play as someone who follows a hero and discovers his not-so-heroic aftermath.\u00a0 Townspeople will complain about him barging into their houses and taking their treasure chests without permission and buying all the good armor!\u00a0 They also made a PSOne game that came to the US called Incredible Crisis which was a collection of mini-games about a family who is having a very bad day!\u00a0 Another game they made that didn\u2019t make it to the US was a Wii title called Captain Rainbow, where you are a super hero helping out various Nintendo characters like Birdo, Crazy Tracy from Link\u2019s Awakening, and Little Mac.\u00a0 You can see some Captain Rainbow trophies in the newest Smash Bros. game.\u00a0 I can understand why this game never came to the US, which I won\u2019t go into here, but I still wish I could\u2019ve played it.\u00a0 One thing that many Skip games have in common is that if there is a dog in the game, it\u2019s always named Tao.\u00a0 Chulip had a dog named Tao, Incredible Crisis had a dog named Tao, and even the first Chibi-Robo game named the family dog Tao.\u00a0 I bet you didn\u2019t realize how much of a history Chibi-Robo had, huh?<\/p>\n

The first Chibi-Robo had a re-release in Japan on the Wii. You know how some GameCube games got a Wii version with the tagline: \u201cPlay It On Wii\u201d like Pikmin, Metroid Prime, and Mario Tennis?\u00a0 Well, Chibi-Robo got that, too, in Japan.\u00a0 It\u2019s too bad that it was never released in the US as well, because if there\u2019s one game that deserves a second chance, it\u2019s Chibi-Robo!<\/p>\n

Chibi-Robo: Park Patrol (DS)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Luckily a few years later, we did get a sequel of sorts on the DS. What\u2019s weird is that this game was sold exclusively at Wal-Mart!\u00a0 I think if you want to find it at other stores now, you\u2019ll have to buy it used.\u00a0 Anyway, in this game, you play as a different Chibi-Robo in a line designed to help save the environment by cleaning up parks in cities.\u00a0 So you\u2019re set in front of a run-down park and must plant flowers and grow them all over the plot, as well as set up furniture and other park structures.\u00a0 Some can be useful to Chibi-Robo like a windmill that provides power so Chibi-Robo can plug himself in while working in the park (he still runs on electricity here, too).\u00a0 You water flowers by using a little squirt gun and produce seeds by playing music to make the flowers happy.\u00a0 You must also fight off little pollution monsters called Smoglings who try and turn your flowers black.\u00a0 All these actions in the game use the DS touch screen and stylus.<\/p>\n

So the game is a bit different from the first, as it\u2019s more of a park simulation game rather than having lots of exploration like the original title. But across the street from the park, you can walk around and explore some places. Like a flower shop where you can sell your flowers for money so you can buy upgrades, a burger stand called \u201cMonkey Burger,\u201d and a back alley where toys hang out.\u00a0 Yes, you can talk to toys in this game, too.\u00a0 There\u2019s a race car, a Monkey Burger Kids Meal toy, a couple of soda can mascots, a lone Free Ranger army egg from the first game, and more.\u00a0 If you talk with them and help solve their problems, they\u2019ll help you in the garden doing various chores for you!\u00a0 Even though this game is quite a bit different from the first, it\u2019s every bit as charming and fun, and has a nice environmental message, too.<\/p>\n

Okaeri! Chibi-Robo! Happy Richie \u014cs\u014dji! (DS)<\/strong><\/p>\n

The next Chibi-Robo game was also on the DS, but I don\u2019t know much about it because it never came to the US! Argh!\u00a0 And I really wanted to play it, too.\u00a0 I guess I could\u2019ve imported it, but Chibi-Robo games are pretty text heavy, and I was afraid the language barrier would\u2019ve been too steep.\u00a0 Anyway, supposedly this game plays more like the first, where you clean up a giant house for a family to make them happy.\u00a0 But this time, the house you clean is Jenny\u2019s from the first game, and she\u2019s all grown up and has a family of her own!\u00a0 And that\u2019s really all I know about it.\u00a0 Man I wish Nintendo of America would\u2019ve released it here!<\/p>\n

Chibi-Robo: Photo Finder (3DS)<\/strong><\/p>\n

A couple of years ago, Nintendo released another new Chibi-Robo title, but this one was digital only on the 3DS eShop. But even though it wasn\u2019t quite as good as the other games, it was every bit as creative, and still fun. In this one, Chibi-Robo is in the future, and he can even do things like warp from place to place a la Star Trek (and his partner Telly Vision is now a cell phone).\u00a0 Your job is to help a museum curator collect \u201cNostaljunk,\u201d or photos of artifacts from the past.\u00a0 Armed with a camera and some special film, you must help Chibi-Robo take pictures and send them back to the museum to be put in exhibits.<\/p>\n

So what you do is buy special film that has an outline of a shape of something you must take a picture of in real life using the 3DS camera. It could be a drink cup, plug outlet, coffee mug, or harder items like a GameCube!\u00a0 Then you take a picture of it and Chibi-Robo will warp into the past, pick up the outline of the photo, and take it to the future where it is represented in 3-D for a museum exhibit.\u00a0 So really, the game is like a picture taking scavenger hunt.\u00a0 You\u2019re graded on how well the outline fits the shape, so make sure to have a good foreground\/background contrast.\u00a0 I guess you could cheat and take pictures of things on your computer screen, but it was more fun for me to walk around town finding things like a Yield sign and a vending machine to take a picture of.\u00a0 I think the only one I had trouble with was the sushi shape, since that\u2019s not as common here as in Japan.\u00a0 Luckily you don\u2019t have to take pictures of ALL the shapes.<\/p>\n

To earn money to buy the film, you must warp to places like a kitchen and a garage, and clean like only Chibi-Robo knows how. You can also play mini-games by talking to toys.\u00a0 You can play target practice with UFOs by talking to Drake Redcrest, help cook food and pick ingredients from the fridge with a pair of ketchup and mustard bottles, and clean with a bear-shaped scrubbing sponge.\u00a0 The sponge is especially funny because he stars in his own commercials for his product and dances in them like a music video, and he\u2019s basically a big parody of Justin Bieber (his initials are even J.B.).\u00a0 There are other toys to talk to and play with as well.<\/p>\n

Once you collect enough \u201cNostaljunk\u201d pictures, you\u2019ll help the museum curator get over his problems and you\u2019ll beat the game. While I didn\u2019t think Photo Finder was as good as the other Chibi-Robo games, I still had a lot of fun with it and it certainly had that quirky, creative feel that the others had.\u00a0 And it was a perfect downloadable title.\u00a0 Not big enough for a full cartridge, but fun enough to carry around with you in case you find something to take a picture of!\u00a0 I think you can still download this game on the 3DS, and I recommend you do if you can!<\/p>\n

Chibi-Robo! Zip Lash (3DS)<\/strong><\/p>\n

And the latest in the Chibi-Robo series was just recently released. And surprisingly (or not so surprisingly), it\u2019s a fairly standard-ish 2-D platformer.\u00a0 Chibi Robo uses his plug cord to whip enemies like Castlevania, and also fling it at certain objects to latch onto them to climb up or swing like Bionic Commando.\u00a0 He can even find items that give his cord a longer reach so he can whip his cord out further distances.\u00a0 In the game, Chibi-Robo and Telly Vision are cleaning a space station orbiting Earth, when they spot some tiny aliens about to invade the planet.\u00a0 Then they see a news report about Earth\u2019s resources being stolen by little aliens, and Earth\u2019s snacks are being taken, too!\u00a0 Well that just tears it!\u00a0 You can mess with Earth\u2019s resources, but when you start taking snacks, Chibi-Robo has a problem with that!\u00a0 So Chibi-Robo and Telly Vision hop into their little flying house and rocket down to Earth to stop the aliens and save the world!<\/p>\n

What\u2019s weird about this game is that it lacks that unusual quirky charm that the other Chibi-Robo games had. I\u2019m not even sure that Skip made this one.\u00a0 Don\u2019t get me wrong, Zip Lash is NOT a bad game at all, at least from the first half I\u2019ve played so far as of this writing.\u00a0 But it\u2019s definitely not as good as say, Kirby or Mario or Yoshi platformers.\u00a0 But that\u2019s OK, it\u2019s still a cute and colorful 2-D outing and I\u2019m happy with it.\u00a0 It\u2019s just lacking that quirky spark that the other games in the series had.<\/p>\n

There is ONE weird thing about the game, though. Remember when I said the aliens were stealing Earth\u2019s snacks?\u00a0 Well, hidden in each level you can find a couple of snacks they stole.\u00a0 Actually there are a lot of hidden items, and the game certainly encourages replayability.\u00a0 Anyway, the snacks you find are actually real life name brand snacks from around the world!\u00a0 Some of the brands you may have heard of, like Utz, Mentos, PEZ, and Tootsie Rolls, while others are unfamiliar brands to me such as some of the snacks from Germany and Japan.\u00a0 I\u2019m a little disappointed Frito-Lay didn\u2019t get in on the act, as I have close relatives who work there and their home office is near where I live (I used to work there myself when I was in college).\u00a0 Anyway, keeping with the tradition of Chibi-Robo talking to toys, in each world you can find a plaything like a toy airplane named Toby or a cymbal monkey named Crash.\u00a0 They\u2019ll request certain snacks and if you found them and give them to the toys, they\u2019ll reward you with bonus money and other goodies.\u00a0 I just thought the whole snack thing was a little odd.\u00a0 But still cute.<\/p>\n

The game even has some Amiibo functionality. You can get a bundle copy of the game that includes a Chibi-Robo Amiibo.\u00a0 Using it unlocks a few things.\u00a0 You can save your high scores with it and level up the Amiibo with the points.\u00a0 You can also turn into Super Chibi-Robo in the game using the Amiibo, but I haven\u2019t tried it yet.\u00a0 You can also unlock a second floor of the Chibi-House UFO that lets you buy figures from a capsule machine, and that\u2019s it.\u00a0 While it\u2019s not the best use of an Amiibo that I\u2019ve seen, I do like having a Chibi-Robo Amiibo in my collection.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s really all I have to say about Zip Lash. It\u2019s not the best game in the series, but I\u2019m still enjoying it so far.\u00a0 One thing you can say about Chibi-Robo games is that each one is different!\u00a0 In the comments section, let me know if you\u2019ve played any games in the Chibi-Robo series, and which ones are your favorites?\u00a0 –Cary<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hello everyone and welcome to Citrusoft, the leading manufacturer of fictional robots! Today on this blog tour, I\u2019m going to show you our most successful product line: Chibi-Robo!\u00a0 And yes, this is just a creative way for me to write a blog about all the Chibi-Robo games in the series, in honor of the recently […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":14109,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14113"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14114,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14113\/revisions\/14114"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}