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> Results: Chibi Robo: Park Patrol
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The ESRB says:
Comic Mischief: GamerDad made a little robot squirt water at pollution monsters, and talked with toys that recreated Three Stooges antics. Chibi Robo is a helpful, pint-sized robot who is only a couple of inches tall. In his debut adventure on the Nintendo GameCube, Chibi helped a family by cleaning up their house and making them happy. Now Chibi Robo is stepping outside and on the Nintendo DS with Chibi Robo: Park Patrol. As Chibi Robo, you must build up and maintain a small park. Early in the game, Chibi comes across an endless water squirter and a tiny boom box. Most of the time, you'll be watering flowers in the park to make them grow, and playing music for them with the boom box to make them reproduce new flowers. Sometimes you must chase away little flower-wrecking pollution monsters with your water gun. Your score and progression in the game is determined by how many flowers you grow, so plant as many as you can. But watch out. Chibi runs on electricity and drags a plug behind him. You must make sure to find a plug outlet or go back to home base every now and then so Chibi won't run out of juice. In the first Chibi Robo game, it was more about exploring a giant house. In Park Patrol, there's less exploration as you can only walk around your park and to a burger joint, flower stand, and back alleyway across the street. But Park Patrol plays out more like a simulation game, as you can build up your park the way you see fit, with paths, hills, playground equipment, statues, and other fun stuff. In the first game, Chibi could talk to toys, and in Park Patrol, if Chibi finds any abandoned toys and helps them out, they'll befriend him and help build up his park. By planting and selling flowers and doing good deeds, Chibi earns Happy Points which he can then exchange for watts. Not only are watts handy for keeping Chibi Robo's energy up, watts are also used as currency. Using Chibi's handy PC at home base, players can buy bigger batteries to keep Chibi Robo out longer, and they can hire friendly toys to help with the park renovation projects. While the 3-D graphics are kept simplistic, fans of the first Chibi Robo game will be pleased to know that all the charming sound effects are back, including the music notes that come out of Chibi's feet when he walks. Play control is easy to learn. Move around Chibi with the control pad, and perform his actions with the touch screen. Squirt water by moving up and down on the stylus like a syringe, and spin a turntable record in time to the beat to make the flowers dance to music. Picture cures on the bottom screen tell you what you'll need to do for other activities like driving vehicles and interacting with other objects.  Chibi Robo: Park Patrol is only available at Wal-Mart as an exclusive, but it's worth the trip there for such a charming and fun DS title. Chibi may be only a robot, but his game is all heart. 
Kids will love Chibi Robo and his toy pals. Less patient gamers may get annoyed at Park Patrol's slower pace and progression, but most kids will probably enjoy the more leisurely pace of the game and how much control you have over your little park. There is little to no violence. Chibi squirts pollution monsters with water, and there are a couple of toy soda mascots who exchange Three Stooges style slap fights with each other, but that's it. Reading skill is required as everything is text based, but sometimes the white text can be a little hard to read against the colorful 3-D graphics. But Chibi Robo: Park Patrol is still a fantastic game for children. I've heard stories about how kids who played the first Chibi Robo game were encouraged to clean up and help around the house more. In a world where gory and violent games like Manhunt 2 and Grand Theft Auto get all the media attention, it's nice to know that there are still games being made about helping others and preserving the environment.
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