Chibi-Robo! is the Best Game

          Shigeru Miyamoto is known for many things - loving Popeye, making a hobby out of measuring things, and, of course, being Bowser Jr’s mother. But what we don’t talk about is how he saved a little robot and his annoying floating television from eternal development hell.

          In 2003 skip Ltd. was developing a point and click adventure with a tiny robot taking orders from the player. You would fix appliances and collect gear in order to defend your home from two burglars in a strange parallel to Home Alone. An ambitious attempt to make Chibi-robo evolve and learn how to interpret orders left me with the feeling of an early Nintendog. He would start to anticipate orders for a careful player while an indecisive master would result in a Chibi-robo acting out of turn. A neat idea but little substance.

          The game proceeded to get stuck here until Nintendo heavyweight Kensuke Tanabe brought it to the attention of Miyamoto. The plucky hero caught Miyamoto’s eye and he signed on as senior producer. The robot stayed but everything else had to go.

Plugs and Kisses 
          Chibi-Robo! (the exclamation is important) is a game about a tiny robot thrust into a looming dysfunctional family in a world where an energy crisis looms on the horizon and toys come to life at night. The titular Chibi-robo naturally decides household chores are the way to fix it. That's correct, a game about doing virtual chores hit the shelves of Japan 2005. Unfortunately the aggressively dramatic plotlines, the feedback loops of cleaning->charging->upgrading, clunky graphics, and the adorkable misfit toys all left critics with at least one thing to complain about. It received positive but not stellar reviews.

          In real life when you vacuum a set of stairs and look down to the ones ahead there is always one particular stair. This stair has a life sized dust bunny on it, or a veneer of crumbs and you think “Oh boy, I can’t wait to get to that one.” That's what Chibi-Robo! is. Scrubbing a footprint or carrying detritus to a colossal trash can never felt so calming. It was released 3 years after Super Mario Sunshine and held the same completionist delight. While the day is spent fighting grime the night is spent fighting crime with Drake Redcrest. Drake and your other toy friends come alive when the human Sanderson family goes to bed and a whole new world of drama and side quests open up. Most require intricate timing, the passing of love letters, costumes and, of course, copious cleaning.

          What Chibi-Robo! does exceptionally is craft perspective. It is a tough melting pot of Shadow of the Colossus meets Toy Story meets Micro Commanders. A game about being good for goodness sake. A unique view of diplomacy and whimsy, childlike and wonderful. A powerless robot finding the tiny ways he can make a difference.

          The quirky dialogue and humorous scale are complemented with kawaii buried at every turn. Chibi-Robo collects “happy points” as currency. A week's worth of costumes and your choice of a pajamas. A bright cascade of piano notes plunks with every step as you run from place to place. Chibi-Robo! has nintendo’s legacy of kid friendly and upbeat gamecube classics to uphold, and does so admirably. 

But what is the game 
          Chibi-Robo! is a story driven, adventure 3D platformer. Gameplay is mostly fetch quests, exploration, and cleaning. Don’t let the cleaning discourage you. It features the same pleasant grind of a Stardew Valley or a Harvest Moon game. Longer battery life, teleportation, bridges, and various cleaning tools give a metroidvania twist to the house. The graphics were outdated even on release, but should be taken with the grain of salt we have to give all antiquated games.

          Chibi-Robo! Was released in 2005 for the gamecube and now has four sequels for the DS and 3DS. A Japanese Wii remake was made in 2009.