Most surprising of all? This magnificent game, cream of the DS crop, is only available at Wal-Mart. If not for this sad lack of faith, I would expect Chibi-Robo to become one of Nintendo's brightest new mascots, transitioning between genres and systems while retaining a core gameplay structure.
Loads of fun on the go! I used to play the original Chibi-robo on the Gamecube and love this game on the DS! The graphics are pretty well done for a 2007 DS title and it definitely retains the charm that the Gamecube title had! Chibi-robo ought to be a real robot to do my gardening too..
If you can handle the game's particular style (provided you live close enough to a Wal-Mart to buy one -- that's the only place you can get it), you'll find this a surprisingly well-designed game that offers significant playtime, will nurture latent gardening addictions, and will give you the goofiest "god game" experience you've had in a long, long time.
It's surprising that Chibi-Robo: Park Patrol is only going to be available at one retailer, because the game is actually quite good. Not great, but definitely a surprisingly decent experience.
+Build your own park+Progressing actually feels progressive+Graphics are impressive for DS title~Driven by building, not questing~Very different game compared to rest of series~Characters are weirder / more one dimesional- Even more repetitive dialogue / tasks compared to first game- Beginning is heavily backtracking / grinding- Too heavy on touch screen controls
Chibi-Robo's manufacturer is sending units of a planeteer version of its tiny robots to every park in the world to combat the constant degradation of these environments caused by a villain called Miasmo. The main objective here is to revitalize these parks to make them pleasant to the population
You start the game with a seed and a syringe with water. By planting a flower, you're given happy points, that works like the currency of the game. With these points, you buy new furnitures to the park, plant tress and other stuff. It is also used to buy new gadgets to Chibi-Robo like batteries that last long and vehicles to move around quickly.
Aside from planting flowers, you can earn happy points by completing some tasks to supporting characters you find around the street outside the park, such as find missing objects, feed and recharge them. They also sell several things and services by trading happy points like repair broken bridges, set playgrounds, etc.
The game has a day/night cycle that last about 15-20 minutes. At the end of the day, you're given a resume of your achievements, and for every person that attended the park the last day, you earn new happy points
The whole mechanic resembles somewhat SimCity, it's very fun and addictive at first. However, as you play, you start to feel that you're progressing too slowly. There's so much to do, but so little time.
As you're trying to make your park prettier and interesting, there's so much interruption that distracts you from your main objective like worrying about fighting Miasmo's minions that want to sabotage your work, find plugs to recharge your battery that drops quickly and complete tasks to earn happy points to buy new things to the park. When you're free to go on fixing the park, you notice that day cycle is ending, and there's not much time to do the things you want to. That kind of situation happens frequently and will surely make some people getting tired of it. It's a pity, cause it had a lot of potential, but the turtle speed pace kills it.
SummaryIn the last Chibi-Robo adventure, our diminutive hero restored happiness to the Sanderson home, but in this DS sequel, he’s taking on the great outdoors. Playground equipment in the park is mysteriously disappearing and the flowers in the park have been transformed by evil monsters. It's up to Chibi-Robo to save the day and make the park...