Chibi-Robo!: Park Patrol
Encyclopedia
Chibi-Robo! Park Patrol, known in Japan as , is a video game for the Nintendo DS
developed by skip
and published by Nintendo
. It is the sequel of the original Chibi-Robo!
for the Nintendo GameCube
.
Unlike the previous game, Chibi-Robo! Park Patrol takes place almost entirely outdoors, and puts the player in the role of the titular character Chibi-Robo, a four inch-tall robot
tasked with revitalizing a park
. The player does so by growing seeds into flower
s by watering them with a squirter
, and then spreading more seeds by causing the flowers to dance using a tiny boombox
. The player can also alter the terrain, build and repair various structures, visit the accompanying town, and defend the park from noxious Smog
lings, bits of pollution which can kill flowers.
The game has two main areas: the park, and the town. The park is where you will spend most of your time in. You water buds with your squirter, and they grow very quickly into either white flowers or colored flowers. If they are white, use your boom box to make them change color and spread seeds. The boom box does not work on colored flowers. To use your boom box, select it in your inventory next to white flowers. A wheel will appear on the screen when you select it. Spin the wheel at a moderate pace to play a catchy tune. Do not spin it too fast or too slow. At the end of each tune, there is a rating that scores your pace from 0-100. if you get a rating below 70, nothing will happen. If you get a rating 70 and up, your flower will change into a different color and will spread seeds to the surrounding area. If you grow 30 flowers in one area, the area will turn from fertile soil into green spaces. In green spaces, you cannot plant anymore flowers in the area, unless you lose a flower in that area. Plants cannot grow in sand
.
In the town part of the game, there is a flower shop, a burger
joint called Monkey Burger, and an alley
where your friends hang out. At the flower shop, you can clip flowers from the park and give to the clerk to earn lots of happy points. You can collect happy points by doing good deeds like planting flowers or defeating smoglings. There's also a special flower of the day that if you give one to him, he'll triple the happy points. There's not really much to do at the Monkey Burger, but you can learn new dance tunes from a toy monkey if you give him a monkey burger. All around the town are boxes and garbage that are sometimes filled with things like candy and cartridges. There's also a crosswalk in between the park and the town and a manhole that connects street closest to the park to the alley.
In between the park and the town is the Chibi-House. Most of the features from the old game are included in this game such as the watts reserve and the Chibi-PC. But there are still some differences such as Telly Vision being replaced with a robot connected to the wall named Chet. There's a reader that reads cartridges you collect and adds minigames and utilities to the shop for you to put into your park. The Chibi-PC has more features then from the first game including a park projects section where you ask your friends to do the projects you want them to do. You can mess with the tiller, the height, and roads and rivers. There's also a smogling forecast where you can check how many smoglings or smogglobs are going to be in your park.
The enemies of the game are called smoglings. They turn your flowers black, causing the flowers to wither at dusk. You defeat them by squirting with water them until they pop, spraying water and releasing a seed. You can prevent Smoglings from appearing by the holes in the ground that they appear out of until the holes shrink away to nothing.. Smoglings can also react to food items like candy if you give some to them. Smogglobs are giant versions of Smoglings and turn flowers into black flowers when they steps on them and into miasmo flowers when they release smoke. Miasmo flowers still wither at dusk, but you can change them back by squirting them or walking over them. To defeat a Smogglob, you need to knock it down with a vehicle and squirt at it until it pops. releasing several buds and spraying water in a manner similar to that of the Smoglings.
, the same company responsible for the original Chibi-Robo!
on the Nintendo GameCube
. However, Park Patrol was designed by a separate department led by one of the first game's directors, Hiroshi Moriyama. His co-director for that title, Kenichi Nishi
, was not involved in the creation of Park Patrol. Nintendo producer Kensuke Tanabe
asked the team to specifically develop an appealing game using a different approach from the original Chibi-Robo!. "While the feature like the miniature garden that GC Chibi-Robo! had are taken over," Tanabe emphasized, "I am asking them to aim at establishing a game system where the game’s emphasis is on freedom and enjoyable gameplay, rather than the game events."
Park Patrol was first announced at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in 2006. The game was subsequently released in Japan on July 5, 2007. Following rumors of its cancellation in North America, Nintendo announced that the game had been delayed during development, pushing the release date back from September 24, 2007 to October 2, 2007. The game was initially released in North America
as a Wal-Mart
exclusive because of the company's alleged "strong environmental program and social giving campaign". To promote the game, Nintendo of America gave out packets of seed
s to 500 randomly-selected people who registered the game on the company's website. The game was not announced for a Europe
an release, though Australasia
saw a PAL
release in early 2008.
rating of 78 out of 100 based on 14 reviews. X-Play
said that it "lacked the immense open world and range of gameplay that the original Chibi-Robo! had". They also said that the gameplay was repetitive and had terrible sound effects but praised the graphics and charm of the game. GameSpot
cited that it had "an innovative use of the touch screen, fun minigames and a great cast of characters but had slow paced gameplay and the minigames would have been great for multiplayer."
According to Media Create
, Chibi-Robo! Park Patrol entered the Japanese sales charts at number two, selling over 45,000 units. An additional 26,905 copies were sold the following week. By the end of 2007, the game sold 160,376 copies in Japan. Gamasutra
stated that Park Patrol apparently did not fair as well commercially in North America due to its limited release. The website ranked it as the fifth-most overlooked game of 2007. Park Patrol was followed-up by a third game in the series, Okaeri! Chibi-Robo! Happy Richie Ōsōji!, released exclusively in Japan in 2009. This game has a similar premise as the original Chibi-Robo!.
Nintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
developed by skip
Skip Ltd.
Skip is a Japanese video game developer that has a close relationship with Nintendo of Japan. Nintendo has published all of their Japanese releases; with the only notable exception being LOL , which Skip Ltd. published independently. The company's staff includes prominent developers from Square...
and published by Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
. It is the sequel of the original Chibi-Robo!
Chibi-Robo!
, fully titled Chibi-Robo! Plug Into Adventure!, is a platform-adventure video game for the Nintendo GameCube console. It was developed by Skip Ltd. with collaboration from Nintendo. The game was first released in Japan on June 23, 2005, in North America on February 6, 2006, and in Europe on May...
for the Nintendo GameCube
Nintendo GameCube
The , officially abbreviated to NGC in Japan and GCN in other regions, is a sixth generation video game console released by Nintendo on September 15, 2001 in Japan, November 18, 2001 in North America, May 3, 2002 in Europe, and May 17, 2002 in Australia...
.
Unlike the previous game, Chibi-Robo! Park Patrol takes place almost entirely outdoors, and puts the player in the role of the titular character Chibi-Robo, a four inch-tall robot
Robot
A robot is a mechanical or virtual intelligent agent that can perform tasks automatically or with guidance, typically by remote control. In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and electronic programming. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or...
tasked with revitalizing a park
Park
A park is a protected area, in its natural or semi-natural state, or planted, and set aside for human recreation and enjoyment, or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. It may consist of rocks, soil, water, flora and fauna and grass areas. Many parks are legally protected by...
. The player does so by growing seeds into flower
Flower
A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...
s by watering them with a squirter
Syringe
A syringe is a simple pump consisting of a plunger that fits tightly in a tube. The plunger can be pulled and pushed along inside a cylindrical tube , allowing the syringe to take in and expel a liquid or gas through an orifice at the open end of the tube...
, and then spreading more seeds by causing the flowers to dance using a tiny boombox
Boombox
Boombox is a colloquial expression for a portable cassette or CD player. Other terms known are ghetto blaster, jambox, or radio-cassette. It is a device capable of receiving radio stations and playing recorded music , usually at relatively high volume...
. The player can also alter the terrain, build and repair various structures, visit the accompanying town, and defend the park from noxious Smog
Smog
Smog is a type of air pollution; the word "smog" is a portmanteau of smoke and fog. Modern smog is a type of air pollution derived from vehicular emission from internal combustion engines and industrial fumes that react in the atmosphere with sunlight to form secondary pollutants that also combine...
lings, bits of pollution which can kill flowers.
Gameplay
Though key elements from the first game are still intact in this game (such as losing watts by walking and performing actions), There are plenty of new features, such as the fact that the game takes place outdoors almost 100% of the time. You still have many tools to use, but most of them are new, such as the boom box and the clippers. There are also new modes of transportation called Chibi-Rides, vehicles like carts and bikes you can ride in.The game has two main areas: the park, and the town. The park is where you will spend most of your time in. You water buds with your squirter, and they grow very quickly into either white flowers or colored flowers. If they are white, use your boom box to make them change color and spread seeds. The boom box does not work on colored flowers. To use your boom box, select it in your inventory next to white flowers. A wheel will appear on the screen when you select it. Spin the wheel at a moderate pace to play a catchy tune. Do not spin it too fast or too slow. At the end of each tune, there is a rating that scores your pace from 0-100. if you get a rating below 70, nothing will happen. If you get a rating 70 and up, your flower will change into a different color and will spread seeds to the surrounding area. If you grow 30 flowers in one area, the area will turn from fertile soil into green spaces. In green spaces, you cannot plant anymore flowers in the area, unless you lose a flower in that area. Plants cannot grow in sand
Sand
Sand is a naturally occurring granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles.The composition of sand is highly variable, depending on the local rock sources and conditions, but the most common constituent of sand in inland continental settings and non-tropical coastal...
.
In the town part of the game, there is a flower shop, a burger
Hamburger
A hamburger is a sandwich consisting of a cooked patty of ground meat usually placed inside a sliced bread roll...
joint called Monkey Burger, and an alley
Alley
An alley or alleyway is a narrow lane found in urban areas, often for pedestrians only, which usually runs between or behind buildings. In older cities and towns in Europe, alleys are often what is left of a medieval street network, or a right of way or ancient footpath in an urban setting...
where your friends hang out. At the flower shop, you can clip flowers from the park and give to the clerk to earn lots of happy points. You can collect happy points by doing good deeds like planting flowers or defeating smoglings. There's also a special flower of the day that if you give one to him, he'll triple the happy points. There's not really much to do at the Monkey Burger, but you can learn new dance tunes from a toy monkey if you give him a monkey burger. All around the town are boxes and garbage that are sometimes filled with things like candy and cartridges. There's also a crosswalk in between the park and the town and a manhole that connects street closest to the park to the alley.
In between the park and the town is the Chibi-House. Most of the features from the old game are included in this game such as the watts reserve and the Chibi-PC. But there are still some differences such as Telly Vision being replaced with a robot connected to the wall named Chet. There's a reader that reads cartridges you collect and adds minigames and utilities to the shop for you to put into your park. The Chibi-PC has more features then from the first game including a park projects section where you ask your friends to do the projects you want them to do. You can mess with the tiller, the height, and roads and rivers. There's also a smogling forecast where you can check how many smoglings or smogglobs are going to be in your park.
The enemies of the game are called smoglings. They turn your flowers black, causing the flowers to wither at dusk. You defeat them by squirting with water them until they pop, spraying water and releasing a seed. You can prevent Smoglings from appearing by the holes in the ground that they appear out of until the holes shrink away to nothing.. Smoglings can also react to food items like candy if you give some to them. Smogglobs are giant versions of Smoglings and turn flowers into black flowers when they steps on them and into miasmo flowers when they release smoke. Miasmo flowers still wither at dusk, but you can change them back by squirting them or walking over them. To defeat a Smogglob, you need to knock it down with a vehicle and squirt at it until it pops. releasing several buds and spraying water in a manner similar to that of the Smoglings.
Development
Chibi-Robo! Park Patrol was developed by Skip Ltd.Skip Ltd.
Skip is a Japanese video game developer that has a close relationship with Nintendo of Japan. Nintendo has published all of their Japanese releases; with the only notable exception being LOL , which Skip Ltd. published independently. The company's staff includes prominent developers from Square...
, the same company responsible for the original Chibi-Robo!
Chibi-Robo!
, fully titled Chibi-Robo! Plug Into Adventure!, is a platform-adventure video game for the Nintendo GameCube console. It was developed by Skip Ltd. with collaboration from Nintendo. The game was first released in Japan on June 23, 2005, in North America on February 6, 2006, and in Europe on May...
on the Nintendo GameCube
Nintendo GameCube
The , officially abbreviated to NGC in Japan and GCN in other regions, is a sixth generation video game console released by Nintendo on September 15, 2001 in Japan, November 18, 2001 in North America, May 3, 2002 in Europe, and May 17, 2002 in Australia...
. However, Park Patrol was designed by a separate department led by one of the first game's directors, Hiroshi Moriyama. His co-director for that title, Kenichi Nishi
Kenichi Nishi
is a Japanese video game designer. He was born June 20, 1967 in Tokyo, Japan. Over the years, he has helped found a number of notable video game companies and currently develops games at Route24, his own private limited company...
, was not involved in the creation of Park Patrol. Nintendo producer Kensuke Tanabe
Kensuke Tanabe
is a Japanese video game designer and producer working for Nintendo. After he had graduated from the Visual Concept Planning Department of Osaka University of Arts, he decided to enter the video game industry, and joined Nintendo in April 1986. At first, Tanabe was part of the Entertainment...
asked the team to specifically develop an appealing game using a different approach from the original Chibi-Robo!. "While the feature like the miniature garden that GC Chibi-Robo! had are taken over," Tanabe emphasized, "I am asking them to aim at establishing a game system where the game’s emphasis is on freedom and enjoyable gameplay, rather than the game events."
Park Patrol was first announced at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in 2006. The game was subsequently released in Japan on July 5, 2007. Following rumors of its cancellation in North America, Nintendo announced that the game had been delayed during development, pushing the release date back from September 24, 2007 to October 2, 2007. The game was initially released in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
as a Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. , branded as Walmart since 2008 and Wal-Mart before then, is an American public multinational corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse stores. The company is the world's 18th largest public corporation, according to the Forbes Global 2000...
exclusive because of the company's alleged "strong environmental program and social giving campaign". To promote the game, Nintendo of America gave out packets of seed
Seed
A seed is a small embryonic plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some stored food. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant...
s to 500 randomly-selected people who registered the game on the company's website. The game was not announced for a Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an release, though Australasia
Australasia
Australasia is a region of Oceania comprising Australia, New Zealand, the island of New Guinea, and neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term was coined by Charles de Brosses in Histoire des navigations aux terres australes...
saw a PAL
PAL
PAL, short for Phase Alternating Line, is an analogue television colour encoding system used in broadcast television systems in many countries. Other common analogue television systems are NTSC and SECAM. This page primarily discusses the PAL colour encoding system...
release in early 2008.
Reception
Critical reception for Chibi-Robo!: Park Patrol was generally positive, with some mixed reviews. The game currently has a GameRankings rating of 75 out of 100 based on 17 reviews and a MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
rating of 78 out of 100 based on 14 reviews. X-Play
X-Play
X-Play is a TV program about video games, known for its reviews and comedy skits...
said that it "lacked the immense open world and range of gameplay that the original Chibi-Robo! had". They also said that the gameplay was repetitive and had terrible sound effects but praised the graphics and charm of the game. GameSpot
GameSpot
GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
cited that it had "an innovative use of the touch screen, fun minigames and a great cast of characters but had slow paced gameplay and the minigames would have been great for multiplayer."
According to Media Create
Media Create
is a Japanese company that "gathers and analyzes data from the digital entertainment industry, specifically focusing on the Japanese console gaming market...
, Chibi-Robo! Park Patrol entered the Japanese sales charts at number two, selling over 45,000 units. An additional 26,905 copies were sold the following week. By the end of 2007, the game sold 160,376 copies in Japan. Gamasutra
Gamasutra
Gamasutra is a website founded in 1997 for video game developers. It is owned and operated by UBM TechWeb , a division of United Business Media, and acts as the online sister publication to the print magazine Game Developer...
stated that Park Patrol apparently did not fair as well commercially in North America due to its limited release. The website ranked it as the fifth-most overlooked game of 2007. Park Patrol was followed-up by a third game in the series, Okaeri! Chibi-Robo! Happy Richie Ōsōji!, released exclusively in Japan in 2009. This game has a similar premise as the original Chibi-Robo!.