Chibi-Robo! Plug Into Adventure!

Chibi-Robo! Plug Into Adventure! is the first game in the Chibi-Robo! series, and was released for the Nintendo GameCube in 2006. It was developed by skip Ltd. and published in Nintendo. It became a part of the New Play Control! series in Japan for Wii on June 11, 2009. The main objective of the game is to earn Happy Points by making people happy, and eventually become the best Chibi-Robo.

Chibi-Robo! Plug Into Adventure!
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Developer skip Ltd.
Publisher Nintendo
Platform(s) Nintendo GameCube
Nintendo Wii
Genre Platform, Adventure
Media GameCube Game Disc
Wii Optical Disc
Not what you were looking for? See: Chibi-Robo (disambiguation)

Story

The game is set in the house of a dysfunctional family, the Sandersons.

On Jenny Sanderson's eighth birthday, her father, George Sanderson, purchases her a Chibi-Robo, a small robot whose goal is to bring happiness to everyone. Because of the family's financial problems and Mr. Sanderson not having a job, Mrs. Sanderson (his wife) gets angry at Mr. Sanderson for spending so much Moolah during such a time.

Even though the family is in a critical financial situation, they celebrate Jenny's birthday with Chibi-Robo and Telly Vision. Night eventually comes and the family goes to sleep (Mr. Sanderson being forced to sleep on the couch as Mrs. Sanderson is still mad at him), while Chibi-Robo goes off to explore the house. He and Telly Vision soon find out that the toys around the house can move and talk, and he befriends them, and starts helping them out with their troubles. His adventure around the Sandersons' house continues.

Characters

There are several toys in the house.

One of the first toys the player finds is Space Hunter Drake Redcrest, a hero from a very famous TV show. Mr. Sanderson is one of his many fans and has everything related to him, like a Mug and a Toothbrush, both of which Chibi-Robo will use as Tools. Another toy that will be met on the first night is Sophie, Tao's chew toy, who has a crush on Drake Redcrest and loves to watch his patrol. Then, as the adventure progresses, Chibi-Robo will find many other toys, such as the Free Rangers, an army of egg soldiers, Captain Plankbeard, an old pirate who wanders around the Basement and asks Chibi-Robo for several things in order to be able to sail again (like recovering his ship or hiring a pirate crew, for example), The Great Peekoe, a strange toy who likes to meditate and "purify souls" (A gambling mini-game that can be used to make much Moolah in little time), Sunshine, a bear starving for nectar, Princess Pitts, a lovely princess living in Jenny's bedroom, Mort, a mummy living under Jenny's bed with a crush on Princess Pitts, Dinah, a dinosaur made of bricks with a crush on Funky Phil, another toy, who loves to dance and ends up with a bunch of sprouts who dance with him, and Primopuel, who he finds in a Treasure Chest.

The Sandersons family is going through financial problems. Jenny is their eight-year old daughter who wears a Frog Costume all day and thinks she is a Frog. Mr. Sanderson is the unemployed father of the family. He quits his company without telling Mrs. Sanderson, which makes her mad at him, especially since he keeps buying new Drake Redcrest toys without telling her. She eventually ends up locking herself in her bedroom and threatens divorce. Tao, the dog of the family, also interacts with Chibi-Robo.

Besides toys and the family, there are also many other characters. There is Kid Eggplant, Mr. Prongs, a Bird, two Frogs, the Tamagotchi and the Fish (Chibi-Robo, however, only interacts with the goldfish by feeding them with Cookie Crumbs).

Chibi-Robo's manager, Telly Vision, is a small TV-shaped robot who offers support to Chibi-Robo, most of the time by talking in his place, as Chibi-Robo is unable to speak. His dream is to become a singer, already having a song, Teriyaki Blues. Giga-Robo is a giant robot deactivated in the Basement. He shares a close relationship with all the other Toys, but due to an energy crisis, he was deactivated.

There are also the Spydorz, the evil spider robots designed by Mr. Sanderson and reprogrammed by his company in order to be hostile and evil to Chibi-Robos everywhere. Chibi-Robo uses his Chibi-Blaster to destroy them and used their Scrap to build Utilibots in the Recyclotron in order to help him reach otherwise impossible to reach spots, or move around the house faster. Chibi-Robo soon destroys the Queen Spydor with the help of Mr. Sanderson, who upgrades his Chibi-Blaster.

Development

Main article: Chibi-Robo! (Prototype Pre-Alpha)

Chibi-Robo! was announced in early 2003 with publishing rights held by Bandai. Its original projected release date was June 2003 in Japan and spring 2004 in North America.[1] Unlike the released version of Chibi-Robo!, the beta version entailed the player training Chibi-Robo to defend the home of his inventor from a pair of burglars. The gameplay was different as well; instead of a platform-adventure game, it played like a point-and-click adventure title, where the player was not in direct control of Chibi-Robo, but was rather conveying commands to him by clicking a cursor around the area.[2]

Sequels

It received a sequel in 2007 (2008 in Australia) called Chibi-Robo! Park Patrol. In 2009, a third installment was released only in Japan, titled Okaeri! Chibi-Robo! Happy Richie Ōsōji!, which takes place in the house of a grown-up Jenny, from the first game.


Gallery

  To view Chibi-Robo! Plug Into Adventure!'s
image gallery click here

Trivia/Goofs

  • The game was originally going to be published by Bandai as a point & click adventure game.
  • At the start of development (presumably 2002), the game's eventual director, Kenichi Nishi was not part of the project.
  • In 2003, Nintendo producer Kensuke Tanabe discussed the game with Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto, and Miyamoto said "The character is pretty nice, so I think if Nishi works on the game it will be great." This led to Nintendo publishing the game instead of Bandai, and Nishi taking the duty of director.
  • Chibi-Robo is made from recycled aluminum. This was revealed in the second game, Chibi-Robo! Park Patrol.
  • Chibi-Robo travels 10 years in the past with the time machine, but Mrs. Sanderson mentions having a future child and says that they are waiting for Jenny's arrival. Since this is 10 years ago, she couldn't be pregnant, so she seems to have been planning on having a child at least 2 years in advance.
  • It is unknown how Drake Redcrest can have super powers if he is just a toy. While his dramatic explosions are obviously gunpowder (after a mission that requires the retrieval of such), his later ice powers are inexplicable.
  • Dinah has been called an old lady, so its unknown how long she has lived with the Sandersons.
  • Jenny is eight, but her room is covered with toys for toddlers.
  • It is unknown how Sunshine did not know Drake Redcrest even though they have lived with each other for a long time, with Jenny even occasionally bringing Sunshine down to the Living Room with her to doodle
  • The characters show graphical glitches when shot by the Chibi-Blaster.
  • Telly says water could make him rust, but he cries tears all the time without damage. It is unknown where these tears come from.
  • When Mr. Sanderson, Jenny, and Tao slide down the rail, Jenny has Sunshine, but he is found in her room later. It is unknown how this happened. Similarly, once Chibi-Robo gives Jenny all 10 Frog Rings, all of them end up scattered around the house the moment Chibi-Robo leaves the room.
  • When Chibi-Robo awakens after being knocked out from plugging himself to Giga-Robo, Telly knows about Giga-Robo, but when Captain Plankbeard introduces them to Giga-Robo, Telly is shocked when they see him. However, he already knew about Giga-Robo, so it's unknown why he is completely surprised.
  • When Telly and Chibi-Robo are running from Dinah when they first meet her, she is very close behind them, but as Telly talks to Chibi-Robo, she can still be heard stomping towards them as if she was across the room. Before they run to the wall, she is within inches of them, which means she should have caught up instantly before Telly even leaves Chibi-Robo.
  • It is quite surprising that Funky Phil doesn't seem to notice or mention that Freaky Phil is different from his siblings.
  • When Sunshine attacks the castle, Mort mistakes the attack for an earthquake, meaning most of the room is being shaken as the castle gets shaken up by Sunshine. However, he is the second largest toy, so there is no way he should be able to shake the castle or anything close by it, or make large noises, and if the attack takes place at night, there is no way Jenny should be able to sleep through all that shaking and noises without waking up or even in the morning, or any of the Sandersons should be able to hear the noise up in the room.
  • Almost every male character that has a relationship with a girl, expect for Mort, appears to get hen peck, Mr. Sanderson admits that his wife scares him a bit, and the Bird fears being late with a date with his girlfriend since she plucked his feathers, and Fred was afraid his girlfriend Freida will give him a beating for not listening to her.
  • Telly believes Funky Phil died because his heart wasn't beating, even though he was actually switched off. Even though he was given a soul along with the other toys, Funky Phil is a toy, and if he still needs batteries, then he shouldn't have a heart at all, and he is able to produce offspring as if he was a living plant. The toys have, at times, appeared to need or want to eat or drink, but if they are toys, they shouldn't have any organs, and therefore should not need any food or water. Dinah is seen trying to eat frogs, but she is not a real dinosaur, so she really shouldn't need to eat frogs. Sunshine claims he gets hungry, but he also shouldn't be getting hungry if he is a toy, he is also seen wetting himself, but this shouldn't happen because he shouldn't be able to have a bladder. The toys still show signs that they need a switch on them to work properly, like Funky Phil and Mort.
  • It is unknown how Princess Pitts gets in her own castle since she is much taller then the doors.
  • Plankbeard tells Chibi-Robo to not use the outlets of the Sandersons home to charge the Giga-Battery, since it would cost too much money, but they charge the battery in the Chibi-House which is connected to an outlet in the Living Room, so they are technically taking energy from the house. However since that outlet is regulated based on payment, it means it's only being used when Chibi-Robo puts in enough money to offset the cost of the electricity taken in.
  • Drake Redcrest doesn't know how to get to Princess Pitt's castle because she is at the top, but in a few scenes, Drake Redcrest has been shown to be able to fly. However, Drake Redcrest isn't very smart either.
  • The flag on the trophy in the basement behind The Great Peekoe is only one dimensional. If you go behind the trophy, you can't see the flag.

References

  1. http://cube.ign.com/articles/394/394043p1.html IGN Staff (April 17, 2003). "Chibi Robo - GameCube Preview". IGN. Retrieved May 26, 2008.
  2. https://www.nintendo.co.jp/nom/0507/2_2/ Nintendo staff. プラグをかついで プレイレポート (in Japanese). Nintendo. Retrieved March 26, 2011.