Chibi-Robo! Plug Into Adventure!
| Chibi-Robo! Plug Into Adventure! | |
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| Developer | skip Ltd. |
| Publisher | Nintendo |
| Platform(s) | Nintendo GameCube |
| Release date | |
| Language(s) | English, Japanese |
| Genre | Platform, Adventure |
| Rating(s) |    
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| Media | GameCube Game Disc |
- Not what you were looking for? See: Chibi-Robo (disambiguation)
Chibi-Robo! Plug Into Adventure! (ちびロボ！) is the first installment in the Chibi-Robo! series, and was first released for the Nintendo GameCube in Japan in 2005. It was developed by skip Ltd. and published by Nintendo. The main objective of the game is to earn Happy Points by making people happy, and eventually become the best Chibi-Robo.
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 money 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 all the toys around the house can move and talk. Chibi-Robo befriends them and starts helping the toys out with their troubles. His adventure around the Sandersons' house continues. Eventually, Chibi-Robo finds a large robot in the basement with a missing leg called Giga-Robo, who was once a companion of the Sandersons, but had to be deactivated due to its high electricity consumption. Chibi-Robo attempts to revive Giga-Robo by fully charging its massive battery using the Giga-charger and makes it a goal to find Giga-Robo's missing leg, but is attacked by spider-like robots called Spydorz.
When George purchases yet another toy, Helen locks herself in her room and tells him that she wants a divorce, prompting the rest of the family to do housework in an attempt to make up for it. Meanwhile, Chibi-Robo finds a strange pattern in the backyard and uses his radar to contact an alien species. Once the aliens land and greet him, Chibi-Robo uses a time machine made by the visitors to go into the past to find a code to enter a safe in the master bedroom containing Giga-Robo's leg. He returns to the present to open the safe, but several larger Spydorz are released and capture the Sandersons. It's revealed that George originally created the Spydorz to be friends with the Chibi-Robos, but his toy company reprogrammed them to be hostile (it is unknown why), causing George to quit his job. George upgrades Chibi-Robo's blaster weapon, allowing the small robot to defeat the Queen Spydor, recover Giga-Robo's missing leg, and rescue the Sandersons. George apologizes for lying to Helen, and the two reconcile. Once Chibi-Robo fully recharges Giga-Robo's battery, reattaches his missing leg, and finds the passcode needed to turn him on, he reactivates Giga-Robo, and the aliens meet them in the backyard. The aliens explain that the toys are able to walk and talk due to a request from Giga-Robo to give them life and to give all Giga-Robos infinite battery power to prevent their energy consumption. The aliens could not do the latter at the time and returned to their own planet to obtain the item necessary to grant Giga-Robo's wish. They then give Giga-Robo this ability, who shares it with Chibi-Robo and the rest of the robots in the world as well, eliminating the energy problem.
Gameplay
The player controls Chibi-Robo, a 10cm tall robot, and must navigate the Sanderson home to clean up messes and throw away trash. Chibi-Robo can pull out drawers to climb on, hop up a short distance on small ledges in front of him, climb cords and ropes, and use his Chibi-Copter to safely get down from high areas. Chibi-Robo runs on a battery, and must be recharged by plugging the Chibi-Plug into an Outlet before the battery reaches zero to continue gameplay. At first, Chibi-Robo's battery only holds 60 Watts, but is upgraded by 20 Watts by reaching Chibi-Ranking milestones, and is upgraded to infinite power by reactivating Giga-Robo and reaching #1 Chibi-Ranking. The Chibi-Ranking is increased by collecting Happy Points, which are earned by cleaning up stains, throwing away trash, and helping other characters. Chibi-Robo can also collect Moolah which is used to purchase items on the Chibi-PC, or gambled with The Great Peekoe. Chibi-Robo uses Chibi-Tools like the Toothbrush and Squirter to clean up stains, the Spoon to dig up dirt, and the Mug to avoid taking damage. He can use the Chibi-Blaster to destroy Spydorz, open certain pathways, and reveal hidden Chibi-Doors. Several characters in the game have Stickers that are earned by completing their stories.
Characters
Chibi-Robo
- Main article: Chibi-Robo
The titular character and controlled by the player, Chibi-Robo is a 10cm tall robot made by Citrusoft Robotics, designed by George Ebisu with the purpose of making people happy. He has a Chibi-Plug which he uses to charge up his battery at Outlets around the Sanderson household, activate Utilibots, and open Chibi-Doors. While not being able to speak, Chibi-Robo can wear different Suits to get various reactions from characters he interacts with. In addition to the Chibi-Gear made by Citrusoft, Chibi-Robo comes across various objects in the Sanderson home which he turns into Chibi-Tools. This is the first model of Chibi-Robos developed by Citrusoft, after Giga-Robos caused an energy crisis and were discontinued.
Telly Vision
- Main article: Telly Vision
Chibi-Robo's manager, Telly Vision, is a small flying TV-shaped robot made by Citrusoft Robotics who offers support to Chibi-Robo, speaking for him and giving him advice on how to reach the number one spot in the Chibi-Rankings. His dream is to become a singer, already having a song, "Teriyaki Blues". Telly Vision has an excitable personality, being easy to startle or bring to tears.
Giga-Robo
- Main article: Giga-Robo
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.
Jenny Sanderson
- Main article: Jenny Sanderson
The eight-year-old daughter who wears a Frog Costume all day and thinks she is a Frog.
George Sanderson
- Main article: George Sanderson
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.
Helen Sanderson
- Main article: Helen Sanderson
After discovering her husband's resignation, she eventually ends up locking herself in her bedroom and threatens him with a divorce.
Tao
- Main article: Tao
The dog of the family, also interacts with Chibi-Robo.
Drake Redcrest
- Main article: 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.
Sophie
- Main article: Sophie
Tao's chew toy, who has a crush on Drake Redcrest and loves to watch his patrols.
Free Rangers
- Main article: Free Rangers
An army of egg soldiers.
Sarge
- Main article: Sarge
The leader of the Free Rangers.
Captain Plankbeard
- Main article: 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
- Main article: 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
- Main article: Sunshine
A bear starving for nectar.
Princess Pitts
- Main article: Princess Pitts
A lovely princess living in Jenny's bedroom.
Mort
- Main article: Mort
A mummy living under Jenny's bed with a crush on Princess Pitts.
Dinah
- Main article: Dinah
A dinosaur made of bricks with a crush on Funky Phil.
Funky Phil
- Main article: Funky Phil
Another toy, who loves to dance and ends up with a bunch of sprouts who dance with him.
Spydorz
- Main article: 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.
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]
Demos
The game has a kiosk demo, available in the US in Interactive Multi-Game Demo Disc - Version 34, and in Europe in Interactive Multi-Game Demo Disc - April 2006. The two demos are very similar, with the only notable difference being that Telly has additional dialog in the European version. There does not appear to be a Japanese demo. In this demo, you play as Chibi-Robo limited to the Living Room and Chibi-House near the beginning of the story. The data for this demo appears to mostly be a stripped-down version of the final game.
Data from these demos exists in the final US and European versions of the game: stage 28 is the demo's Chibi-House, and stage 29 is the demo's Living Room. The US versions of these rooms are very unfinished, being modified copies of slightly earlier localizations of these rooms. They do not make a functional demo, and the game crashes trying to access these rooms at certain points. This may indicate that the US demo was not finished until after the final US version of the game was completed.
The European demo, on the other hand, exists completely intact in the European version of the game. It can be accessed by falling into the drain with the following Gecko Code active:
2026644C 0000000B 0426644C 0000001D E2000001 80008000 |
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
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To view Chibi-Robo! Plug Into Adventure!'s image gallery click here
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Trivia
- 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.
- Some of the characters show graphical glitches when shot by the Chibi-Blaster.
- 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.
- It became a part of the New Play Control! series in Japan for Wii on June 11, 2009.
References
- ↑ http://cube.ign.com/articles/394/394043p1.html IGN Staff (April 17, 2003). "Chibi Robo - GameCube Preview". IGN. Retrieved May 26, 2008.
- ↑ 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.
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