Chibi-Robo: Plug into Adventure! - Review

Chibi-Robo as released in 2006 for the US.

Hello everybody, my name is Adam and on the internet I am probably more recognized by the name Retromation. I started my YouTube journey roughly two years ago in 2012. I wanted to create a place where I could reach out to the people who are interested, and lay out my thoughts in a longer, more coherent way for them. There have been a few major turning points in my YouTube "career", one of which was the decision to start my let's play on the Gamecube game, Chibi-Robo which is steadily gaining fans to this day. This game and the let's play will always remain near and dear to my heart because of this fact, and that is why I feel reviewing it would be a great first post for my new blog.

While largely unknown, this quirky story-driven adventure game manages to immerse you in a charming, compassionate world with loads to accomplish. 

Very quickly after starting the game it is clear that Chibi-Robo is filled with characters that are vibrant inside and out. Characters range from the justice obsessed, paranoid, space hunter, Drake Redcrest to the meditative, gambling sleaze with more hands than he needs, The Great Peekoe. These characters help to move the main plot, along with the large array of sub-plots ahead in a fun, organic way. I found myself revisiting characters in search of new dialogue because I was genuinely interested in what they had to say. Each character has their own unique personality and that grows and changes with your actions in their respective story. This key element makes the Sanderson residence feel like a dynamic environment, which is a great strength for Chibi-Robo.

The mini, metal, mute protagonist Chibi-Robo is a bite-sized robot designed to clean up messes and generally make lives happier through various acts. This is where Chibi-Robo may lose some people. This game is far from a cleaning simulator. While the character, Chibi-Robo is largely based around cleaning in the story, and there is a lot of cleaning that can be done, the game does not require that much of it in order to wrap up the story. However if cleaning is your bag, there is plenty of stray messes to feed your interest. Scrubbing down the floor with a toothbrush to wonderfully catchy, cheery music synced to your actions just feels right.

A suspicious Mrs. Sanderson requests help finding her
husband's missing toy receipt.

The main story is driven mostly with the theme of familial issues in the Sanderson home which may come as somewhat of a surprise due to the bright, cheerful visuals. Chibi-Robo takes itself lightly while still providing a look into some rougher, more relatable situations not often seen in games from a similar vein. The story progresses from the extraordinarily mundane to the bizarrely insane in a spectacular fashion. One moment you're searching for a receipt to show Mrs. Sanderson the next you could be visited by a group of sickly aliens and their time traveling spaceship. While the dialogue in Chibi-Robo may be too over-the-top for some, the story is dreary at times, comedic, and will keep surprising you until the very end.

It's kind of hard to make a decent burger with this
oaf breathing down your neck.

Aside from the main story which clocks in at roughly 11 hours to complete and the 4 major sub-stories, there are loads of other things packed into this game. There are mini-games that range from helping Mr. Sanderson flip burgers to an on-rails spaceship blaster run. Each game has its own charm, yet could use a little bit more polish. They serve their purpose well enough and are only required for those who want to collect all the "stickers" which serve as Chibi-Robo's quasi-achievement system. If you wish to earn all of these stickers, you are going to need to go on a scavenger hunt through every inch of the house to find the Frog Rings hidden throughout the house. If you manage to return all of these rings to Jenny, the Sanderson's daughter, the curse placed on her by the "Evil Frog Wizard" forcing her to speak only in ribbits, may lift. If those tasks aren't enough there 60 hidden "Chibi-Doors" to open up and collect treasure from. Some of these doors are even invisible and require you to use various tools gathered throughout the journey to scan for them and make them tangible. Overall there is a lot more to Chibi-Robo than the game let's on.

However, the game is not completely without its faults. Much like other games of a similar genre, the camera can be a bit unruly. This is softened by a silhouette of Chibi-Robo that is visible through walls, but not negated entirely. You can, however, use a little bit of c-stick wrangling to try to get the camera to cooperate which makes the game much more controllable. It would be nice if it was not a necessity, but it was definitely more of a slight annoyance at times than a major flaw.

Cheebo going in, blaster blazing.

While on the topic of controls, I feel that the combat in Chibi-Robo was not implemented as well as it could have been. When you shoot your Chibi-Blaster, it will go straight forward which works well when you don't have an infinite number of directions to shoot, and you have a marker showing where the shot is being fired. This method is however cushioned by the fact that your bullets are semi-homing, which makes it infinitely less frustrating but does not entirely remedy it. The other method of shooting requires you to stop moving entirely so that you can aim in a traditional FPS way which rarely comes in handy for the combat, but more for the puzzles. Thankfully I believe that Skip Ltd. realized this fact and combat did not play a major role in the game overall. Fairly early on in the game you purchase the Chibi-Gear called the Chibi-Blaster for Chibi-Robo from the Chibi-PC in your Chibi-House (yes, these are the actual names). It is used for both destroying the mechanical Spydorz and for solving puzzles. I had a significant amount more fun using it to figure out puzzles because it felt more natural to stop, aim correctly, and shoot. In these situations the blaster felt like a fun addition, it added an array of new options to the gameplay.

Back to the more positive points about Chibi-Robo, I must mention the environment of the game. The Sanderson residence is grandiose and structured superbly. There are only 7 major rooms in the game, yet they are all filled with character and I never really felt myself wondering why there wasn't more. Each environment feels towering and ordinary objects become scalable skyscrapers providing many different ways to perceive your surroundings. The game feels vast, yet limited but not in a negative way. It is easy to become acquainted to the characters and environment when you are never too many rooms away from your favorite toy, human, or room.


As a whole Chibi-Robo is a heartwarming, zany story that was largely overlooked on its release. Cram-packed with lovable characters and loads of nooks and crannies to explore, there isn't another game on the market that can bring you an experience quite like Chibi-Robo. The environment creates a surprising grandeur from the mundane by playing with scale in a seamless way. Chibi-Robo has made a mark on me that any house-cleaning robot would be hard pressed to remove.

-Retro