With cheers of "Happy Birthday" in the background, Jenny prepared herself for gifts from the family. Dressed up in a frog suit, saying "Ribbit", she waited for her final gift, one from her father. Despite the family suffering a financial setback, the father pulled it out of the hat and purchased Jenny a Chibi Robo. Greeting it with ribbits, Jenny welcomed the robot into the family. Chibi Robo was not alone though he has his talking sidekick Telly Vision -- a television with a propeller on its head -- accompanied him. As the only member of robotic crew that can talk, he will be your mouthpiece for the entire game.

When I first heard about this game, I was wondering what kind of game would I get. In essence it ends up being an adventure game, where you collect different items from around the house to progress further into the game. It is not exactly a linear game, as you can quest through the house, or into the backyard almost immediately, but you can do things at your leisure to set up events. You will meet up with a lot of interesting characters, like a Lego T-Rex, or a Funky flower, and his offspring, which he denies are his. That was brief but that just takes place in the parent’s bedroom. Another weird character is a Teddy bear with multiple personalities, mainly a good and evil side. In the basement you come in contact with a mystic, a wooden pirate doll, and even the old Giga Robot that they had a long time ago.

There are quite a few games that you can play as well, which you will discover along the way. When you go into the foyer, you will be able to check out an army of eggs. One game is called spy training, a game much like shuffle cups where one person says they are the spy, then rotate the characters, then have you guess which one is the spy. Another one is a running mini game where you race to the end of the banister and back. You may also be able to unlock a space cruiser, or a racecar and have races with those. While they are fairly bland, they are still fun to do.

In the game you are ranked against one million other Chibi robots. How you advance beyond them is by collecting happy points (Yes… Happy points). You can get these points from cleaning up around the house by picking up garbage or interacting with many of the game’s colourful characters. While cleaning up takes a little time, you will find it rewarding. Talking to people and giving them gifts (such as giving flowers to one of the characters) will also score you many points. You may also perform quests and solve people’s problems, such as delivering love letters, or finding someone’s long lost items around the house. It does not usually feel like a chore when you do these things, rather it very enjoyable, as it helps develop the story.

I pose the question if you have ever wanted to Pimp out a robot? This game has plenty of enhancements for your Chibi Robo, from tools to suits that they can dress up as. The first tool you will use is the propeller. It allows you to float a short distance while also slowing down your descent, which you will need to quite often as falling off chairs or ledges, will damage your Chibi Robo. The second one is the Chibi blaster, which allows you to blast holes through stickers on the wall. Nothing says "Deadly" like a small metal creature with a Space-Age blaster on its hand. You can confiscate the father’s electric toothbrush, which will allow you to clean up spills, messes, and footprints around the house to increase your points as well as earn money. You can also get a little squirter to fill up with liquid, which you can use to water plants, or clean up some messes on walls.

Following the tools, there are quite a few outfits to dress up your Robot. One is a trauma suit, which makes your Robot look like it has suffered a terrible accident. Another suit is the superhero suit, which when activated shoots out a puff of smoke out behind you like in a cheesy Anime cartoon. While wearing this suit, you can actually patrol as with a superhero toy that’s in the house. The third suit you can get is frog suit that allows you to talk with animals -- like frogs or birds -- or hop like a frog. And then there is a PJ suit, which makes it look like you are ready for bed. Activating it will immediately put your character to sleep allowing you to continue after the half cycle of the day is over. In total there are seven different tools, and seven outfits that you will use through the game, and each of them has a specific purpose.

Chibi robots have two main enemies. The first is Spydorz, which are little robotic spiders. They attack your Robot to sap its energy, but fortunately you can fend off these creatures with your trusty Chibi blaster. Once you defeat them, you can collect their bodies for scrap that will then assist you to build a few Utilibots (but we will cover them in a moment). The second enemy is your battery. As time passes from you doing chores, or from falling from ledges you will find yourself running low on energy. However your battery life will be increased from time to time as you ascend the Chibi ranking system.

Now to comment on your friends... the Utilibots. Utilibots are tools that you can use during the game. You cannot equip on your character, rather interact with them after they are placed in a room. One will allow you to create a ladder, which you can push around, allowing you to reach higher places around the room. Another Utilibot acts as a bridge, bridging the gap between long distances, and is sometimes the only way to access hard to reach areas. Fortunately you can even push it around to where you will need it most. Lastly there is a warp zone Utilibot, which is placed in two different locations that allows you to plug in and get transported to the other area in the blink of an eye. Each of these is essential to reach areas around the map, because you have a limited time each day to complete your tasks.

Furthermore you go through quite a few of storylines. The central plot deals with the family and their financial woes. The mother is upset that the father has no job, and that he is very lazy around the house. She wants nothing more than for him to do his chores. Then she is slightly nauseated by her daughter, who is dressed up like a frog, wearing an outfit that even covers her head. Finally, she is also upset about the family dog that keeps on dragging muddy paw prints through the house for her to clean up. Once she reveals this to the family in the form of a letter, she even threatens to divorce the father.

Another storyline goes into why Jenny is dressed up in a Frog. She can appear to be quite creepy. Some of the nights she sits outside of her parent’s bedroom with her Teddy bear, while her father sleeps on the couch leaving the mother all alone. She also uses her Teddy bear to emote her feelings, and with big bags under her eyes, it looks like she has not slept in ages. Other nights she watches her television like a zombie, which displays a dark snow, and the occasional picture of an insignia. Oddly enough this symbol is also found outside on the lawn, after you clear a few weeds.