The Chibi Robo series has been a favorite of mine since the GameCube original. Following the exploits of helper robot Chibi Robo, the series has a charm to it despite the simplistic gameplay. Now we have the next game exclusive to the 3DS shop. And while the quaint gameplay remains, a series of baffling stupid design decisions leaves us with a short circuited game.
Camera Shy:
Chibi Robo has been called in to help the curator of a museum that celebrates the mundane objects in our lives in the form of “nostajunk.” Chibi’s task is to collect enough pieces of nostajunk to fill his museum while helping out a variety of toys that in the Chibi Robo universe are alive.
The main currency in Chibi Robo is happy points which are earned by completing any tasks or cleaning up messes. Turn in enough points and Chibi can buy a silhouette of a piece of nostajunk that the museum could use. Once bought you have to “go into the past” as the game puts it, or look around your actual environment for an object that matches the silhouette.
After that you need to take a picture using the 3DS camera which the game will grade you on how well your object fits the silhouette on the screen. Get at least 60% accuracy and you can then collect that object to be put into the museum.
The best way to earn happy points is to complete jobs for the wacky cast of characters in the Chibi Robo world. Each one has a different task that takes the form of a minigame with happy points as the reward. Do a good enough job and you’ll unlock harder variants of the task along with trophies for those interested in game completion.
The jobs themselves are varied: From seeing how well you can measure out a ruler, shooting moving targets, dealing with pests and more. You can also explore small areas to clean up and complete some side quests for the various characters.
As with previous games, Photo Finder retains the simple charm of the Chibi Robo series. However despite “Photo Finder” being in the title, the game’s camera system simply doesn’t work and leads to this becoming a frustrating experience.
Cracked Lens:
There are several problems with the camera system in Chibi Robo. First is that the 3DS’s build in camera does not have a flash, meaning that you’ll need to rely on your light in order to take any pictures. For me, I live in an older home with poor lighting and no matter where I went in my house; I kept getting messages saying that things were too dark.
Compounding issues was that the camera itself had poor resolution and did not do a good job distinguishing the actual object for the environment surrounding it. One of the silhouettes was of a CD case which I placed it so that it filled the silhouette perfectly, yet I got a 0 percent accuracy rating. The lack of a flash and poor resolution combine to make the photography mechanic very frustrating.
The cast of characters are as quirky as ever, but are mainly relegated to mini-game hosts.
I tried Macguvering my room into my own photography studio using a pillow as a contrasting backdrop, but it still didn’t work.
With the camera problems getting in the way, it brings what little else gameplay there is down.
Unlike the previous games which gave you a large environment to explore, Photo Finder segments each area down into small sections to explore. Unfortunately, there just isn’t anything really interesting to do in these areas, no secrets to find, puzzles to solve or anything other than cleaning.
The minigames themselves lose their charm after repeating them multiple times to grind out happy points needed for film. Speaking of film, in what has to be the dumbest decision the designers made, each film comes with a 9 to 10 shot limit. If you don’t take a picture that meets the game’s requirement of 60% accuracy or more, the film runs out and you’ll have to spend happy points on a replacement.
There really should have been some accommodations to the silhouette system, for example having a way to zoom in or out the silhouette to make it easier to get a shot.
I’m somewhat puzzled as to if Chibi Robo Photo Finder was designed first and foremost as a game in the series, or if the property was just inserted into a game about taking pictures of everyday objects. The problems with the camera along with the lack of exploration just kill the game for me. If you can track down the original Chibi Robo, it’s a much better showing of what the little robot can do.
