Chibi-Robo! Photo Finder is a cute little game from Nintendo for the 3DS. The game isn’t your typical sort of game and doesn’t really fall into any one category. Nintendo lists the game “photography/scavenger hunt” as the category and that pretty much suits the game.
The story takes place in the not-too-distant future, when tiny robots can travel into the past to collect “NostalJunk” — odds and ends from everyday living — and bring it back with them. It is you as the 4″ tall tiny robot Chibi-Robo who have been tasked by The Curator to do just that so that he can open a NostalJunk museum.
Using silhouette film you take the Nintendo 3DS Camera and snap photos of real life objects which fit into a specific silhouette on screen. You’ll start off with just a few pieces of film and will have to work on getting more to complete the Curator’s collection and his museum. When you take a photo you will be graded on how close you are to getting the silhouette perfect. If you manage to get 100% you’ll get a special prize, but pretty much anything over 60% accurate will count.
Some of the silhouettes needed on the film are pretty easy to find and shoot. Finding a circular object, a coffee cup and a glove are pretty simple to do. Other ones like a t-shirt or even an airplane may turn out to be a bit more tricky. Luckily you get ten shots with each piece of silhouette film so if you don’t get it right you can try again. At the same time if you do pass the 60% mark but feel you can do better you’ll have a few more chances.
The main goal in the game is to use this silhouette film to take photos of NostalJunk, but this film doesn’t come for free. Instead you must make use of the Chibi-PC to buy film, which will cost you “happy points.” You can get these points by performing various tasks.
You can take jobs from an assortment of interesting characters via mail on the PC. The cast of characters are pretty strange. There is Space Hunter Drake Redcrest, an anime action figure always out for justice and Super Geotron X is a collector’s edition model is an exact replica of the famous television robot Super Geotron X. Miss Clayra teaches at the Chibi-tot kindergarten, Ketschburg is a ketchup bottle and Mostardin is mustard, both of whom live and cook in the kitchen while Joshy Bear is an aspiring teen idol who wants to shine on the stage. He’s a sponge.
The job tasks you do for them are like little mini-games, including fetching the proper ingredients for Ketshburg and Mostardin, correctly guessing the length of a measure by sight alone for Super Geotron X, blasting balloons and clay pigeons in a test for Drake Redcrest and more. Sucessfully completing the tasks, or even part of the tasks, gives you the reward of these happy points.
In addition to the jobs you can perform and film you can buy and shoot with, you can also explore. Each of the environments that you come across in the jobs are also accessible in explore mode. In this mode you can look around the environments and also clean them up. You can vacuum up dust and pick up trash, all of which can go into the recycling machine in each level. You’ll earn happy points this way too.
There are also other little things to look out for in the game, including finding the Chibi-tot hidden around some of the environments at times, finding little collectible stamps and even puzzle pieces that can be used for other things in the game.
If you’re familiar with Chibi-Robo you’ll notice that he has a little plug attached to him. You’ll have to make sure that you pay attention to the charge in your battery when you’re out doing jobs and exploring the levels. When the game starts out you’ll have 50.0 as your full power level. As you walk around and perform tasks that level will slowly drop, although certain tasks will suck more power out of Chibi-Robo. Don’t let the charge drop to 0.0 or you will collapse and will lose any progress that you had been making on a mission.
Luckily you will occasionally find a battery in a level which will boost yourself back to full power and there is even an opportunity to raise your maximum charge level. You’ll need that extra charge at times. Climbing up things and using the vacuum really drain Chibi-Robo’s battery and if you’re walking across a narrow ledge and manage to fall off the table you’ll lose a whopping 10.0 of your power. Be careful out there.
Nintendo has also started to support the game right away with NostalJunk challenges. To participate in challenges you’ll need to select a NostalJunk artifact that you’ve created using the film from your exhibition space and then follow the instructions in the game to submit it. Nintendo will evaluate each submission and select 10 nominees to be in the running for Top NostalJunk. Then, the players of Chibi-Robo! Photo Finder can vote for their favorite.
All of the voices in the game are snippets of Japanese. I’m not familiar with the language so I’m not sure if what is being said corresponds with what is being subtitled, but the Curator seems to say a lot of the same voice clips so I’d venture that it’s not.
The game controls pretty well with a pretty basic setup. The camera can be moved around with either the [L] and [R] buttons or you can use the directional pad. One of the important characters in the game is your robo-advisor Telly, the smart-phone. Telly lives on the Curator’s desk and helpfully reminds you when you should recharge, keeps track of your work results, saves your game for you and also controls a little RC helicoptor which whisks you away to the museum to see your NostalJunk.
Chibi-Robo! Photo Finder is definitely a quirky little game which is unique and pretty funny to play. If you’re looking for something different that is packed with some charm then you should check this one out.
