Very much an interesting experiment in the style of games like Lack of Love. The soundtrack itself was supervised by the late, great Ryuichi Sakamato (according to a Japanese website.) The music was composed by Takuma Sato, who deserves to be more well known, as the soundtrack to this game is something that would not be foreign to the most ambient, relaxing moments of Donkey Kong Country.

I think Ryuichi Sakamato might have taken from this game in his experience directing L.O.L, and the similarities do not start only with the music, but with the main idea of the game itself: helping animals. It's one of those "Symbiosis Simulators". It's an interesting balance here between semi-realistic animals (like a pretty realistic Axolotl) and crazy, somewhat far off surrealist creatures which only resemble their counterparts.

We have a huge cow with, uh, 8 udders which have the potential to hurt you (I'll spare you the details). This is the same cow that is represented by the cool boxart. There is a black rabbit, that looks like something out of Lack of Love, with it's minimalistic, polka-dot design riff on the form of a real rabbit. The whole game oscillates on the spectrum of realism, and more often then not it goes towards the unreal, surrealistic side. It's an uncanny valley where it feels just real enough, however.

The spaces you walk around in are surprisingly expansive. Granted, they are literally just prerendered backdrops that you walk through (albeit beautiful ones). However, based on where you walk forward in said backdrops, you will be led to different parts of the environment. The environments are all biomes, and you get there by typing in a 3-string word on a pillar at the start of the game. The biomes are aquatic, subterranean (kind of deserts and caves), a lush forest-like area, and the literal last area of the game. You can spawn in any of these, as it is mostly random.

Now, to the main gimmick of the game, which is a kind of proto-Scribblenauts idea where you can type in any verb, and your avatar (the weird squiggly spiraled golden triangle guy) will perform the action. You need to type in the right verbs to help the animals. Sometimes, it's simple, other times its frustrating. Even at the very beginning of the game, I was stuck. In my frustration, I typed in "go", and finally a kind of 'movement board' appeared which allows you to move in various directions in the game, and I was shocked. In a good way, rest assured. I felt like a magician (though it was the game doing the heavy lifting).

Luckily, there is a really in-depth analysis and walkthrough on youtube by a user named Dilan. Mad props to him for his and his friends determination in not only emailing people involved but pushing through and helping people complete the game.

I'm shelving it, but please know that I will finish this aesthetically wonderful and mythologically/spiritually rich game (even if the mythology is nooot very reflective of actual
Mayan belief systems).

If experimentation wasn't the norm in the Chibi-Robo series, then Park Patrol might've been the black sheep. Replace the action-adventurism of the original game where you explore an expansive house with environmental activism about managing a park... then add some fighting in there.

If Park Patrol can be compared to really anything, it must be the Animal Crossing series. A game about customization, management, and completionism of your park (as well as managing your 'money', which in this case is literally your power supply).

The main difference is Park Patrol does actually have a story in there. Without spoiling much, it is a pretty creative take on the ways we neglect our environment, and it doesn't hide it's honesty at parts, in that it doesn't just remain a fictional parable but also indicates that us in the real world have things we could be doing better. "Remember, Miasmo (the big bad) is lurking behind every exhaust pipe and smokestack, waiting in the shadows to make his return" or something like that as is said at the end of the game.

Essentially, the game fits the system of having different living toys (as is the norm in all Chibi-Robo games) who you become friends with. In this case, you have toys like a mascot for an American football team, one of the free rangers from the past game, and a stereotypically French marionette who wants to be freed from his strings, among other toys. I can safely say that all their designs were smart and creative, and they were all lovable characters with personality quirks of their own.

Basically, you recruit for them to work for you at the park. You pay them in "watts" (like I said, your power supply) to build structures, or terraform the land. Eventually, they run out of watts, so you have to recharge them, and each time you do they will advance a little in their own story. For example, the Free Ranger egg gets a new job after wishing for one (won't spoil what it is). They advance in their story by interacting with the other toys you have in your team, if they have power left.

The main thing of the game is basically growing flowers, which you do via giving them water (obv) and dancing along with a boombox (not so obv). The dancing part is a pretty cool system, but it was a little hard to figure out at first. I eventually got used to it. Basically, you have to spin the outer circle of the "record" that appears on screen and you have to do it at a certain constant speed. When you do that, you will get a score, if it's above 70 the plants will throw off seeds that multiply the number of flowers. After a certain amount of flowers are grown, the space they are on will turn green, and one of the objectives of the game is to turn the whole park green.

Now, I completed the main story and I still have not turned the whole park green (though I've turned most of it green). At first, it was a repetitive venture, with the assistant in this game, Chet (RIP Telly, in this game apparently) being kind of annoying and saying the same things over and over, with the same high pipsqueak voice. Sorry Chet, love you though.

The routine is going to feel very repetitive in this game at first. It basically goes like: plant flowers, get toys to do work for you, then when they are out of commission go back to town the recharge them. I'll give it to the game though, it does get much better with variety, and while not having "as much" to do as the original Chibi-Robo, there was still a lot to do. You get new park projects, like games you can build (a bowling game for example), and there is plenty to do in town as you can meet new toys over the course of the game.

I was really impressed with how well they managed to leave room for a story in a simulation/management game.

Oh yeah, the game has battles where you have to fend off "smoglings" (and later, "Smoglobs") from destroying your plants. This was kind of annoying because I could never get to the smoglings fast enough, and the only vehicle that I found easy to control was the bike (the car(s) are surprisingly hard to control).

Overall though, a surprisingly fun and addictive game. Frankly, I prefer it to Animal Crossing: Wild World as my favorite simulation game on the DS. While it might not be the feast that the other Chibi Robo games could be, namely the original and Okaeri!, it is still a very very worthy and smart game that did a lot of revolutionary stuff for a DS sim game.

Pretty interesting cooking RPG for the 3DO, that is extremely rare and expensive sadly. Couldn't get much out of it, since I didn't really follow what was happening (none of the dialogue is in text, it is all spoken). It moves at a very slow pace, to be frank, but it is interesting to see the lovely graphics and how far they could push the 3DO. You can literally talk to every NPC. It's also neat to see a game officially sponsored by Yukio Hattori, a professional celebrity chef in Japan. A fun and oft relaxing curio, with some really really actually difficult cooking segments, and some not so difficult (at least to where I got) RPG segments. Most of the game is gathering ingredients from the money you get from fights to make these recipes, which allow you to progress. I only really got like halfway through the second 'area'. Give it a try, it's definitely worthy of getting more attention, but you need the patience of a cat-herder to be able to power through if you don't know Japanese.