Rumble Roundup Archive

Tom: Prologues and openings generally tend to be the most memorable parts of videogames. Most players can easily conjure memories of setting foot in the underwater city of Rapture for the first time, getting their starter Pokémon from Professor Oak, or smashing their first headcrab to bits with Gordon Freeman’s signature crowbar. The best introductions immediately involve the player in the world of the game and teach the gameplay mechanics in a clever or non-obtrusive manner.

It makes sense – first impressions are the most important, after all. It’s generally safe to say that if the first hour with a game is frustrating or unrewarding, the rest will usually follow suit. However, there are always exceptions: games that put a stumbling foot forward and end up rewarding the faithful who soldier on despite confusing tutorials, odd difficulty spikes, or boring prologues.

Justin: One of my greatest frustrations within the Pack is that my self-proclaimed Nintendo fanboyism means that my recommendations of that company’s games are usually dismissed. It doesn’t matter if I say that Donkey Kong Country Returns features amazing platforming set pieces or that Super Mario 3D Land looks to be doing some neat tricks with perspective because Justin has his StreetPass hat pulled over his eyes. Given that insurmountable hurdle, I don’t even know how I’d get my fellow podcasters to check out 2006′s Chibi Robo, a late cult classic for the GameCube that gets one major thing wrong at the outset of the game before getting so many things right.

The game is something of an open-world exploration game, in which you play as a tiny robot programmed to make a family of three happier. Later in the game, that means exploring the expanses of the house, interacting with other toys and uncovering secrets throughout. It’s like playing “Toy Story” through a bizarre Japanese lens. However, before you can get there, you’ll have to deal with stupidly menial tasks in order to level up. It’s been a couple years since I’ve played it, but I think this meant scraping dog crap off the kitchen tile with a toothbrush, if memory served correctly. (You’ll also spend a lot of time just picking up trash.) Of course, there are no physical boundaries keeping you from the more desirable content of the game, but without leveling up your battery – via dirt scrubbin’ – your Chibi Robo is basically stuck in one spot, clinging to electrical sockets for dear life until the game’s brutal time limit sends you back to the living room. As you slowly upgrade, you’ll find that the game has tons to offer, but it certainly takes its time getting there.

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