Pretty entertaining and somehow addictive.
Chibi's initial tools are a squirter to water flower buds, and a boom box to help them grow. The game is entirely played with the stylus via the touch screen, with few exceptions. For example, to water a bud, you must pump the squirter by sliding the stylus up and down. To make a flower grow and bloom, you pick a song from the boom box, spin the record manually and do a little dance. Depending on how well you do, the flower will grow and produce more or less seeds.
Chibi runs on watts, which is not only his power source but the currency of the game. You don't gain them directly though, instead, any Happy Points you receive are converted into watts at your little headquarters. Planting flowers, building park equipment, playing mini-games in the park and doing mini-quests in town rewards you with Happy Points.
Chibi's power is also needed in some occasions to power up any toys he finds. Once you power them up, you might have to do a little favor for them so they will join your staff and help around the park. You can't build or modify the park unless you have helpers, and you can have up to three at the same time.
These characters are all very wacky, in their own way. Talking to them will sometimes give you extra Happy Points, depending on your replies. There is a pair of penguins who are the spokespersons for PopFizz Soda, a girl-car that has a crush on Tampa, the soldier who wants a more peaceful life, a French marionette, a dancing monkey and several others.
You can exchange your Happy Points by watts when you plug Chibi in to recharge. Then you can spend them on park upgrades, upgrades for Chibi, stickers and cartridges.
In the middle of all the work, you also have to defend the park from those pesky Smoglings. The computer will alert you when they are coming, so you must go out before they do too much damage and turn your beautiful flowers black. To get rid of the Smoglings, you chase them with your squirter. The more they get soaked, the more the swell. When they explode, new flowers will sprout and sometimes an X will appear where you can dig for treasure.
This eco-friendly game is one for the whole family, simple enough for the children, light-hearted, although it is a little repetitive and the young ones might get tired of it soon. As for the not so young, I think there should be an option to speed up the text or skip certain scenes entirely. It became a bit cumbersome to read "lets turn those happy points into watts", "lets get your fully recharged" and "do you want to save now?" coming from the little helper all the time.
But that aside, Park Patrol is pretty entertaining and somehow addictive. Plus, Chibi-Robo is one of the cutest things I've ever seen. I want one to help with my garden too!
Review text part of Grrlgamer.com. Full text, video and screenshots at http://www.grrlgamer.com/review.php?g=chibiroboparkpatrol