Picking up garbage hasn't been this fun since Men At Work, but that really isn't saying much. That's right, the latest action adventure game from Skip and Nintendo has you collecting garbage, scrubbing stains, fetching odd items, and generally doing things that you might play video games to get away from. But as menial and uninteresting as it sounds, Chibi-Robo has plenty of personality and charm to spare, which ends up saving what is otherwise a tedious and unfulfilling game.

Chibi-Robo is made of metal, but he has a heart of gold.

Chibi-Robo is a 4-inch-tall robot who is purchased by Mr. Sanderson for his daughter's birthday. The little robot's purpose is to make the Sandersons happy by completing a variety of chores and fetch quests. Right from the start, it's pretty clear that the Sanderson home is anything but a happy one, which means that Chibi has a lot of work ahead of him. Luckily Chibi has the help of his chatty manager, Telly Vision, a robot who looks like a little floating television. Telly not only explains the basics of the game, but also talks on behalf of the mute Chibi.

With Telly's help and some basic yes and no responses, Chibi can interact with all of the living creatures in the Sanderson household. The family is made up of Mr. Sanderson, an unemployed slob who sleeps on the couch and only thinks about toys; Mrs. Sanderson, a neat freak who constantly frets over the family's dire financial situation; Jenny, a little girl who thinks she's a frog and only says, "ribbit"; and Tao, the family dog. The Sandersons aren't the only inhabitants of the house, though. All of the toys in the house come alive whenever the Sandersons aren't around. These characters are all unique and colorful, compelling you to visit them often just to see what kind of silly, funny, or bizarre tales they have to share. There's Space Hunter Drake Redcrest, a superhero who is obsessed with achieving justice through vigilance, shouting, and striking poses; Captain Plankbeard, a wooden pirate who lives in the basement and longs to sail the high seas once again; Funky Phil, a disco-dancing flower; Dinah, a T-rex comedian made of plastic building blocks; the Free Rangers, a group of hard-boiled eggs dressed up as soldiers, and many more. The characters are scattered throughout the Sanderson's modest two-bedroom house. There are several areas to explore, but the entire game takes place inside the house, with the backyard being the farthest you can venture outdoors. Some areas are inaccessible at the beginning of the game, requiring you to complete a task or purchase a specific upgrade in order to progress.

The main goal in Chibi-Robo is to make everyone happy, and there are several ways to accomplish this. You can perform simple household chores like picking up small scraps of garbage and cleaning stains with a toothbrush, or you can complete a variety of specific favors for the tenants of the house. These favors usually involve finding and retrieving a certain object or a series of objects. In an early interaction with Mrs. Sanderson, you have to fetch a sugar cube for her tea, then a spoon to stir the tea with, and finally a cookie to go along with it. There's no direction in the game, so you mostly have to just wander around, talk to characters, and just hope that you can figure out what you need to do. If you want, you can just walk around cleaning all the time--it's entirely up to you.

Whether you're doing chores or playing fetch, you earn happy points and moolah. Moolah is the currency of the game, and you can spend it at the online store via your chibi-PC to purchase flower seeds, spare batteries, and chibi-gear. Chibi-gear is equipment that you can use to help you accomplish your daily tasks. You can buy an arm-mounted blaster cannon, a little helicopter head attachment, and other upgrades. Happy points, on the other hand, are simply the representation of how well you're doing your job. As you accumulate happy points, you improve your rank among all other Chibi-Robots in the world. As you move up the ranks, you'll earn bonus batteries, which hold a charge longer and let you venture farther and farther away from electrical outlets.

There's a lot of trouble in the Sanderson home, but it's nothing a tiny robot can't fix with a few simple tools and a can-do attitude.

Because Chibi-Robo requires electricity to operate, you have to charge up his battery every few minutes. If Chibi is ever completely drained, he'll have to go back to the chibi-house and will lose some moolah. The diminutive robot trails a cord behind him that he can pick up and plug into any electrical outlet to recharge. In the beginning of the game the battery runs out pretty quickly. But, as you earn happy points and get bonus batteries, you can go much longer between charges. It's a frustrating mechanic, because you often have to drop everything you're doing to go find an outlet. Because Chibi is so small and the house is so large by comparison, it takes a long time to get anywhere, especially if you have to climb up and over furniture. It takes even longer when you have to stop halfway and backtrack to find an outlet. Certain areas are so far removed from electrical outlets that you can't even explore them until later in the game when Chibi's battery has been upgraded.