Chee-Chai Alien

Chee-Chai Alien (Japanese: ちっちゃいエイリアン, Chitchai Alien), literally meaning "Tiny Alien" is a Game Boy Color game developed by Creatures that utilizes the Game Boy Color's infrared port. It was released only in Japan on February 27, 2001. It is the first game in the Chalien series.

Due to the game relying on the Game Boy Color's infrared port, the game does not work on the Game Boy Advance, the Game Boy Advance SP or the Game Boy Player.

Story
The player is introduced to a little man who is called Saraba (Japanese: サラバ). Saraba tells the player that tiny aliens come from a light from a distant area of space. Saraba names these "Chaliens". He suggests that the Chaliens want to communicate with the player. He asks the player if they have ever looked up at the night sky.

After replying "yes" or "no", Saraba tells the player that he comes from a world beyond their imagination. He tells the player that there are many strange places in space in which creatures exist. He also tells the player that there is a lot of Dark Matter (Japanese: あんこくぶっしつ), which every Chalien has.

Saraba tells the player the Planet Earth (Japanese: ほし ちきゅう) is getting plenty of Dark Matter from space and it is not good for the Earth to get more Dark Matter. In fact, there is a lot of white space surrounding the Earth. He therefore wants the player to remove the Dark Matter, collect it in vials and then use them to fuel rockets to fire into space so that they can explode and make space black again. Noticing the player has a Game Boy Color, he suggests that the player uses the device to rescue Earth and Space by capturing Chaliens from space and gathering dark matter from them.

After the player agrees, Saraba is delightful. He tells the player to keep it a secret. The player is then brought to an interface where they have to use a finger to touch a wire. Thinking it will be difficult for the player to collect a lot of Chaliens, Saraba encourages the player to work hard.

Saraba tells the player that the Chaliens are weak when they come to Earth and they are full of dark matter, so Saraba asks the player uses the Game Boy Color to remove it and recover their energy.

Later, Saraba introduces Li'l Blue (Japanese: アオチャン, Aochan), a close friend of his, who asks as a guide for the player.

Gameplay
To begin with the player already has three random Chaliens. The player must catch more Chaliens by pointing the Game Boy Color at artificial light sources, such as light from a desk lamp, a refrigerator or a remote control. Firstly, the player must select a vial with enough Pheromone; special objects that attract different Chaliens. At first, the player only has access to a vial with Pork Bone Pheromone but as they catch Chaliens, sometimes they drop more Pheromone. Certain vials require more Pheromone than others. When the player receives a reception, they can press A to advance to a screen in which the player has to roll a ball down a hole with the A and B buttons. Once the ball falls down a hole, a Chalien will appear and the game will ask whether the player wants to catch it.

As Chaliens are obtained, they are normally full of dark matter. To interact with Chaliens, the player must go to the Observation (Japanese: かんさつ) menu and then choose either Light to Everyone (Japanese: みんな光に) to eliminate all Chaliens, Better Look (Japanese: もっと よくみる) or Cosmo Up (Japanese: コスモアップ).

In "Better Look", the player can choose Soot Purification (Japanese: ススはらい) to extract their dark matter into a vial. This allows the player to up a Chalien's Cosmo points, also known as "Cosmic Happiness" by letting it play in the Polariton which is available by choosing the "Cosmo Up" option. It also allows the player to store the Chalien in the Favorites Capsule (Japanese: おきにいりカプセル) by selecting the "Store" (Japanese: ほぞんする) option.

When a Chalien has enough Cosmo points, the player can choose the 'with a friend' (Japanese: ともだちと) option to play Pig's Nose or the 'play' (Japanese: あぞぶ) option to play the Chalien's minigame, however, "No Future" Chaliens have no minigames.

As the player obtains Chaliens and unlocks their minigames, they become available in a menu called Space Research Notes (Japanese: 宇宙研究ノート). On this menu, the player can view all unlocked Chaliens and play their minigames or view their descriptions.

The ultimate goal of the game is to fill six vials with dark matter and use each vial as fuel to fire rockets into space, for them to explode. Each one will make part of space black agan. Once all rockets are fired, the player can unlock another Pheromone and use all Pheromones to collect every Chalien.

Trivia

 * At one point on the screen when the player starts up Chee-Chai Alien for the first time, Saraba says "Po... ...Pokémon are undesirable, I tell you." This reference exists probably because the game was developed by Creatures who own one third of the copyright to the Pokémon franchise.