When I first heard that the Nintendo DS’ new “Chibi-Robo: Park Patrol” title was going Wal-Mart exclusive, I assumed that meant the game stunk.

Why would Nintendo limit the game’s sales potential by blocking it from the store shelves by all but one retailer? Even if they’re limiting it the the nation’s biggest?

I really liked the first “Chibi-Robo“ on GameCube — the only cutesy Nintendo-published game I’ve encountered that involves keeping two parents from getting divorced — so I was concerned.

Plus, I live in New York city, where we have no Wal-Marts.

So I contacted Nintendo to see what was up… and I played the game to see if it stunk.

First, this is what a Nintendo spokesperson told me when I asked about the exclusivity:

“For the new ‘Chibi-Robo: Park Patrol’ game for Nintendo DS, Nintendo partnered with Wal-Mart because of Wal-Mart’s strong environmental program and social giving campaign. ‘Chibi-Robo: Park Patrol’ has an environmental theme, and we wanted to make sure that it received exposure among a broad audience of consumers as we continue to get more and more people interested in the world of video games.”

I didn’t think this really answered the question. So I asked a follow-up about whether Wal-Mart was giving this title special placement or promotion. Otherwise, I didn’t see how these goals couldn’t be achieved if the game was also sold at GameStop or K-Mart.

Here’s the clarification I got:

“Wal-Mart has a large green initiative at retail, so it made sense for us to partner with them on this environmentally-themed game.”

It is true that Wal-Mart has a green initiative. In 2005, the company’s CEO announced a $500-million-a-year plan to improve the company’s energy efficiency in its stores and trucks and to back more environmentally sound products and policies. You can read much more about the super-store’s plans on their official site.

But when I go to Wal-Mart’s shopping webpage specially marked for green products, I don’t see anything about “Chibi-Robo.” And when I went to Wal-Mart’s video game site, the greenest thing on the page was Master Chief’s armor — and no sign of Chibi-Robo.

As I mentioned up top, there are no Wal-Marts in NYC, where I work and dwell, so I can’t just go into a store and see if there are big “Chibi-Robo” eco-friendly kiosks. But I’m guessing there are not.

But let’s take stock. What really matters here? “Chibi-Robo” can be purchased through Wal-Mart’s website no matter where in the U.S. you live. And New Yorkers like me can also expect access to limited quantities once they arrive later this week or early next at the Nintendo World Store.

So access to the game isn’t that big an issue, or at least not nearly as significant as the idea of Nintendo publishing an environmental game, which is what Nintendo claims to have done. (From a Nintendo press release announcing that the game is out: “Chibi-Robo: Park Patrol is one of the first games based on the growing environmental movement.”)

There aren’t that many environmental games. In June, I reported that Microsoft was launching a contest for college students to make an Xbox 360 global warming game. My piece noted the handful of other green games. And last year I suggested that “Okami” might be considered a green game. There isn’t muchelse.

“Chibi-Robo,” therefore, is in rare company. That is, if you buy the idea that it’s an environmentalism game. Is it? Well, you do spend most of the game running little one-hand-tall Chibi through a relatively massive public park, trying to plant as many flowers as possible to turn the sand and soil green with life. (Consider yourself warned: you’re moving Chibi through a 3D environment with a d-pad). By planting, watering and dancing in front of (!) the flowers Chibi makes the park vibrant. And that makes full-sized humans visit — supposedly. You never see people in the park, but you get a daily tally of visitors, and you see their massive feet and legs striding overhead when you leave the park to cross into a small town.

Chibi can only work by day, forcing players to sit through a lengthy save process each “night.” Every so often, a day is marred by the arrival of little black spheres with frowns and legs. These Smoglings invade the park, trying to turn colorful flowers black. Their leader lives in a garbage can. The message is clear: pollution is bad; flowers are good. It’s a message fit for storybooks, and the cute game certainly looks like it’s designed to address the storybook-reading demographic.

Except… “Chibi-Robo” games can be smarter than they look. As I mentioned above, the first “Chibi-Robo” ultimately was about getting Chibi to patch the wounds of a family on the verge of break-up. It’s one thing to have to run Chibi Robo around with a toothbrush in his arms so he can clean dirty paw prints left by the family dog. It’s another to have Mom pick Chibi Robo up, place him on the table, and cry to him about how she’s struggling to pay her bills.

I was looking for this kind of sophistication in “Chibi-Robo: Park Patrol.”Crazy, right? But that’s how it is when you play a lot of Nintendo games. You get conditioned to look behind the primary colors for something deeper — in terms of gameplay, design, or, in this case, ideas.

I’ve played 29 game-days of “Park Patrol.” I’m not seeing much of what I was looking for. I did meet a French puppet who talks about loving liberty and the irony of being suspended by strings. And it’s kind of clever in an altogether different way that part of Chibi’s gardening-computer is a Famicom (a.k.a. a Japanese Nintendo Entertainment System). I guess you could say that, technically, Chibi Robo drives an electric car. That is true. It doesn’t run on gas. But that’s about it.

So should I be disappointed that “Chibi-Robo” doesn’t have anything big to say about environmental issues and doesn’t really make them more central to the gameplay than the average “Harvest Moon” title? It would be interesting to see Nintendo cultivate the “Chibi” series as one that repeatedly touches on real-world issues. It would be an interesting platform for the Serious Games movement.

But right now, I don’t see it. The notion of “Chibi-Robo” being a green game seems like a marketing scheme and a missed opportunity. I wanted more. Even if it’s “only at Wal-Mart.”