The story of the games is inspired by The Adventures of Pinocchio. Grandpa Bee, an inventor, creates a robot bee named Pinobee to act as a grandson. When he's kidnapped by the evil Vestor and his robot army just before he can give Pinobee a heart, Pinobee must set out to rescue him. How well Pinobee does in his adventure is largely determined by how he approaches NPCs and takes care to explore the world, as well as defeating the golden enemies scattered throughout. The player can also find playing cards that act as power-ups, and Pinobee's dash attack can be upgraded throughout the game.
The second game follows Pinobee and Phoebee as the evil Black Fairy attempts to conquer the world. They explore the world, defeating enemies and collecting hearts and CDs to power up their stats.
These games contain examples of:
- Blah, Blah, Blah: Cricket's dialogue is rendered as this every time you encounter him. How this is interpreted in your diary depends on your actions, including complimenting you if you listen to him, or scolding you if you decide to sting him.
- Body of Bodies: The Mosquito Robot is made of many smaller robots, which must be defeated while un-merged to win.
- Distaff Counterpart: Phoebee is the female counterpart to Pinobee.
- A Dog Named "Dog": Every so often, Pinobee will meet an NPC named Cricket. While he doesn't really look like one, it shouldn't be too difficult to work out what he's supposed to be.
- Earn Your Bad Ending: The worst ending, where the Fairy disassembles Pinobee and Vestor conquers the world, is among the most difficult to get as it requires you to be a jerk in every level. Among other things, this means stinging the Fairy whenever she appears, resulting in her not upgrading how many times you can dash in a row.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: The least positive good ending requires at least 14 out of 27 pages happy, the next best one requires 23, and the Golden Ending requires 100% completion.
- Furry Baldness: Pinobee's creator, Grandpa Bee, is an older male bee who has a crown line of receding hair around his head to accent his age. No other insect in the series has hair, even the children.
- Glass Smack and Slide: One Japanese TV advert
had Pinobee flying out of a field... only to crash directly into the screen. - Jump Scare: Oddly the least bad of the bad endings has one. Pinobee is standing around at night, seemingly not doing much, but the music lets you know something is wrong. Then near the end the camera zooms in and reveals Pinobee has grown creepy fangs. It's more unsettling than it sounds.
- Multiple Endings: 3 bad endings for being mean (well one of them really just for not being nice enough), 3 better endings for varying degrees of niceness.
- Never Trust a Title: The original GBA version of the first game was released internationally as Pinobee: Wings of Adventure. The problem? Pinobee doesn't have wings!
- No Final Boss for You: Being too mean before you reach the final levels can get you an ending where Pinobee gives up in the middle of his quest and goes back home.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted, possibly unintentionally; if your status is good enough towards the end of the game, Pinobee will mention a female bee named Phoebee in his diary. Guess what Pinobee's "sister" in the sequel is called.
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: You can sting the Fairy and Cricket without any remorse and completely ignore the main quest.
- Video Game Cruelty Punishment: Stinging the Fairy results in her not upgrading your dash move, making the game harder, and being really nasty can end the game prematurely.
- What the Hell, Player?: If you are too mean through the course of the game, the Fairy will rip you a new one at the end of Robot Factory, and your game will end right then and there.Fairy: "KINDNESS! Think about it."
- Womb Level: The last stretch of the game takes place in the belly of a robot shark, which has more of an Eternal Engine vibe than anything else.
