Chibi-Robo!: Zip Lash (ChiBionic Commando)

"Only as good as DKCTF" sounds pretty good to me, although I didn't really get on with YWW so I'm not quite sure what to think of that.

I've given up on this.. The world select is plain stupid. Why have a roulette wheel determine how far you'll move..

I read about that! It sounds like a cheap way to pad the game out....

Absolutely nonsensical. If the franchise does end here, it'll be a travesty and a crime against common sense.

I'm finding the game to be a bit meh to be honest. My opinion may change if I get to the last level I need to complete the world

Eek, sounds like this could be a huge letdown, they seem to have had a decent amount of time to develop this so I don't see why they've made all the silly little decisions when it was always gonna struggle to sell based on name alone.

GAME yes GAME have this will the amiibo for £28.99, just in case any of you do want to pick it up.

Had it since Tuesday and really enjoying it, no real revolutionary ideas but what it does it does well, the ziplash mechanic is well used and they add the occasional special stage where Chibi is floating through the air or skateboarding to keep the platforming fresh. Not particularly challenging which was to be expecting but its cute enough. The level select thing isn't quite as bad as I thought as it's fairly easy to stop the roulette wheel on the choice you want and as Mas has mentioned, the price isn't too step.

I started playing this earlier on a long bus journey, and - though I mostly agree with what treesmurf has said - quite honestly I'm overpowered by the sense that this is a 2D platformer too far. I know why skip felt that Zip Lash had to be what it is, but truthfully is there any sort of big market for this type of thing any more? Fair enough, at the right price point and with the amiibo bundled alongside it I can see this fairing better than the likes of Codename S.T.E.A.M.. Yet it just feels like a massive waste; surely there's greater critical and commercial potential in a Chibi-Robo game more like the 2006 GameCube original than in something that's already been done literally dozens of times on the same hardware in the last four years, right? It's hard to see there being another Chibi-Robo game after this.

The Kid makes an interesting point; why are we seeing so many 2D platformers from Nintendo at the moment? Is it literally because they're less work to shovel out than full 3D experiences or are they seriously behind them? They've always said the 2D marios sell better than the 3D, so maybe this really is a decision based on what they think the people want.

I'm sure I read an Iwata Asks a couple of years ago that indicated Nintendo's direction to make Super Mario more accessible for the widest auidence possible by taking away the worry and stress of getting lost in a 3D space; they wanted to go back to the original rules of Super Mario Bros, to just have the player keep going toward the right and to head for the goal pole.

...that doesn't explain Chibi-Robo!: Zip Lash though. You've probably hit the nail on the head there, Buska. From what I know, they sell better and aren't as expensively risky to make.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

taking away the worry and stress of getting lost in a 3D space; they wanted to go back to the original rules of Super Mario Bros, to just have the player keep going toward the right and to head for the goal pole.

So we may never see the beautiful playgrounds they are capable of creating in 3D space? That's no good; of course, they probably do take much more money to make and do seem to sell less well than their 2D counterparts.

As for Chibi-Robo: Nip Flash ( ), I played through the demo yesterday. It seemed almost too generic; like it could have been a Kirby game (no offence, Kirbs) quite easily. There are too many 2D platformers out there now - and this coming from one of the genre's biggest fans.

tl;dr - I want to play the original Chibi-Robo so bad.

My theory on why this exists is less about making a Chibi-Robo game, more they wanted to do something with the Zip lash mechanic and Chibi-Robo was the perfect fit for this, it does tend to be Nintendo's style to make games based on an idea rather than a character, just look at how Mario 128 turned in to Pikmin.

That being said it seems silly to pin the hopes of a series on something that goes in a completely new direction, perhaps they just didn't feel that there was a future for the series before now and this was convenient enough to decide it's fate.

The game didn't make the Top 40 of the all format chart but is on the Top 3DS in at number 7 behind likes of LEGO Jurassic World though.

To go back to what's been said beforehand (sorry Mas), I'm hoping against hope that Yooka-Laylee's relative success will encourage other developers to develop more of what I call the "exploratory platformer" genre.  The kind made famous by SM64 and B-K, where you're dumped in a platforming world and required to search it for tasks to complete.  

I've nothing against 2D platformers: even in this day and age, when they surround us like a heaving sea of flatness, I'll pick up a good one (which this one is not).  But I long for the return of the proper 3D platformer.  Splatoon's single-player seems to have been the last one on a Ninty console, funnily enough.


As for Chibi, if this is the best Nintendo can give him, both from a game and a publicity support point of view, maybe it's time he was left to gather rust.  Still hope he appears in Smash 5, though.

To go back to mas's point ( ), I've been trying to find this in the wild of north Staffordshire... and none of the three local GAME stores have it. Either they've all sold out - which is unlikely at best, given the sales figures - or they never had any copies in in the first place. That's a huge concern, for a franchise that we're told might bow out on the back of this. Or is it one of those stupid soft launches, where on-line customers get their copies but brick-and-mortar retail stores get theirs later?

tl;dr - if I can't find it, I can't buy it.

Treesmurf wrote:

My theory on why this exists is less about making a Chibi-Robo game, more they wanted to do something with the Zip lash mechanic and Chibi-Robo was the perfect fit for this, it does tend to be Nintendo's style to make games based on an idea rather than a character, just look at how Mario 128 turned in to Pikmin.

That being said it seems silly to pin the hopes of a series on something that goes in a completely new direction, perhaps they just didn't feel that there was a future for the series before now and this was convenient enough to decide it's fate.

I'd agree with your theory, but jumping on top of aliens like a Poundland Super Mario isn't what made Chibi-Robo so immensely and immediately likeable in the first place. When I think of the GameCube original words such as 'happiness' and 'sunshine' to mind. With this, I just wonder if it's a game that needed an idea rather than an idea that needed a game. I mean, the Zip Lash mechanic is probably the best thing about it, but, still, it's been done.

~

As I get further into this I'm becoming more and more dismayed by the lack of charm, originality and fun. And while I don't usually engage in this sort of chat, I think that this ties in with the point about sales figures; what's the incentive for your average punter to buy this? The amiibo can be bought seperately, and the game is on a system that's already oversaturated with the likes of Yoshi's New Island, Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion and Mutant Mudds. I question if Zip Lash is even on the level of those three, to be honest.

tl;dr - The Destination Wheel is a bloody awful idea. 0/10. I'm amazed that the Original Nintendo Seal of Quality can be found on the box of a game that features and idea so pointlessly stupid.

Cuppa's raised a great point, and it's something I think makes the game worse off as well.

So you've got the game's genre being a 2D platformer, a decision likely made for business reasons and focus testing, and as mentioned, it's lower risk.

But then it's clear the core of the game hasn't been focus tested, you've got these ideas which have been put in for the sake of making it weird, not because they work. It really makes you wonder why they even bother, and I found the inclusion of real world snacks and Chibi's friends' obnoxious peddling pretty cynical. Would have been charming if they were fictional snacks...

If you do like numbers, well this did in the biggest gaming market the Good Ol' USA 35,000 SKU's in October where Yoshi Woolly World on a much smaller install base did 160,000.

Well, the die is cast - I've asked for this for Christmas. Hope it proves a bit more playable than reviews - and fellow GNamer forumites, natch - have suggested.

Not confident, to be honest, but I want to support the Chibi-Robo concept (in the vain hope that I'll one day be able to play the GameCube original in some form).

Honestly I made it to world 2 and gave up

I honestly think it's worth your time, as. I said, it's nothing new but it's fun and it does what it does well (even if it doesn't do what Chibi-Robo does well well).

Done the prologue and 1-1: harmless enough with a hint of what I assume is Chibi-Robosity. Not inspired just yet, though.