Chibi-Robo!: Zip Lash Will Support Plenty of amiibo, Genre Given as 'Whipping Platformer'

Just not feeling this game at all. It honestly looks like a c-team effort imo. If you told me this was just some indie game developed by a few guys in their bedrooms on a really low budget, I wouldn't question you. Something about it just looks very amateur, one dimensional (not in terms of graphics, obviously, but design and depth), and by the numbers to me. Nope, not excited about this in the slightest.

@Kirk same. To be honest, it looks like a child's game.

@Kirk Atleast it doesn't play safe.....something which you see others complain about......

I like what I saw so I'll get it if the game turns out to be good.

@Danny429 Yeah, I just went and watched some more gameplay footage and it's maybe not quite as amateur looking as I thought*, but yeah, it's just very "childish" or something. It's all by the numbers, going through motions, formulaic. I can't quite find the right words to describe what I mean, but it's just meh. Something about it makes it look to me like it's just one of those games that no one is really going to care about, that isn't even going to register on most people's radars, and if it weren't for the attached amiibo I imagine it might be pretty much totally ignored. It doesn't really get me excited to want to play it, which is disappointing because the main character and basic premise of being a tiny robot interacting with the bigger world is actually quite cool. I think Nintendo could have done so much more with this game.

Also, I'm not liking the way the real world product advertising is done here (as seen near the end of the video), especially in a game that's clearly aimed towards younger kids, with easily influenced minds that are still developing. To me, that kind of forced product advertising is slightly abusive. It would be like putting a "free" Coke machine in primary schools and getting kids addicted to Coke before they ever really had any free will to choose for themselves about this kind of stuff.

*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTRMXZu6Sn4

A part of me sincerely hopes there is more to this game than meets the eye, but I feel like if there was we would know about it by now. I appreciate that Nintendo is using Chibi-Robo in a new way, and a simple platformer may draw in a broader audience. However, based on the genuine heart and soul put into previous installments, ones that were based on an original concept, this title seems to be a let down.

But who am I kidding. I'll probably still buy that Chibi-Robo amiibo.

Apparently the Smash amiibo and some others also unlock in-game figures of Chibi-robo imitating the pose of the scanned character. They haven't shown this in action yet though.

@Artwark I think it plays exceptionally safe. If you ignore the fact that it's a different genre for Chibi-Robo, it's basically very formulaic platforming. Take away Chibi-Robo and it really could be some small, uninspired and generic, run of the mill, platformer indie game on the eShop imo.

I don't mind childish stuff as long as it's good. Diddy Kong Racing for N64 was pretty childish but was also an amazing game. I may pick this one up

The official amiibo page indicates that all amiibo are compatible, and that only the pack-in Chibi-Robo amiibo has Read/Write capabilities. I'm just assuming that like Hyrule Warriors, Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker and Mario Party 10 before it that any non-related amiibo will simply provide very generic functionality.

There is a bo**** joke here somewhere.

(Censured incase the word is not allowed here.)

I just hope that making a specific Amiibo might mean a real sequel finally, Hell even the first 2 combined in a remaster.

Man you people are so negative lately.

I set up my gamecube last night and have just gone through the original again Man how I wish this was a sequel to that! What a unique charming and funny game

I'm looking to getting both this game and its amiibo, but Animal Crossing Happy Home Designer will be the only cartridge in my Nintendo 3DS for a good long while. That being said, I really dig the whip gimmick and I hope it adds a fresh coat of paint to an overdone genre of gaming. Even something as miniscule as a whip could have a great impact on the gameplay elements of said game. I have doubts that this game will sell well though.

i am getting it. i don't care if it looks childish. at least Chibi Robo is trying something different. Plus I really want that amiibo. I'm not a big platforming fan (not really good at it) but I'm sure I will love this. Plus my son will be playing it too.

Eh. Looks okay. I'll have to try it.

I don't know why exactly but I think I'm gonna get this game.

To me, this looks like a really complicated yet easy version of Umihara Kawase. And by that I mean anything that looks a little like my favorite game series that doesn't have "Mario" and "Golf" (or maybe "Airport" and "Hero") in the title is probably worth it. <3

I'm really looking forward to this one. The Treehouse Live segments during E3 sold me on it.

I'm really excited for this game- I love Chibi Robo and I REALLY love platforming. I also love puzzles and am very fond of ones that involve eyeing up angles and projections.

I can't wait to start whipping enemies from unique angles and bouncing my cord off the ceiling and walls

So getting this bundle. Looks much better than the AR one.

Going to wait for reviews on this one. Doesn't Nintendo have enough platformers? Indie devs have filled the platformer void quite nicely so Nintendo should step out of their comfort zone a bit more.

It's not that this game looks bad by any means, it's just chunky. Still the style is charming as are the NPCs, though I don't know how many of the latter are in the game. If it can have a charming story like I hear previous installments had I may have to check it out. If it's just another generic platformer then I'm quite happy with my eShop collection thank you very much.

Well, I'm a veteran platform-player at 46 years and for what it's worth, this looks like a 3DS GOTY-contender to me. Then again, I might just be extremely childish...

@Spideron
I'm 45 and pre-ordered it 3 weeks ago. What's up with all that 'it looks childish' stuff... You could argue Kirby and Yoshi games look childish. I just like playing good games...and this looks pretty good to me!

I'm definitely interested, because I love the Chibi-Robo franchise, but I wish they would make a new game like the first one, or finally bring over the DS game that only released in Japan (the true sequel to the original).

Wow this is way more negative than I was expecting. I'm excited for it! It looks fun and I'm sure the whip mechanic will be used in lots of interesting ways. Plus it's nice that Chibi Robo is still getting chances at new games, one day he'll get the appreciation he deserves!

The only thing to me is the art style feels flat and a bit generic from what I've seen so far. But the 3D might improve that. I thought the same thug about A Link Between Worlds but in 3D it worked really well! So I'm hoping this will be the same.

I didn't expect people to be so negative... but the past few months it feels like the fans are really hard on Nintendo.

I am looking forward to this game, I have already made my pre-order

Although I'm not really a platformer fan, I am a big fan of Chibi Robo. I'm glad Nintendo is at least making a game with him, even though I would have much preferred if they'd localized Okaeri Chibi Robo, the sequel to the GameCube game in the DS that never made it west. But, definitely going to buy this one, maybe it will even get me to like a platformer for once!

The amiibo looks awesome the game not so much...

Every time I see this game it just makes me feel incredibly sad that Chibi Robo has been reduced to a generic platformer that has no character or charm what so ever. I'm surprised nobody has been mad about this, this is worse than Federation Force because at least contains so Prime elements. This game is nothing like any of the previous and a complete turn off for any Chibi Robo fan. If Nintendo cared so much about Chibi Robo (which the do since he has about five games in his series) the Japan only game Chibi Robo game would have been translated by now and stop adding stop gimmicks to the series and just make a 3D collect-a-thon.

I don't know, to me it looks more like an indie game than a Nintendo title.

Oh and just now I find out it's a 3DS exclusive. I thought this was a Wii U title. New IP but not in the big console?! What little interest I had... poof it's gone.

@Kirk By that logic, other than Metroid being slapped in the title for Federation Force, it plays very safe as it would look like an indie game.

seriously, if the IP itself changes itself to a new genre, that itself is a risk. Look at Mario for example. several games with their own genre and yet they are near flawless. The only way it plays safe is when making sequels and not a new genre.

I wish they would at least translate the DS Chibi Robo before suddenly deciding that he's popular enough to get an amiibo.

@TrueWiiMaster
Oh that's the sequel I was thinking of. I was trying to remember why I never played it.

If Nintendo gave Mario a whip, everyone will think it's a cool feature. Chibi-Robo? What's that?

@shani But it's not a new IP...

Q) Are you looking forward to this one on 3DS?

A) Whilst not exactly a priority purchase, Chibi-Robo: Zip Lash has been remaining firmly in the back of my mind to the point wherein I may consider purchasing it if I have spare money at the time. After I purchase the 'must have' Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX, then when it comes to 3DS games that are out this year, I may decide to pick up either Chibi-Robo: Zip Lash or Samurai Chronicles 3.

As to what is drawing me so much to this consideration, I'd probably say there are two factors to it. One of those would be the gameplay, as whilst I'd prefer to be able to try out the original Chibi-Robo style of gameplay, the gameplay of this 3DS entry is giving me a bit of a Kirby vibe and that is a vibe I love to bits. The primary reason though is because of the IP of Chibi-Robo itself; I love it when Nintendo utilise their more obscure IPs as well as when they allow these IPs to be experimented with rather than just utilising Mario for it once again. A purchase of the game would go a small way in helping the Chibi-Robo IP to flourish, as well as to encourage Nintendo to keep using more of their backlog of amazing IPs.

I'm not really excited for this. I do want to get the amiibo bundle, and probably just sell the game off to someone who would want it more than me, and I will keep the amiibo. I'm more of an amiibo collector than a cutesy game player.

@shani It's not a new IP. Chibi-Robo has been around for a decade.

@Artwark The ip isn't a particularly big/popular ip in the first place, so changing it up doesn't really make much of a difference to anyone (except for a small group of dedicated Chibi-Robo fans), hence why Nintendo did change it up. The general design of this game is however very formulaic and safe, from what I can see.

Nintendo wouldn't just make a brand new Super Mario Bros platformer suddenly an fps because that wouldn't make any sense and it would enrage basically every single person who loves the Mario platformers as Mario platformers. It could however do another game with Mario as an fps and that would be more acceptable to fans. As long as it didn't ruin the games they already loved.

I agree with most of the points that @Kirk has made. I've enjoyed the Chibi Robo games in the past but this title, much like Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival, looks like a generic by the numbers approach. I could be wrong of course, it could be fun, but initially there is nothing special that grabs my attention or makes me want to play it.

buying mostly coz the figure is a robot, and it looks kinda cool.

don't know about the other games or anything else about it but i'll take a dip might have to request as christmas gift since no store has a figure bundle for pre-order except for NWS.

Unopened amiibo bundles for this game are going to be one of those things that are super rare in 10 years, no chance they will produce heaps of them.

Too many people focus on whether a game is "innovative" or "risk taking" or "generic" not once considering the most important factor of all- whether or not the game is "fun".

If a game is FUN, I don't care how "generic" or "safe" it is, I'm going to buy that game. And if a game has all the innovation in the world, and is a huge risk taker, and yet it's not fun, i'm going to skip it.

Because games never were supposed to be about "innovation" or "risk taking". Those are just media buzzwords for the masses that eat up hype over rational judgement of whether or not a game will actually prove entertaining.

No, they can keep their innovation and risk taking. Just give me fun games, that's all I ask for.

@Kirk It's funny that you mention that because that actually is happening. In a lot of places cocacola and other like companies are paying for schools to keep unhealthy lunches (high in sugar) and to put in vending machines. Maybe not free, but when almost all children eat school lunches they are banking on getting them addicted to sugar so they will buy coke later on.

Not really about the game lol but just thought I'd spread some knowledge.

So meh. 3DS really doesnt need any more platformers

Unless I can get the amiibo pack in version, then I'm not getting this right now. Preordered DBZ: Extreme Butoden fighting game on Amazon (comes with the Superfamicom Butoden 2 as a download as an exclusive) in its place.

@MrGuinea It's pretty terrible what these corporations are doing to the children, and indeed the adults, all in the name of profit and greed.

I just saw a program the other day, one of Jamie Oliver's food things, that said around 7,000 people every year in the UK have to get part of their body amputated because of the effects of too much sugar (mostly symptoms of diabetes).

7,000 amputations every year in the UK because of the amount of sugar these corporations are sneaking into all our foods (around 90% of all the food on supermarket shelves has added sugar). That's around 19 people every single day. Way more than any kind of war or even "terrorism", yet the governments take away more and more of our basic rights and freedoms in the name of keeping us safe from "terrorism" but they do nothing to stop these all-powerful corporations from killing millions of us every single year.

It's massive companies like Coca Cola that we need to worry about more than pretty much anything else in this world.

I don't have amiibo and I don't intend to change this anytime soon. If I can't get the full experience without them I'm not touching this, which is a shame because it looks fun.