Chibi-Robo!: Zip Lash Endures Awful UK Launch as Mario Kart 7 Bundle Deals Drive It Up the Charts

I love how Nintendo just picks and chooses which games it bothers to promote. Like, most companies would promote all their products otherwise what's the point of producing said product? Nintendo is just like nope, we'll fund this game but we won't bother promoting and will just send it out to die.

It's an alright game and I only bought it for the Amiibo really. It's not too exciting but a good time-waster.

Nintendo's lack of marketing makes it look like Chibi Robo was practically set up to fail. Shame as I like the character, just hope Nintendo do give him another shot in future and give him the marketing push he deserves!

I have bought in Norway as a christmas present for my youngest son. He is getting the special edition with the Amiibo. I think he will be pleased...

I might pick up the special edition with the Amiibo before it disappears forever. Pretty sad state of affairs

I was quite enjoying Chibi Robo until I got stuck with the RNG stage choice and spent over an hour just playing through levels just to try and get to the 6th stage of the 1st world (and I still haven't got there)

I enjoy the game a lot & so do other people I've spoken to who have the game. Dunno why it got bad reviews poor Chibi Robo.

I hope they don't throw the towel in on the Chibi-Robo series I like the new title alot I've been playing it alot its an awesome platformer it's a shame that more people wont give it a try , and I think Nintendo tried to promote it they even gave Chibi his own amiibo which is one of my favorite Nintendo could add him in Smash Bros. or even better give him a guest star in a Mario rpg .

I love Chibi Robo but this doesn't feel like a Chibi Robo game. The Gamecube (and Wii) original was the best, followed by the sequel (Park Patrol on DS). These were original and fun RPG adventures. Some of the best games of their time (and even today). I feel like Zip Lash is just a way too early (and unnecessary) spin off, just like AC amiibo festival. Kind of alienating their fan base by putting lovable characters into unrelated genres. As good as these games may be, they're not what fans wanted.

I'm really liking Zip Lash. It's far from perfect, but I have barley put it down since I got it. It's one of those games that's fun to go through and complete 100%.

@Will-75 Just having having a Amiibo doesn't generate sells for its game.

But to me Nintendo has been very stubborn in promoting games on their system that aren't the big hitters and that pisses me off. That let so many great to good games sell bad because they are to lazy or cheap to advertise the game. Look at the likes of Bayonetta 1 & 2, The Wonderful 101, Fatal Frame, Xenoblade C and X, Devils Third (even if its crap promote it)

Nintendo has to give these games a chance. Look at Xenoblade C. It was the best RPG of last generation and NOA was going to stupidly let it skip the US. (and still did a dumb thing by letting Gamestop sell it exclusively)

Hopefully Nintendo will bring out the big guns for everything on the NX and not just market a selected few.

Sorry, Chibi — you're a pretty neat character, but your recent games just haven't done it for me.

@liljmoore You can easily buy the amiibo without the game, it's not like the Inkling Squid or Isabelle where the amiibo is exclusive to the game bundle.

Nintendo pay attention, when you price cut a console the sales largely increase. You should do that with the Wii U around Black Friday.

Poor Chibi-Robo. I think the game might have done better had it been a cheap eShop release. Obviously not many people are willing to spend full price for an average platformer.

@Moon Full price? It was £25 game only o0

Saw this game go for $10 on eBay yesterday

Should chibi not be in smash bros? Might sell better if he/it was

I'm not sure why Nintendo is so keen on doing everything (or nothing, more like) in its power to ignore some of their new releases as much as possible. It's not like they have a slew of big holiday titles lined up or anything. :/

Why send Chibi Robo out to die, especially if this was its so-called final chance to be successful...?

HD remake of the original game would probably have done better. I don't understand why they turned it into yet another platformer.

I am not going to buy Chibi-Rob: Zip Lash myself and will rather try to get my family to buy it for Christmas to me ;^^. If Chibi-Rob: Zip Lash is a "failure" or not is something I will wait to conclude before after Christmas as it is just a bit more than a month to now .

I'm just amazed at which titles Nintendo choose to make. I mean why spend money on making a chibi game? The programming hours alone could have been used for ice climbers, or f-zero (other simple to produce games). ESHOP ports. Is something I seen Nintendo needing to utilise more. For the cost of running a team who buy and tweak classics so it runs on the eShop eg old Nintendo and other companies. Eg they could buy eternal champions from Sega and reconfigure it to run on the wii u purchasable from the EShop. Surly this would cost less than making games like chibi a produce greater profits.

I'm loving the new Chibi Robo game but this isn't a a true Chibi Robo game. Nintendo need to remake and release the Japanese only DS game and maybe Park Patrol and release them as a pack on 3DS!

Where are the £50 2DS MK7 deals? I'm going to order right now!

Welp, looks like this is the end for Chibi Robo.Though in all honesty, I don't even think Nintendo gave much of a crap with this.

Such a shame to see a very enjoyable game tank like this.
At least Chibi Robo will go out on a high (imo), even if this game doesn't live up to earlier entries in the series.

@GLA It was at Tesco, which Amazon price matched but both are now sold out. The Tesco one in particular was good as you could use Clubcard boost to get it for just £25 of CC vouchers.

Was one platform we too far for me. Over the last few years I've bought most games Nintendo produce and I had a preorder for this, however, it just didn't have enough different for me to want it. I bought Project Zero, that was something different, I even happily play Triforce single player, that is very different!(good or bad) definitely feel being another platformer has hurt it, when great indie offerings are cheap or for a premium you can buy some of the best, mechanically sound ones platformer a from the Big N.

What does Nintendo Life expect. You awarded it just 60 saying ' if you're looking for a solid platformer that zigs where a Mario may zag', what ever that means.

If you award a game 60 that is saying to the reader, forget it and that is what the gamers have done.

One comment said they only bought it for the Amiibo. How many others do that. The toy is more important than the game.

Maybe its time that each review should include value for money when scoring. I would not pay £25 for a game that scores just 60.

if it wasn't a sidescrolling platformer, maybe it would have some kind of unique appeal like the gamecube one did.

The only reason I'd buy this game is due to A) the amiibo, and B) the drought of first party Nintendo releases. I have not played any prior Chibi Robo games because I had absolutely no idea that it was a Nintendo franchise until only recently. If I had known during the DS era, then I definitely would have given Park Patrol a look. I am so over all of these 2D platformers. Had Zip Lash been a true sequel to its predecessors and not just another bloody 2D platformer (which is all that Nintendo seem to be producing nowadays), then I would have been more enthusiastic about it.

I'll probably still buy it, but if the amiibo had been available separately, then I probably would have ignored Zip Lash completely (and Nintendo are smart in including the amiibo exclusively with the game in the west as a lot of us would not have bought the game otherwise).

@Mogster Nintendo's release schedule makes no sense either. Why in the hell are they sending Chibi Robo and Yoshi's Wooly World out to die in the holiday season that is stacked with Halo 5, Fallout 4, Black Ops III, and Battlefront.

If this were Zelda, I could maybe get it. Even Mario Tennis would make sense as a nice holiday game to pad the schedule. But 2015 is one of the most stacked years in terms of major releases, and they put two games that are from smaller franchises to die.

Even if someone wanted to play Chibi Robo, why would they buy it if they are already planning to pick up Halo 5 or Black Ops III if they also own a PS4 or Xbox One.

Both of those games should have been summer releases. I don't know how Yoshi is doing, but Chibi Robo was just sent marching to its death coming out this time of they year.

@Sean_Aaron This. This and thuis! Thank you.

Sadly, not instinctively drawn to Chibi-robo. The only way I'd have bought is if it got amazing reviews. It didn't.
Some franchises just need to die.

Let's not pretend Chibi-Robo Zip Lash would have sold even decently with advertising. It was destined to flop from the get go, no matter how much advertising it got.

@llamareborn Do you not have any moolah? You can buy 6 panels for not that much and fill up the spinner with one number. Plus it's more skill than chance based so you usually only need to buy three panels and then press 'A' on the first or middle one.

Really unfortunate to hear but I did my bit for Chibi - purchased the amiibo bundle of the game when it came out last Friday (but that's so I can put it away for my brother for Xmas who loves anything tech/ robot related)

Pleasantly surprised though I must say at playing the demo last week too given its mixed reception. Good fun imo with some great visuals and music too so will certainly pick up another copy for myself over the next few weeks.

Would certainly love it if Nintendo did a HD remake of the GameCube game anyway. One game missing from my current GC collection that I'd love to play without paying a small fortune for.

Another game that tanked that Nintendo tried to force feed us. When will they wake up?

@ThomasBW84 Just a head's up. That screen is from the early Bandai beta. The finished GCN game looks much better than that.

Seems like Nintendo is experimenting with their "new directions" policy a little too much for most. Many of the new releases have a backlash of disappointment - Happy Home Designer, Amiibo Festival, Tri Force Heroes, Chibi Robo, Federation Force...

The games are not entirely bad, but neither are they generally perceived to be "epic" or even "very good". They seem to be viewed as just a little better than "acceptable", merely "fair to good". "Good" is usually good enough for me. I'm enjoying Tri Force Heroes (single player, mostly). HHD is alright, but a bit repetitive and lacking in challenge so I'm not overly impressed with that, despite its AC charm. Chibi Robo is sitting in the box waiting and I'm sure I'll enjoy it as a solid platformer. Amiibo Festival.. well, I'm missing that one entirely as it still has no appeal for me.

Could really do with some exciting news in the form of the promised Direct. Plenty of potential out there, but to get the general community hyped again, I feel there needs to be something more than what has been perceived as a slightly under par series of "spin-off" games. Maybe it was just too much change all at once.

@ThomasBW84 Right on. Just checking.

I don't like the game very much. It just feels bland and lacks originality and independence. And that's a huge problem in a market that has basically tons of other 2D platformers, both old and new. It's a nice time-waster, though, when waiting for your train home to come or such. However, it doesn't deserve this fate! Oh well, just keep pushing your awesome Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash, Nintendo!

It's a really fun 2D platformer in a world where most are just indie games. The zip line thing leads to some fun puzzles and challenges. So far, it's a bit easy, but a fun game none the less. The fun comes mostly in trying to collect stuff, searching stages for hidden items.

Really, does anyone give a damn about Chibi Robo? I know I don't.

Also, does anyone find it funny how this game got a retail release in NA but Fatal Frame didn't?

I wanna say : MIND BLOWN!!BUOgfgeuogkhbud

@Mogster
That's not true for gaming.

Most major developers/publishers who produce more than 5 games a year don't promote all their games.

At the end of this year Ubisoft will have only promoted Assassins Creed, Watch Dogs and Just Dance, while ignoring the rest of their releases (though they aren't worth naming).

EA is only focusing their marketing on EA sports line on PS4 and Xbox One, Battle Front, and I think one other gaming ignoring the rest of their output.

WB is only focusing it's marketing efforts this year on the new Batman title and the new Lego game that has toy to life characters ignoring the rest of their output.

Sega is only promoting their new mobile Sonic game, while not promoting the rest of their output.

Etc...

Most companies only give their products with the biggest sales potential, full promotion.

Apple is only promoting  Watch, iPhone 6s/s+, and New mainline iPad.
Apple is not promoting the older iPhones (Which are still being sold), the iPad Mini 4, iPad Pro (it's not getting a full promotion), Apple TV (not getting full promotion), MacBooks (not getting a full promotion), iMacs (not getting full promotions despite two new models), Mac Pro (not getting a full promotion), and their software (not getting full promotion).

Samsung is only promoting their new high end tablet, and Galaxy S6 phones.
They aren't even bothering to promote the rest of their new phone models they made this year.

Chibi-Robo has never sold well, especially in the UK regardless of how much marketing Nintendo puts behind it.

Nintendo like all gaming companies as I pointed out above, only market games with full sales potential and are acceptable to the mass market.

If it wasn't some rushed platformer I would have bought it.

Rip chibi robo. Also for the COD haters, black ops 3 is supposedly the best COD since the old days.

RIP Chibi Robo. Nice knowing you...

Mario Kart 7 deals must have been insane. Shooting up nearly 900% in sales is crazy. Nintendo must have sold a lot of 2DSs in the process as well.

BTW it seems like Call of Duty Black Ops 3 has launched with the lowest Call of Duty sales figures since World at War. This holiday's sales figures so far have simply been underwhelming, with three major consecutive blockbusters ( Assassin's Creed, Halo 5, and Call of Duty) all reaching their respective franchise's sales lows not seen in the last 7+ years. Thankfully, Fallout 4 and Star Wars Battlefront should save the day.

K Bye Chibi Robo we didn't care anyway, obviously.

I enjoy the game and the amiibo is really cute.
Give the game a chance

Zip Lash was a horrible game, thank God it sold badly.

@Sean_Aaron A HD remake of the original game would probably have to sell a lot more than this one to break even. An expensive failure isn't better than a low budget failure with product placement to offset costs.

I would expect an all-new game to cost more than giving an old game a facelift, but they could de-risk by just localising the NPC version of the game, which should have had a worldwide release way back when.

It's gotten lukewarm reviews and I guess Nintendo don't see much potential in chibi robo for future games to give zip-lash the sort of backing that Splatoon got. It's sad but as much as I'd like to get the amiibo bundle I might just hold off in the hope I can get it cheap at an EB sale sometime soon.

I bought it because the game was super-cheap and I've no intentions of playing it, I just like the character and really enjoyed the Gamecube game.

I think really if Nintendo were sticking to this route of platform based antics for Chibi, they should have included him in Smash Bros. first and introduced gamers to who the character is.
Even better, America and PAL regions should have been given a translated version of the Japan-only DS title which I'm led to believe is more a direct sequel to the brilliant GC game.

Thanks all the same Nintendo....