Chibi Robo: Zip Lash! Review

Nintendo in 2015 has been all about the spin-offs. Chibi-Robo hasn’t been immune to this but his new genre isn’t too dissimilar from what we’ve seen in the past. While Chibi-Robo still has his power cord, he cleans a little less but is still trying to save the word. Just in a different way.

On the GameCube Chibi Robo was a sort of life-sim platformer. You played as Chibi-Robo as he cleaned up a family’s house. Some of the elements from that game are still here in 2.5D platformer land, things such as Chibi-Robo running on batteries, his house that converts trash in to watts and more. But instead of saving the world from rubbish, you’re saving it from aliens. Aliens which are hell bent on stealing the Earth’s resources, the story is told through the help of Chibi’s newest friend Telly.

Zip Lash plays much like any other 2.5D platformer you’ve played before. Some people have compared it to the older style Castlevania games, probably because of whip Chibi-Robo has but there are also some other similar gameplay elements there as well. Chibi-Robo has both a standard whip move which can only be fired off either on an upward angle or straight ahead. His titular Zip Lash takes time to charge but can be moved around in any direction for better aim. It’s not just a whip his cord can be used for but also a grappling hook to clear gaps and move Chibi-Robo around the large levels.

The Zip Lash is an interesting idea, the longer it gets the more it can do, and it can have Chibi-Robo moving around stages at speed. It’s also almost used in every puzzle, the level design here is great and the puzzles make great use of the ricocheting abilities of the Zip lash. The Zip Lash is also powerful enough that it can be used to dispatch enemies as well as zipping around, and it can get Chibi-Robo into hard to reach places. The only downside is that it can’t be used all the time and requires time to charge, it can slow down the game in some sections because of this.

The game is never really a hard challenge, you might fumble with the controls a little, but like a Kirby game it’s here to be enjoyed and older players and platforming aficionados will breeze through the game. Speaking of Kirby it does feel like at times there’s a bit of Kirby in here, but also a bit of Donkey Kong and also a little Metroid as well. It’s a real mix of styles and they for the most part work together.

The one part where’s its not like any other Nintendo game is the Destination Wheel. You see you don’t progress through the game like you would a Mario title, there is still World 1-1 and 1-2 and so on but you don’t get to select which level you’re going to play. No instead there’s a spinner that moves Chibi-Robo around the world based on the number you spin. This mean you have absolutely no choice on what level you’ll play next and could end up playing the same ones over and over again. You can use the in game currency known as Moolah to affect your chances on the Destination Wheel. Once you get enough money you can just change all the panels (like Wheel of Fortune) to progress you one stage in advance and be rid of this annoyance – this means the Wheel is kind of useless in the end.

Once you finish a world you can then select any level you like, but once you’re back in a level you have to watch the pre-level introductions again and again. There’s no option to skip or to even speed up the text. You will see some conversations over and over.

Breaking up the standard platforming action are a number of ‘mini-game’ style levels. These aren’t a game within a game but instead themed levels that see Chibi Robo taking the skies, skateboarding or going under water in a submarine. Some of these levels, like the skateboard are quite fun to play and a welcome break from the platforming. The floating in the sky levels and the submarine levels however are terrible, there’s only a couple of them but the controls for both are just weird and downright frustrating at times.

There’s a lot here to collect as well, but most it – outside of the in-game currency is pretty useless. There’s no real cause of effect on the items you can buy and you really only need an item right at the end to tackle the final boss. You should have enough coins by then for this.

There are also collectable lollies and snacks from around the world find in the game, yes actual products – it even warns you about it when you boot up the game for the first time. These snacks are to be fed to toy characters in game but they only want specific ones, when you hand over the lollies as well you’ll get sort of a run down about the history of the product. You’ll have to visit the toys multiple times, which means playing through a level multiple times if  you want to give them a snack, it takes forever to do this and your reward is a costume. Is the juice worth the squeeze?

It seems a lot of Chibi-Robo Zip Lash exists just to slow you down and make your do things multiple times. There’s no need for the Destination Wheel but its there. Sure you should snack in moderation, but these are toys – why can’t I give them multiple snacks – they need to eat poor bastards.

The amiibo functionality of the game is solely based on the Chibi-Robo amiibo figure. Once a day you can tap the Chibi-Robo amiibo on the screen to unlock a ‘Super’ version of Chibi-Robo-. It extends his whip and makes him faster. There’s also a Toy Capsule Machine which you can use to collect figures in the game to display in your house – it’s neat but you wouldn’t go out of your way to buy the game and then the amiibo – just buy it with.

The game’s graphics are nothing special and while deliberately meant to look simple – it looks cheap to me instead. It’s almost like they ‘Super Mario Maker’d’ the levels at some points with repeating boring blocks just filling up the screen. What saves the games presentation is the infectious and funny movements from Chibi-Robo himself, he has always been a joy to watch and here in Zip Lash he really shines. If the games graphics are on the dull side, then the sound is the polar opposite, there’s some real fresh tracks here and the Castlevania thing comes back, one of the games composers Soshiro Hokkai worked on Harmony of Dissonance!

Review concludes below.