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Chibi-Robo: Zip Lash Review Thread

Effect

Member
There's a prompt in the lower left after you beat a level. Yes, you'll have the money. To get to the next level you need to land on a 1 panel and the wheel itself (at least in the first world) has four 1 panels and two other panels. The panels cost 150 each and there's way more than 300 coins per level. I haven't started world 2 yet so I have no clue if the wheel changes.

Thanks. Then the level select wheels seem like they won't be much trouble. I don't understand why it was included anyway. Seems like it would have been better to let you go in a linear fashion until the world was beat and then offer a random selector for when you are redoing levels or finishing them up to get all the secrets. The reverse just pads out the game's length needlessly and seems frustrating when you can't progress because you keep missing a level you haven't done yet.

I have this pre-ordered at gamestop so I think I'll still pick it up. I've never played a Chibi-Robo game so I don't have any built in expectation or dislike for the change in genre. Though from the Gamexplain video it seems like they still try to include some of the finding items aspect from the other games. I'm looking at this as a $20ish game that includes a nice look amiibo anyway. So hopefully I end up enjoying it. The whip like combat is really what is interesting me. Not enough of that in games.
 
People saying the amiibo would help sales: is that a joke?

How big of a base do we think has been clamoring for Chibi-Robo merchandise? How many people do we think really want an action figure for a character that most people have never heard of?

And if we are just assuming it will sell to the people who collect every amiibo no matter what, how many of THOSE people do you think there are? Do we really think there are a million of these people combined?

These are actual questions, I'm not being a jerk here. Did amiibo help Mario Party?

Not gonna lie, if there was no amiibo for Chibi-Robo I wouldn't have picked it up. The last one was cute, but ultimately the actual free roam areas weren't enough to help me actually like the game with that awful camera mechanic (especially with the 3DS's garbage camera).

Chibi Robo is an very cute designed character, and unfortunately because he hasn't been in any really big games, its hard for a large audience to recognize him. I think if his series had more success, we'd see much more Chibi Robo merch.

While I don't think the game will have huge sales, It may be ok, if not for the fact that there is an Amiibo in there. I wouldn't have expected people to buy amiibo anyways, but once they started disappearing from shelves, it made people go into panic mode and buy out everything. Mario Party didn't have this problem because there was always plenty of the MP figures on shelves (with the exception of Toad, but he's back in pretty good stock now).

I think we'll probably see a standalone Chibi Robo figure away from the pack, and Nintendo would be perfectly content to make up any money they "lost" on this game from amiibo sales.
 
So apparently, the soundtrack is very solid?

EDIT: TBH, the thing that really annoys me is the fact that it feels like Nintendo took Chibi-Robo!'s poor sales as indicative of a disinterest in the game, rather than it simply being released at the end of a console's lifespan. I've seen someone argue that a game shouldn't need to be released in a healthy portion of the console's life, and all I had replied to them was that if that was true, would they also be okay with Nintendo never making another Paper Mario game because it was the least successful Mario game on the N64 (that was released worldwide)?

Ultimately, due to Nintendo's misunderstanding of what caused Chibi-Robo! to bomb, they kept trying to reinvent it. Unfortunately, this creates a higher chance of making a shitty game, because instead of taking a pretty good game and ironing out its flaws (while hopefully not creating new ones in the new content), they make a new game that usually only has a somewhat similar basis to the original, but is entirely divorced from the original concept. Chibi has been mistreated and misused - ironically, the only faithful (at least in terms of gameplay) sequel was one that Nintendo chose to not release worldwide. Which, unfortunately, was a trend for Nintendo at the time.
 

Hazu

Member
It just feels like Nintendo is trying to kill some of his franchises by making mediocre games (Chibi-Robo and Metroid on 3DS are good exemples) so they can put the blame on the players for not buying these games.
 

maxcriden

Member
It just feels like Nintendo is trying to kill some of his franchises by making mediocre games (Chibi-Robo and Metroid on 3DS are good exemples) so they can put the blame on the players for not buying these games.

Not to give you a hard time, but what possible reason could they have for purposely trying to tank their franchises?
 
It just feels like Nintendo is trying to kill some of his franchises by making mediocre games (Chibi-Robo and Metroid on 3DS are good exemples) so they can put the blame on the players for not buying these games.

Yeah, no, remember when Captain Toad was well received and sold relatively well and they said they would focus more on small budget spinoffs? This is it.
 

AdanVC

Member
Still a top seller at Amazon...

Dat amiibo is working wonders then... Probably half of the people buying the bundle don't care about the game at all. Wich is sad.

It just feels like Nintendo is trying to kill some of his franchises by making mediocre games (Chibi-Robo and Metroid on 3DS are good exemples) so they can put the blame on the players for not buying these games.

But Metroid Fed Force looks fun though... It's just that people are mad with the game because it's using the Metroid IP, a franchise beloved for it's complex gameplay and amounts of challenge but it's now being used on this silly spin-off after years and years of fans asking for a proper and big Metroid game.
 

Overside

Banned
So apparently, the soundtrack is very solid?

EDIT: TBH, the thing that really annoys me is the fact that it feels like Nintendo took Chibi-Robo!'s poor sales as indicative of a disinterest in the game, rather than it simply being released at the end of a console's lifespan. I've seen someone argue that a game shouldn't need to be released in a healthy portion of the console's life, and all I had replied to them was that if that was true, would they also be okay with Nintendo never making another Paper Mario game because it was the least successful Mario game on the N64 (that was released worldwide)?

Ultimately, due to Nintendo's misunderstanding of what caused Chibi-Robo! to bomb, they kept trying to reinvent it. Unfortunately, this creates a higher chance of making a shitty game, because instead of taking a pretty good game and ironing out its flaws (while hopefully not creating new ones in the new content), they make a new game that usually only has a somewhat similar basis to the original, but is entirely divorced from the original concept. Chibi has been mistreated and misused - ironically, the only faithful (at least in terms of gameplay) sequel was one that Nintendo chose to not release worldwide. Which, unfortunately, was a trend for Nintendo at the time.

Nintendos doing the same thing with metroid.
 

Toxi

Banned
Did people forget Knuckles' Chaotix? That game had similar level/character selection mechanics (that you couldn't evem pay your way out of) and it was still the shit. I'm willing to wait and see just how annoying this system really is.
This is the first time I've seen someone who actually enjoyed Knuckles Chaotix.
 

IzzyF3

Member
It's a really fun series. I recommend you trying one of the older ones if you're able to do so.

I was obsessed with Park Patrol and thought about buying he original, but didn't bother trying to hunt down a copy. Now the GC game averages about $60 on eBay.
 
Thing with Metroid though, it at least had a chance. Nintendo gave many of its games huge pushes. Metroid was often in the camp of games that had to really try to sell 1m copies, and honestly got a pretty good showing from Nintendo for the most part. Chibi meanwhile almost always had frustrating caveats. Late-gen releases, Japan-only, mediocre eShop games, limited releases, spin-offs that hold the series' future in their hands, etc.
 

Camjo-Z

Member
So I finally got to crack open the game. Only beat the first level but it's pretty good. Chibi is really fun to control, he's somewhat sluggish but snappy at the same time, and when you figure out how to do things in quick succession it's great. Destination Wheel stuff looks like it isn't a problem at all if you don't want it to be, I had 900+ moolah at the end of the stage and panels only cost 120. The amiibo functionality is also well done - they finally seem to have found a spot where it has a legitimately cool use, but isn't integral enough to the gameplay that you'll feel like you're missing out if you didn't get it.

This is the first time I've seen someone who actually enjoyed Knuckles Chaotix.

Knuckles' Chaotix was awesome dude. The ring tether mechanic didn't always want to cooperate but it was still pretty fun most of the time. It also has a totally underrated soundtrack that rivals the Genesis Sonic games.

Door Into Summer
Evening Star
Midnight Greenhouse
Seascape
 

Skrams

Member
So I finally got to crack open the game. Only beat the first level but it's pretty good. Chibi is really fun to control, he's somewhat sluggish but snappy at the same time, and when you figure out how to do things in quick succession it's great. Destination Wheel stuff looks like it isn't a problem at all if you don't want it to be, I had 900+ moolah at the end of the stage and panels only cost 120. The amiibo functionality is also well done - they finally seem to have found a spot where it has a legitimately cool use, but isn't integral enough to the gameplay that you'll feel like you're missing out if you didn't get it.

Yeah, only played the first level and I think it has the potential to be fun for me at least. Destination Wheel is a weird design choice since it's so easily circumvented, but whatever.

The amiibo functionality is neat like Mario Maker in that each amiibo offers a unique little thing. My only problem is that it takes a lot of time to scan each amiibo for the first time since you are told you get a new pose for each amiibo. I'm also not sure why they limit it to 20 scans a day. If I went through the trouble of taking 10-15 minutes to scan each individual amiibo then why even limit me at that point. Also I guess pokemon were shafted with no poses and Samus/ZSS are one entity of posing? It's a little weird.
 

Boogiepop

Member
At least as of World 1, the game is legit. And the Destination Wheel thing is pretty much a non-issue. It's kind of dumb, but it's really not a big issue, and most importantly you don't need to use it for a world once you beat the boss. I'll see how things go as a net whole, but at the bare minimum this absolutely doesn't deserve to be grouped with any "bad" Nintendo games (IE stuff like Yoshi's New Island and whatnot). It's well done and fun. Only thing I'm a bit annoyed with is how slow it can occasionally feel doing the amiibo stuff.
 

Camjo-Z

Member
Oh my gosh. This monkey in the second world... if there was ever a time to be disappointed that this isn't a traditional Chibi-Robo game, it's now - if only because we will never get to see this chimp shine as the full on NPC it deserves to be.

Anyway - so I got to the second world and the Destination Wheel panel prices didn't change at all, but my stockpile of cash grew ever larger despite paying for the extra panels on every stage. In fact, as far as I can tell it's basically just there to give you a reason to spend moolah, since the only other things you can do with it are buy items (which a skilled player will basically never need and you are actually rewarded for not using) and figurines (which are only 50 coins anyway). I'm actually annoyed at how stupid reviewers are, it takes all of 10 seconds to buy some panels and assure you have a wheel full of 1s. It's literally impossible to have to replay stages unless you're an idiot.

As for the product placement stuff though, I can see where USgamer is coming from. It is a little weird to give toys items and watch them start basically advertising the products, although thankfully most of their descriptions seem to be more on the trivia side. And I kind of wish they'd stuck solely with "exotic" foreign foods instead of throwing American stuff like Tootsie Rolls and PEZ into the mix.

The amiibo functionality is neat like Mario Maker in that each amiibo offers a unique little thing. My only problem is that it takes a lot of time to scan each amiibo for the first time since you are told you get a new pose for each amiibo. I'm also not sure why they limit it to 20 scans a day. If I went through the trouble of taking 10-15 minutes to scan each individual amiibo then why even limit me at that point. Also I guess pokemon were shafted with no poses and Samus/ZSS are one entity of posing? It's a little weird.

Maybe because they give you 100 coins each and they don't want you stockpiling a ton? Of course, you get so many that it doesn't really matter either way... IDK.

Only thing I'm a bit annoyed with is how slow it can occasionally feel doing the amiibo stuff.

Yes, this is the only legitimate complaint I've had so far. Speaking of amiibo though, I'm glad that Super Chibi-Robo is more like a fun power-up than a Super Guide-esque feature like I originally thought. Between that and the R button roll, you can really speedrun this game like nobody's business.
 
After borderline regretting my order while witnessing the buzz, I'm honestly not surprised by the outcome. The game is really solid, sounds great, plays well, has interesting mechanics, all of which have been generally stressed within recent media. Sadly, it's being overshadowed by a typical journalistic overreaction. Yes, it's needlessly convoluted but it's not this gigantic, "THE GAME IS RUINED" kneejerk reaction that I've been hearing.

From everything I read, it was a simple, "Map screen has wheel, wheel has set of numbers, randomness ensues, there's nothing you can do to change this". In reality, there's a prompt on the wheel screen that says, "press X to purchase panels" Press the X button and buy whatever numbers you need. But it gets better! As the wheel spins, you select the number you want to land on. Seriously. If you have the game, as the wheel spins "quickly", hit the button the moment the arrow and your desired number meet. That's it. You want to play the stages in order? Always select the 1, want to skip around? Hit 2 or 3. This whole thing is beyond a nonissue. Really sad state of affairs when this garners media attention but gaming outlets were zip lipped over numerous games riddled with genuine performance issues and game breaking bugs, showering them with empty praise.

Back on the topic of the game itself, it's actually very well made. You can dash around the stages with the roll button, lots of tight platforming, power-ups can act as keys to certain areas, hidden trinkets, garbage collecting, the game has a lot to offer. Frame rate is a bummer, but the 3DS is getting up there and it actually makes me wish they waited to release it on the NX or make it a WiiU eshop release.

Regardless of the recent media puking this game received, between Chibi Robo and Transformers, it's a really great time to be playing games. Classic sensibilities, tight gameplay, and great music. Now back to using my plug in Puzzle Bobble like fashions to collect goodies while grapple-hooking (sp?) my way to victory.
 
Best Buy didn't have the regular edition I pre-ordered so they gave me the one with the amiibo for the same price. So now I have my first amiibo.
 

me0wish

Member
I'm just surprised by how many people shun off the game because of some reviews, its almost like they wish that the game sucks, I am curious if people even read these reviews. If your a Chibi-Robo fan, go buy it, no one bought it here on gaf and is regretting it.
 

Skrams

Member
WVW69idzRsoEC5pgXY


"Deepest Apologies"

"Chibi-Robo picked up this special apology pose during his travels in the Far East. Note the polite and respectful position of his plug."

I am bummed that there seems to be no zoom in feature to get a better picture of these figurines.

As for the product placement stuff though, I can see where USgamer is coming from. It is a little weird to give toys items and watch them start basically advertising the products, although thankfully most of their descriptions seem to be more on the trivia side. And I kind of wish they'd stuck solely with "exotic" foreign foods instead of throwing American stuff like Tootsie Rolls and PEZ into the mix.

Maybe because they give you 100 coins each and they don't want you stockpiling a ton? Of course, you get so many that it doesn't really matter either way... IDK.
It's only 50 each. 2 of the amiibos I scanned were "lucky" and got me 100 though for some reason.

Also forgot to mention I had no idea there would be product placement in this. I love that chibi robo shakes his ass for some mentos. It's pretty great.
I really like the amiibo. It's adorable. Really well made and different textures to each piece, too.
It's actually kind of one of my favorites already. I don't know if it's because it's different from the others or not. I think it's because the amiibo actually makes the most sense since it's kind of Chibi's actual size. I just want to stick him in a corner on my desk as a little knick knack always.
 
I've played through the first world and I'm enjoying it so far. I think the review scores are a little too harsh. It has the typical charm of a Nintendo game, very good music, nice level design, etc...The destination wheel is odd, but sorta interesting in a way, there is reason to go back into other levels for rotating collectibles and stuff and the wheel will ocassionaly force you to go back into a level to realize this...I've only tried a little of the Amiibo stuff, but if you don't use Amiibos then I think you will totally miss the capsule toy collection aspect of the game...There's also some sort of outfit collectible that ties into Miiverse. I haven't been able to figure it out yet.
 

Kinsei

Banned
I've played through the first world and I'm enjoying it so far. I think the review scores are a little too harsh. It has the typical charm of a Nintendo game, very good music, nice level design, etc...The destination wheel is odd, but sorta interesting in a way, there is reason to go back into other levels for rotating collectibles and stuff and the wheel will ocassionaly force you to go back into a level to realize this...I've only tried a little of the Amiibo stuff, but if you don't use Amiibos then I think you will totally miss the capsule toy collection aspect of the game...There's also some sort of outfit collectible that ties into Miiverse. I haven't been able to figure it out yet.

Once you beat a world you can go back to the levels to find lost alien children. If you take them to those totem pole spots and return them to their ship you will get a chest. Now normally this chest only has 50 coins in it but sometimes it will be a golden chest with an outfit in it. When you get the outfit you get one number from that levels code to upload to Miiverse. I have no clue what happens when you complete enter in a complete code.

The OT should have a section devoted to these codes so we don;t have to go scouring Miiverse looking for them.
 

Camjo-Z

Member
It's only 50 each. 2 of the amiibos I scanned were "lucky" and got me 100 though for some reason.

Weird, it's given me an "ooh, what a lucky day!" message with 100 coins for all 8 amiibos I scanned. Maybe it has something to do with that fortune telling thing I did at the title screen.

EDIT: Yep, that's it. It said "The date has changed" and now scanning amiibos gives me 50 coins.
 

IzzyF3

Member
I can't believe I considered canceling my preorder. I love this game so far. The platforming feels more original then I thought and the levels are complex enough to feel satisfying. The Chibi Robo charm is strong here. It also has my favorite amiibo function here although it's a little silly to keep putting on and removing the figures on this thing. I'm going to have a lot of fun playing and leveling up my little wooden Chibi Robo to something greater.

BTW, the destination wheel is a nonissue. I wouldn't even call it a minor annoyance. From all of the complaints, I thought it was going to be random, but that's not the case at all. You hit the button where you want to while a needle spins on the wheel. If you hit the small bell at the end of a level, you get 3 turns. I played about 4 stages and I haven't yet needed to use more than 1 turn.

Chibi Robo and platforming fans will definitely enjoy this game a lot.
 

Onesimos

Member
GameSpot hours ago gave the game a 4.0:

Link

More than three hours ago, IGN gave the game a 5.0:

Link

For a game that needs the sales and reception to stay relevant, this is not good for Chibi-Robo.
 

Vena

Member
I don't think I've seen such a caustically reviewed game that wasn't actually hot garbage.

Such dissonance.
 

AdanVC

Member
GameSpot hours ago gave the game a 4.0:

Link

More than three hours ago, IGN gave the game a 5.0:

Link

For a game that needs the sales and reception to stay relevant, this is not good for Chibi-Robo.

Nintendo holiday 2015 off to a good start... Poor Chibi-Robo he is not going to make it for Smash 5 :(
 

greg400

Banned
Dat amiibo is working wonders then... Probably half of the people buying the bundle don't care about the game at all. Wich is sad.
People are taking the amiibo bait hard. Gonna be just like what happened to the Paper Mario series. People bit the Super Paper Mario bait then we got Sticker Star as a result. People are going to bite this amiibo bait and as a result we won't get any game next time and just the amiibo. Enjoy it while it lasts, eventually Nintendo is going to realize they can just put out amiibo's with less than half the effort of making a game with quadruple the profits.
 
Gamespot reviews have been overly harsh for certain Nintendo games. Code Name S.T.E.A.M and Kirby and the Rainbow Curse are two recent examples of games that were much better than the score that Gamespot gave them.

Zip Lash is probably a decent game. However, this game just doesn't interest me at all. I've never played a Chibi Robo game, and I may sadly end up never playing one. It's a shame.
 

Drago

Member
I've been playing the game for a good few hours today and I really don't see where the low review scores are coming from. Destination Wheel is stupid as hell but it's so easy to land on 1, or rig it so it's guaranteed to, that I can't see it as a dealbreaker. It's a pretty simple platformer but the levels are still well designed, it's fun to replay them, and the core mechanic works really well.
the vehicle stages are a blight though, at least there seems to only be one per world

I know I'm probably a bit biased (just look at my avatar lol) but I feel like the 4s and 5s are way too harsh. Mind you it's still only about a 7-7.5 to me right now.
 

Vena

Member
It's really weird. I thought the trend in reviews was to grade the game for their intended audience.

Not really what I am noticing here being the issue.

I hope not, because that's a terrible idea for any number of reasons

I'm more speaking of the general discussion surrounding this game. Tony Hawk 5, an outright broken and gank game is what is considered a 3s-3.5s, and yet here we see reviews for this game (which is categorically not unplayable or gank) in 4s and 5s. This is dissonant to me.

I've been playing the game, now on and off, and its average. It plays well, has its charms, has its short comings (the wheel is completely pointless, I can completely cheat it to the point where I question why it even exists), and its pretty much all around average. But it seems like its being scored on the basis of something it actually isn't or never was intended on being.

It seems to me that... for whatever its worth... NWR has the best preface for their review: "I’ve never played a proper Chibi-Robo game." Because that seems to be the crux of it, which is sad... because it ultimately means the game isn't actually being rated for what it is but for what it isn't. (Though I wouldn't give the game an eight, I'd put it at 6-7 for now.)
 

Effect

Member
I haven't open my copy yet but will be taking a short trip tomorrow and I'm not driving so I'll do it then. This is sounding like a game where there could be a huge disconnect between reviewers and actual people buying the game. It's happen before.

Going to be keeping my copy. I like what seems to be offered and I've liked the videos I've seen. If it turns out bad oh well. I don't see many other platformers offering this type of gameplay and I want to experience it.
 

me0wish

Member
So they put out a mediocre game and attached an amiibo to sell it.

Gross

Not a single person on gaf have said its mediocre, and neither is an amiibo of an obscure character going to sell an obscure low rated game.

Mediocre post.
 

Alex

Member
It just feels like Nintendo is trying to kill some of his franchises by making mediocre games (Chibi-Robo and Metroid on 3DS are good exemples) so they can put the blame on the players for not buying these games.

It's a period of filler for the 3DS, they're likely not going to be putting out many bigger projects from here on out for it but still want it to have representation. Chibi Robo just shares the unfortunate problem of already being a pretty beleaguered franchise as is. You can tell it's something they wanted to make work but continue to struggle with it.
 

Skrams

Member
Time to bring out the bingo board!

I guess I'll shoot for bottom right with the gamespot review then.

I agree that having to build up your zip lash to 120 feet or however long every level is kind of pointless. It's ultimately just another thing to measure score at the end of the level and create a reason to go to a secondary necessary path to increase your length with pickups. It's a bit useless and a non issue like the destination board. I'll add on even the energy/trash pick up is another non issue. It's the equivalent of lives in mario games really.

I don't exactly agree with springboarding off that and saying Chibi Robo as a character needs to have progression like getting a wall jump or something. The levels should make up with that with level specific gimmicks. 2-1 adds sand ala SMB USA. 2-4 or something adds bombs. That's kind of the point of a platformer. Mario and Chibi Robo don't have to unlock a long jump. It's just a thing of being given the tools and the levels add the variety.

Also the balloon stage indeed sucks.

I'm also disliking how much they want me to replay levels. Either through the destination wheel, aliens reappearing in completed levels, and certain collectibles being shut off if you didn't know the gimmick beforehand. Oh cool, I got up to this area to collect a thing that runs away from me. I'll go chase him like the rest and oops, he ran into an enemy and killed himself. Welp, I'll just do better next time. Repeat for half the levels I've played so far where I made a simple mistake and lost my chances at something. I don't have the problem in something like 3D World, but maybe I just suck at Zip Lash or something.

It's lining up as a 6 or 7 for me right now. I'm only at 2-5. It's alright, but not blowing my socks off much.

And Chibi Robo as a thing is probably dead now unless the amiibo saves it.

Edit- Also fuck it takes so long to level up the Chibi Robo amiibo and to get through each capsule from the capsule machine.

EditEdit- Forgot to mention gamespot complaining about slowness/slugishness when you have a roll that speeds things up significantly. I think the character control is pretty on point myself at least.
 
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