E3 2015 - Chibi-Robo Hands On

Chibi-Robo is a series that Nintendo has been working on for a number of years now and while it does not get a lot of attention from the masses, it is a charming and wonderful world. But with Zip Lash, they broke from tradition and went with a 2D platformer, which a lot of people were not ok with.

In Zip Lash, Aliens have come to take over the world and Chibi-Robo being the ever dutiful cleaning robot decides it is up to him to clean the planet of the aliens, yes no longer are you confined to the rooms of a house, Chibi-Robo is heading out into the world, where you will see new locations and enemies from all over.

As Chibi-Robo is a robot, he has a battery and as you move around and perform actions, this battery starts to drain, which when empty means you die. But throughout the levels are sockets where you can recharge, using the handy power cord that you have and this is where things get interesting. The power cord has always been in the games, usually acting more like a tail, but in Zip Lash it is actually a way for you to attack enemies and traverse the environment.

When you first start out, you will only have access to the basic attack, which you can shoot ahead or up on an angle, using a combination of these attacks, you can clear out most obstacles in your path. It is important to note that the length of the cord is not very long, so while attacking is not a problem, getting around can be, that is until you learn how to use the mechanic properly. As Chibi-Robo cannot jump all too high, or double jump even, you need to learn to use a combination of jump and the cord to get you up to the higher places.

It took me quite a number of tries to get the timing right for that move, but once I did I was able to zip around the levels with relative ease, things though were going to get a lot more challenging as I unlocked the more powerful version of the attack. The X button on the 3DS is your swift attack, the one you start the game out with, the Y button though is your charge attack and when you unlock this you unlock a new wealth of options for both combat and movement. The cord on the charge attack is a lot longer than the standard attack and as such allows you to get things done faster, but there is a catch, you must charge the attack up first.

Where with the X button you can tap in and swing the cord out, the Y button requires you to press and hold until it is charged and then you can let it fly and when you do, you will see the cord start to bounce off the walls, ground and roof, which will allow you to take out enemies and more in one go. The best part about this attack though is that you have free rein to make your shot at any angle you choose, whereas the X attack is limited to two directions, the Y attack lets you shot in any. This comes into play when you have to bounce your attack off walls to reach higher spaces to pull yourself up.

The coolest thing about your attack is that the length of the cord can be upgraded as you play through the levels, which can allow for some pretty crazy shots. The X attack has a set length of around 10 inches, but the Y attack can go quite a ways further than that, I got it up to 38 inches in my time with the game. Of course, not everyone will be able to spend a lot of time chasing around the orbs you need to collect to upgrade the length of the cord, which is why you can scan the Chibi-Robo amiibo.

Scanning the amiibo will actually increase the length of both cord attacks, without the need for collecting orbs and it will even go past the limits the game normally has. Meaning your X attack can grow up to 16 inches, but the length of the cord is not all that is different, when you scan the amiibo you will also change the colour of Chibi-Robo, but this is not just a visual change, it actually impacts how he works in the game, when Chibi-Robo turns brown, as opposed to the normal silver, his battery level doubles, meaning you get more time to do things.

Chibi-Robo Zip Lash is a game that a lot of people won’t get and honestly before I played it I would have gotten it only for the amiibo, but now having actually enjoyed me time with it, I can’t wait to add it to my collection. It does not have the platforming precision of Mario, but it is not a Mario game so players will need to adjust how they play and in doing so, I think a lot of people will find enjoyment in it.