****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
I was originally going to wait until I played an actual Chibi Robo game before hopping onboard with this latest installment, but just a couple days after it released, the price suddenly dipped to $20 or less. I can understand things like that happening with third-party titles after some weeks or longer, but TWO DAYS?? And for a game NINTENDO put out, no less? While the amiibo could most likely be the one to blame for hogging the spotlight more than the very game it's meant to be for, I decided to pick this up standalone anyway, because I could care less about collectable figurines that happen to have a few minor in-game functions.Anyway, I feel like the idea behind this game was that some people at Nintendo were having a meeting one day, with a Skip representative happening to be there, wondering about what IP to use for a platformer they have in mind. As they scramble through their paperwork, they come across Chibi Robo, forgetting that they've established his role in his own games already, and say "Hey! Let's use him! He's cute like Kirby! Let's put him in!" Whether or not the process really went like that, I think this game is best summed up as what would happen if one gave Kirby a whip instead of a mouth.It's your average platformer from Nintendo, with several worlds to run and jump through, some enemies and obstacles in the way of it all, and all you have to do in the grand scheme of things is go from start to finish. The key difference is being able to use Chibi Robo's plug like a whip; the game will make you reach into your inner Simon Belmont and whip everything in sight. You gotta whip at blocks to hit them, enemies to kill, bombs to pick them up and throw, panels for swinging across, etc.The major flaw I could generally summarize for this is that it feels like there is some polish missing. In this first-party 2.5D platformer, why can't I use the D-Pad to move and why does the game run at 30fps instead of 60fps? And while I can get down with the game itself not differentiating too much on the core Nintendo platformer trope usage, there are some stages that feel the need to use vehicles, and they tend to feel slow and boring at times. Yet, the only times I ever see the Game Over screen are when I lose on those stages, as for some reason, they can instantly kill you off if you screw up.Regardless, if you're looking for a pick-up-and-play game along the likes of especially Kirby, Chibi Robo Zip Lash can have you covered. Things don't necessarily get interesting enough for a full recommendation, but it's enough to appeal to platforming cravings out there.
