Humongous Mecha: Compared to Chibi-Robo, Giga-Robo certainly looks the part, but obviously does not count since he's really only child sized. But one shows up as Giant-Robo and the True Final Boss of Zip Lash. Hyperspace Arsenal: How does Chibi fit all that stuff in his head? It gets ridiculous enough to fall into Refuge in Audacity, as well.
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.
Table of Contents.Zip Lash All Outfit CodesTo input outfit codes, go into the Chibi House, Telly has a menu for it. AdvertisementsYou’re encouraged to share the codes you find on a special (RIP), part of a big meta-game somewhat like The Binding of Isaac Rebirth’s The Lost unlock. Only the community as a whole could put these codes together, no one player is even capable of seeing all the codes themselves! Neat, huh?Once you find the codes, you manually enter the code in the Chibi-Outfit Network menu on the Chibi PC in your Chibi house (using your Chibi Keyboard!).
The game will confirm when you’ve input the right code, but then you’ll have to replay the level and rescue the baby alien in that level again to actually unlock the costume.But Miiverse is shut down, so now you’ll just have to enter the codes directly (Miiverse was a medium for spreading the codes, but the codes would always work if you input them correctly Miiverse or no). Unlock World 7Use the capsule machine (requires scanning an amiibo) after beating the final boss to randomly (but quickly) unlock the 6 levels in world 7. There’s only 6 capsules, and you seem to have about a 50% chance of getting a level until you’ve gotten all 6 so it won’t take very long at all.
AdvertisementsToy CostumesGiving all candy in a world to a toy will also unlock a costume of that toy. You’ll have to make multiple trips to each toy as each only accepts a few snacks each visit. There’s a unique toy in each of world 1 through 6, meaning there’s also 6 Toy costumes to unlock. Finding Secrets Look behind youThere’s almost always something behind the Chibi House at the start of each level. Usually either one of the collectables, a star coin/wormhole or even the Alien. Get all Zip Lash capsulesSeveral secrets are inaccessible without a certain amount of Zip Lash length, often just about the most you could possibly get. Collectables Chibi Tots.
Do not hit them with a whip/zip lash. It destroys them instantly. Enemies can destroy them too. Certain Chibi Tots are programmed to run back and forth, some will run constantly in one direction.
Some of the ones that run in one direction will run directly into hazards and must be caught before that. You can stun chibi Tots by rolling (R) into them. You roll a bit faster than they run and they’re stunned for several seconds. You can stun the ones that jump back and forth by jumping as they jump, they bump into you and fall down.
Even if you don’t get all three, they add a nice bonus to your score. If you’re leveling your chibi robo, don’t give upBig CoinsNothing that fancy about these, but they give you nice bonuses to your coin count and a score boost too, but only if you finish the level with them. There’s also a badge for getting all three. If you don’t get all three you still get some extra coins for each earned.
You can pick them up using the whip/zip lash in addition to touching them. Treasure Chests/SnacksSnacks will generally be in treasure chests, and when replaying a level you’ll see a chest faded out if it no longer contains a Snack.Keep an eye out for blue “warp pipes” with a monitor on them. Use a whip/zip lash to enter them and win the coin collecting minigame, there’s almost always a Snack in these the first time you win.Alien treasure chests are a bit different, and can give coins, an outfit or a part of an outfit code. Just use the outfit code guide above if you want the outfit or you’re extremely unlikely to find them.
Finding ToysToy positions are random, but after you find a toy once in a world (their location seems random even to start with), youThere are two 50 coin “star coins” in the level (not the Big Coins that you can collect 3 of), each of these coins can be replaced by a wormhole to visit a toy, so try and remember their location.As said above, it takes 3 trips minimum per toy to give them all of the snacks in a world, you’ll probably end up making 4 trips if you find a toy before finding their first set of requested snacks. It only takes a couple minutes to find them after the first time though, and you can exit a level immediately after giving them all the snacks you can.
Do not leave until they stop giving requests.