Why Chibi-Robo Went From Vacuuming To Bionic Commando Swinging Action

I had the opportunity to speak with Nintendo producer Kensuke Tanabe and assistant producer Risa Tabata, the minds behind Nintendo’s new Chibi-Robo game. Their new title, Chibi-Robo: Zip Lash! is a shift from Chibi-Robo’s housekeeping roots and puts an emphasis on action platforming.

“One of the first things Skip suggested was having Chibi-Robo throw or spin his cord instead of having it plugged into the wall,” Tabata shared. “From that, we began thinking about different actions that Chibi-Robo could do to interact with a stage. Maybe he can destroy enemies with it, or throw it toward a panel to scale an insurmountable wall.”

In the game, Chibi-Robo can throw his cord at orange or blue panels placed on walls or floating platforms. Latching onto an orange panel will pull Chibi-Robo up to it, while latching onto a blue panel will pull the platform toward Chibi-Robo.

“This wasn’t enough, though, so we decided to also have items that could change the length of Chibi-Robo’s cord. We also added the ability to perform Zip-Lashes, by which Chibi-Robo can charge up and throw his cord so that it bounces off of surfaces.”

In the demo, the Rebound Chip allows Chibi-Robo to perform these throws. One of the challenges is players must calculate angles to throw the Zip-Lash so that it will hit multiple switches to open a door, or hit a tricky orange panel on a distant ledge.

Siliconera will have more about the Chibi-Robo series and Chibi-Robo: Zip Lash! soon.