User blog:Plasmaster/My Review of Chibi-Robo Ziplash!!

So I played Chibi-Robo Ziplash for the 3DS. This is my review of the game. For this review I’ll be breaking it down into the following sections: Characters, Plot, Overall Gameplay, Level Design, Boss Battles, Recommendations, and Summary. Without further ado, let’s get right into it. Before I continue I should warn those who have not finished or even played the game yet that are worried about spoilers that this game's plot is simple but the review will contain spoilers for it either way. Read at your own discretion.

Characters
Like other Chibi-Robo titles, Chibi-Robo Ziplash has charming characters that, despite their metallic appearances, have warm personalities. Your two main characters are none other than Chibi-Robo and his partner Telly Vision. Chibi-Robo is the silent protagonist and the character you control in the game. Chibi-Robo has always been a very cute and helpful character, but as this game is the first Chibi-Robo platformer title, Chibi-Robo is seen doing things he has never done before, and when I say that, I mean he is opening up a can of whiplash on some alien invaders. See what I did there? Whiplash? No, okay…moving on. However, Chibi-Robo is still a helpful character in this game, picking up trash, helping lost alien children find their way home, rescuing Chibi-Tots from certain death, and collecting snacks for hungry toys. The little dances Chibi-Robo does after completing a level or solving a puzzle add to the charm of the character. As for Telly, he appears to give the player information about the controls and some other useful tips. In the beginning of the game he is an invaluable character that the player would be lost without. Later in the game though, he just becomes something of a nuisance, telling players things they already knew if they die in a level. It kind of reminds me of Fi from Skyward Sword. At the start you kind of like them, but as the game goes on you wish they were dead. Plus, look at those eyes on Tel...he obviously can’t be trusted...

As for the other characters throughout the game, they mostly comprise of the toys you meet in the different worlds. I myself have not met all of them yet, as they can be a bit tricky to find, but the ones I have met include a toy airplane, a wedding bride doll, and none other than Drake Redcrest, who is basically the Captain Falcon of the Chibi-Robo universe. Drake is easily my favorite of all of the toys I met, with his introduction in the game being a heroic speech about his mission to stop the aliens; it is very fitting for the character and I quite enjoyed it a lot, even getting a few laughs out of me. The other set of characters in the game are the aliens, who have no spoken lines and are often only seen in the background of levels. Whenever Chibi-Robo does interact with them, they always have an impish smile and mischievous laugh to greet the robotic protagonist. Chibi-Robo Ziplash, however, is not a heavily character-driven game and so this section will play only a small role in my summarization.

Plot
As I said, Chibi-Robo Ziplash is not a heavily character-driven game, nor is it heavily plot-driven. The plot of this game is rather simple. Aliens are invading Earth for some reason and Chibi-Robo, with help from Telly, must stop the aliens by travelling around the world and destroying the robots the aliens have built. Finally, Chibi-Robo must take on the final boss of the game, which is a big, bad-ass looking alien robot. The oddest thing though is that before Chibi-Robo can face the final boss he must purchase giant robot parts, which if you lack the amount of coins for you’ll have to go back to earlier levels and replay them to collect enough currency, which I found pretty stupid if you ask me. I mean, it gives the player an incentive for trying to collect as many coins as they can throughout the game, but if they don’t know that they need as much money as possible in order to actually finish the game, they’re going to have to go back and get those coins. I know I probably should have put that in the boss battle section of the review, but the thing is, the final boss is a major part of the plot as it is the one thing standing between you and the end of the game, so I felt that warranted enough leeway to put it into the plot section.

Overall Gameplay
If Chibi-Robo Ziplash isn’t driven by characters or plot, what is it driven by? The answer to that is the gameplay. The gameplay of this game is the core of it all. The game has multiple mechanics that I have to talk about. First off is the main mechanic of the game, the Ziplash. The main method of attacking in this game is by using the Whiplash, a simple whip attack using Chibi-Robo’s cord. The Ziplash is a powerful, long-range, charged-up version of the Whiplash, but it does so much more than just attack. It is useful for solving puzzles that require Chibi-Robo to grab something across a large gap, pull things towards Chibi-Robo, destroy blocks that could otherwise not be bypassed, and bouncing the cord off of walls through long tunnels in order to hit a switch. I rather like all the different ways they found to use the Ziplash in the game, which shows that the creators of the game put a lot of thought and creativity into it. When I first learned how to use the Ziplash, I thought that it would render the Whiplash obsolete. I was wrong in this assumption though. The Whiplash is executed faster, making it better suited for destroying enemies closer to Chibi-Robo; Whiplash is useful for crossing small gaps and tethering onto edges closer to Chibi-Robo. As for other gameplay mechanics, perhaps the next biggest one the game introduces is the use of the Watts Generator. Fans of the original Chibi-Robo titles will already be familiar with the Watts system. Chibi-Robo’s health in this game is a battery that is seen in the bottom left corner. It will slowly decrease in number as you play, and will decrease faster if Chibi-Robo takes damage from an enemy or hazard, requiring the use of little green power pick-ups or an electrical outlet in order to continue on without running entirely out of Watts. If you run out of Watts, it is Game Over and you have to start the level over again. Fortunately, every level has a few power outlets for you to use along the way, as well as checkpoints if you fall into water, quicksand, or down a hole. As you travel through levels you will also find trash to pick up. If you find trash, be sure you pick it up, because between levels Chibi-Robo can put that trash into the Watts generator to add more power to the pool of Watts at his disposal. Basically, you only have so many Watts to start out with, and if you don’t pick up trash during levels, you’ll run out of Watts completely. A few more game mechanics I would like to talk about are the collectibles. These are optional for you to collect; if you’re a true completionist you may want to replay levels until you have collected each of these things. The first collectibles are Snacks. Snacks can be acquired by solving puzzles and completing bonus levels. Snacks are then given to toys which give you some moolah in exchange. Big Coins are the second type of collectible and are simply that: big coins. Then there are the Chibi-Tots. There are three of them in each of level and sometimes they can be a real pain to catch since they run away from Chibi-Robo and sometimes even jump over him. I have found that using Chibi-Robo’s roll ability is helpful in catching these guys as it trips them up and allows you to grab them without them running away. Lastly I would like to talk about the Items. Items can be purchased at Chibi-PCs in the Chibi-House or located throughout a level. I have never had to purchase or use items from Chibi-PCs except for the giant robot parts I needed to beat the final boss. Even if I had bought them, I wouldn’t know how to use them because the game never explains it to you. There is a badge you get at the end of each level if you didn’t use any items and I always got that badge because I didn’t even know how to use items in the first place. Even so, you can beat the game without using items and you need that money to buy the robot parts for the final boss, so you’re better off saving up your money anyway.

Level Design
The level design in Chibi-Robo Ziplash was overall solid. It is also quite impressive considering that this is the first platformer Chibi-Robo game. I think they did a very nice job of porting mechanics from the original Chibi-Robo games over to the platforming genre. I’m going to take the level designs by worlds, so buckle up.

World 1’s levels did a nice job of introducing and familiarizing the player with the controls and major game mechanics. The levels weren’t terribly challenging, but still fun to play. World 1 had some easy puzzles meant to further get the player comfortable with moving Chibi-Robo around.

World 2’s levels had puzzles that were a tad more challenging, requiring more use of the Ziplash in a more accurate manner. There is still a certain degree of hand-holding at this point though, with a trail of coins or orbs showing player where to jump or where to aim their Ziplash at. It also introduces some other elements such as using bombs to solve puzzles and progress through levels and riding on minecarts as you Whiplash and Ziplash at enemies and switches.

World 3’s levels are a bit annoying as water is an ever-present hazard throughout them, but nonetheless it is a fun world overall, introducing new enemies and new puzzles. That world was so fun, in fact, that I didn’t hear sixth bell ring and ended up getting my 2DS confiscated during that class. I got it back before I left school though…anyways, the water hazard was really the most annoying thing about World 3 as it takes away 100 Watts from Chibi Robo, which makes sense since water and electricity go together as well as oil and water…that was a terrible analogy. The point being it was annoying but didn’t entirely take away from the fun World 3 had to offer with its levels.

World 4’s levels introduce spikes as new hazards as well as new enemies and the first enemies to have indestructible properties, requiring you to avoid them instead of attacking. It also reuses some puzzles from earlier levels mixed in with some of the newly introduced enemies and hazards. One puzzle in World 4 involves going around the level and collecting four pictokeys before progressing, making the whole level a sort of puzzle in and of itself. World 4’s levels are fun and a bit frustrating at some times, but clearly had a lot of thought put into them.

World 5’s levels were more difficult and time consuming, though maybe this is because the aliens actually started giving a shit about you blowing up their robots and started setting up some death traps for you. I’m not kidding, one level literally has you outrunning a wall of buzzsaws. Kind of violent if you ask me. Anyways, the levels are more challenging, but they are also a lot of fun. World 5’s levels are some of the most fun I had playing this game, just above World 4’s levels anyways.

Finally there is World 6. I don’t know what they were thinking with this one to be honest. Just about all of these levels are completely covered in ice, meaning everyone’s favorite thing in every video game is present here: ice physics. Although the ice physics in Xenoblade are awesome in Chibi Robo Ziplash they suck ass. You can’t walk anywhere without falling into a pit to your death, sliding into an enemy on accident, or moving as slow as all hell. Rolling is actually a better way of getting around in World 6 than walking is, so basically if you’re a For Glory Link player you’ll have no trouble traversing these levels since you already use the R button for everything. I had to skip a few levels in World 6 by spending moolah because they were so god-awful and frustrating, but there were some I managed to finish. The puzzles in World 6, thankfully, were just slightly-harder versions of puzzles we saw in Worlds 1 and 2.

There is a whole other type of level I want to talk about and those are Chibi-Vehicle levels. These levels comprise of Chibi-Robo using a certain type of vehicle to traverse the entirety of the level. Some of these are fun while others are annoying. The Hot-Air Balloon levels were annoying as I did not know how to control the hot-air balloon and died a lot on those levels. The submarine levels were fun, though moving the submarine around was slow and a bit tedious at times. The jet-ski levels were also annoying as the hazards come up at you very fast and require you to react quickly, and if you get hit by anything you’re pretty much fucked because your Watts go down really quickly when using the jet-ski, and the same is true for the hot-air balloon. The skateboard levels were fun, but could get frustrating at times.

Finally there are the strange alien totem-pole things you’ll find in each level of the game. It is unclear what it is you’re supposed to do with them until you go back and play a level for the second time, which if you’re me will only do when you need more coins to fight the final boss. When you go back to these levels for the second time you’ll find lost alien children that you can bring to the totem-poles and swing overhead by the end of Chibi-Robo’s cord to signal a UFO to come and pick up the alien child. It is actually kind of funny to see this crying alien baby being yippee-kai-yayed around by Chibi-Robo and then hurled at a UFO. What I don’t like about this particular thing though is that it means that completionist players need to play through every level twice in order to 100% the game. If you are a completionist player and have the time for that, go for it, but I would prefer not playing through the game twice over just to do this one thing, thank you very much.

Boss Battles
The Boss Battles of Chibi-Robo Ziplash are a lot of fun, though like any video game there is a boss or two that is either annoying or boring. World 1’s Boss was the most boring of the bunch, for me personally anyway. It is good that the first boss you fight is easy since obviously you’re still just starting out with the game, but it is pretty boring anyhow. World 2’s boss makes good use of the bombs that you have used throughout World 2 to solve puzzles. World 2’s boss is more challenging but it is still easy enough that you can beat it without taking any hits. The boss of World 3 is unique in that it is the only boss to utilize a Chibi-Vehicle, that particular vehicle being the submarine. It makes for an interesting and fun boss fight though as stated before the submarine moves rather slowly which can make the boss fight a bit of a long and tiresome process after a while; beating it faster results in a fun and satisfying experience whereas messing up attacks and further extending the fight time makes it increasingly less enjoyable. The Boss of World 4 was loads of fun; the design of this boss was my favorite out of all of the bosses in the game as it was an awesome and bad-ass robotic vampire bat. The thing about this boss battle is that this boss has lots of smaller enemies flocking around him, and in order to attack him, you need to smash through the barrier of minions surrounding him, which reminds me of Gomess from Majora’s Mask where you had to shoot down the bats in order to hit the boss. The fourth boss also had a plethora of attacks ranging from releasing his minions at you to performing a body slam attack to straight up firing death lasers at you. Despite this, the minions will occasionally drop energy power-ups to heal you if you need it during the fight, which gives the boss a fair level of challenge to it that makes it overall a fun boss fight. World 5’s boss was the first boss in the game that was not based off of an animal, which made its appearance unique to that of the others. You know that little game where you bounce a ball off of a paddle to break blocks? I don’t remember what that game is called, but that’s basically World 5’s boss. You break the blocks that it drops to increase the length of the Ziplash so you can bounce the Ziplash off the walls to break the blocks surrounding the boss’s weak points. Out of all of the bosses it could be said it was the easiest as you really only have to hit it twice, but it has lots of blocks as a sort of armor that makes the boss battle a good length while also being the first boss battle to make an actual use of the Ziplash. World 6’s boss was a lot of fun as it is the first actual fight against the aliens themselves; you use the alien’s little UFOs to blast the mothership’s weak spots with laser blasts and then utilize the Whiplash to latch onto an enemy and avoid being pulled in by the tractor beams. It is a fresh boss fight that is a fitting finish since Chibi Robo makes use of the alien’s own technology to defeat them. It doesn’t end there though, as Chibi Robo must fight the mothership’s transformation into the giant alien robot as the final boss of the game. After you purchase and assemble the giant robot parts, the final battle begins. I already expressed my feelings on the giant robot parts many times before, so let’s just get right into the boss fight. The final boss fight is so bad-ass! It is literally like a scene out of Pacific Rim; the two giant robots have an all-out fist fight while standing in the ocean. The control stick is used to block the enemy attacks and the A button is used for a regular punch while X and B are used for some charged uppercut attacks. They key is to land three subsequent punches on the boss to make them dizzy so you can hit them with a charged punch. The first phase of the fight is pretty easy, with few attacks being thrown by the boss. When the second phase starts, you have to be more patient with your own attacks, waiting for an opening and blocking the boss’s attacks. The boss will try to fake you out by raising one fist but then hitting with the other, and the robots, though powerful, are slow, so if you move to block one position but then realize he is attacking a different spot, you’ll often times move too slowly to block the attack. It is, however, a really fun boss fight and I absolutely loved the turn it took. After the boss fight is a nice, peaceful cutscene after having saved the world from aliens, after which Chibi-Robo and Telly return home.

Recommendations
Seeing as how this game is generally easy and even then has the option to skip levels if they are too difficult, I have to say that I recommend this game for younger audiences. The art style and simple controls even compliments this as they almost seem to be catered towards younger players. The game does have its fair amount of challenging levels, but I think it has found a good balance of both fun and challenging puzzles that make it suitable for nearly any audience, though given the amount of hand-holding it has underneath the surface I have to say it is best directed at younger players.

Summary
All in all, Chibi-Robo Ziplash is both a fun and challenging puzzle platformer game. It is heavily gameplay-driven but still manages to have characters that possess both charm and badassery. The plot is easy to follow and gives enough narrative to warrant having a game to convey players from the beginning to the end of the story. It has its fair share of blunders, one of the most major being World 6’s atrocious level design. Every game has its fair share of bad levels, but when a game has an entire ‘world’ or set of levels that makes players want to play any other game, there is something wrong with it. The game had a strong start and continued to get stronger until World 6 when it really fell flat with its poor level design and recycled puzzle mechanics. The game itself is a nice port of the Chibi-Robo series from adventurous life-sim to the puzzle platformer genre, making use of the original series mechanics in a way that is both fresh and familiar. The music was well done, setting a good atmosphere for moments when something intense like a death trap or awesome like fighting a giant robot happened. The controls were easy to learn and the gameplay mechanics, though simple in appearance, were always being used in new and creative ways that kept the game alive. I am unsure of how I should go about this in future reviews, but for now I have decided to go on a scoring system out of 10; and I’m giving Chibi-Robo Ziplash a 6/10.