Way back on the GameCube, almost twenty years ago, a small robot helped repair a broken family. More than just a tiny household helper, Chibi-Robo showed up just as the cracks in the family tore it wide open and worked tirelessly to resolve them. Granted, this involved aliens, time-travel, fighting the Spydorz with the chibi-blaster, and a whole load of mini-games, but as weird as it got it was held together by the far-too-relatable underpinning of a family’s emotions building up past the breaking point. It’s hard to say if Chibi-Robo was ahead of its time or not, but while it did end up with several sequels none were anything like like the original game.
Fast Forward Nineteen Years
Tom is a young boy turning ten, living alone with his mother Sally after his father ran off into the world when Tom was five, leaving behind only a note saying it’s for their own protection. A creative tinkerer, Tom spends most of his time in his room taking apart toys and other gadgets and putting them back together, some of which were received as packages from his wandering father. For his tenth birthday, though, Tom’s father gave him a small solar-powered mini-bot called koROBO, which would have been far more exciting if it didn’t seem like a cheap knock-off of the popular brand. It doesn’t take long for koROBO to work its way into the family, though, helping with the cleaning, watering plants, and hanging with Tom like a tiny little metal sibling. And eventually traveling through time, as small helper-bots are known to do.
Chibi-Robo Strikes Again in All New Adorable Platformer
If all this sounds very close to what you might imagine Chibi-Robo 2 would have looked like, that’s not a coincidence. koROBO has been announced today as the debut game of Tiny Wonder Studio, which is headlined by a number of former Skip Ltd. people. Skip was one of those developers like Treasure that had its own unique style, and while its games never achieved the same level of recognition it unquestionably had fans who were always disappointed when titles like Giftpia (which I still regret not playing at the E3 it was on display at) and Captain Rainbow got stranded in Japan. That fate doesn’t look likely to happen with koROBO, though, thanks to the game’s announcement coming with news of a pending Kickstarter (and Campfire, a Japanese-specific crowdfunding platform) campaign launching today.
Chibi-Robo was one of the GameCube highlights and deserved a better legacy than to be an overpriced collectible with no true sequel, and koROBO is promising to correct that oversight. The weirdness remains intact, with aliens and time-travel just being the most obvious oddities. The apartment is filled with more characters than just Sally and Tom, such as a chatty fish, the menacing building supervisor Garth Vader, and other denizens and residents needing the help that only a tiny little bot can provide. Rewards and exploration will turn up new items that Tom can adjust to work with koROBO, allowing it to fly, swim, do more on a full charge, etc. An apartment may be its own small world but when a robot is only a few inches tall it can seem much larger, especially when the rooms are packed equally with furniture and a damaged family’s emotions. It’s a lot to put on the tiny shoulders of a mechanical helper, but if koROBOT does what it can then it might just be enough.
