17 Chibi-Robo! Zip Lash 4-4 A Menacing Midnight Flight

Dear Readers,

Today I'll talk about visiting this level for the first time. It's a balloon swinging level.

In these levels I swing from a balloon to make it stop and descend. It can be kind of tricky. I missed one of the Chibi-Tots, so I'll have to come back for it later.

It's still night time in this world. It's quite nice to fly up into the night sky and admire the scenery. Must be careful here though as there's a big flying enemy that hovers around like a boss. You deal with it by swinging into these floating specks, which turn into ammunition that flies back at it. You encounter this enemy twice in the level, once from the front and once from behind.

I get the Cabbage Taro snack in this stage. Kind of an unusual choice for a snack, but then again, I found a pea snack in a previous world! Must look it up on the Chibi-PC later.

I finish the level by hitting the gold saucer.

16 Chibi-Robo! Zip Lash 4-3 Twilight among the Trees, Meeting Krushelmeyer

Dear Readers,

Today I'm going to talk about my first visit to this level.

It's the woods at night! It's quite pretty! Lovely night sky too.

Just beyond the first door, I find a bonus room where I win the Pucho snack.

Further along, I find the portal to the toy that lives in this world. He's a French nutcracker named Krushelmeyer and he almost mistakes me for a walnut! His voice is a bit like Kermit the Frog's.

He asks me to bring him Hitschies. I happen to have some, so I give them to him. When I give him snacks, he dances around with hearts in his eyes and music from "The Nutcracker" starts playing. He talks about the time a dog tried to bite him, but he bit it instead.

Next, he asks me for High Eight Chocolate from Japan. Unfortunately, I don't have it yet so I have to say goodbye to him for now.

Later on in the level I find the Dots snack. There's another variety of those crawling enemies in this stage. They're made of indestructible metal so I have to avoid them.

Towards the end of the level it climbs higher upwards and I get a good look at the night sky above the trees. I reach the end of the level with 100% items and hit the silver saucer.

Back at the Chibi-House I look up the Hitschies from Germany. I haven't tried them before but they seem nice.

15 Chibi-Robo! Zip Lash 4-2 Storm the Castle, Chibi-Robo!

Dear Readers,

Today I'll talk about playing this level for the first time.

The level starts like the last one in the forest. There are fiery pillars here before reaching the castle. Before going in, there's a little cut scene where Chibi-Robo looks up at the castle. It looks a bit like a square bucket sand castle, perhaps withered with age.

Inside, I do some platforming along the walls, which shift perspective when I reach a corner. When you see the 100 sign, you can continue and loop back here when you've lengthened your plug.

The music here is like an indoor version of the marching tune outside. There's an instrument here as well that's often associated with royal castles but I don't know the name of it. I often hear it playing the night time tune in Dragon Quest games where you're in a castle.

I find the Chupa Chups snack here. Hooray! Another one I recognise! :)

Back outside after the 100 sign but higher up. There's a 200 sign here, so I guess it's time to explore around the outer perimeter to make the plug even longer. There are these giant metal rockets here you need to avoid and it makes for some fun platforming.

Along the way, I find the Fue Ramune Whistle Candy here.

After the 200 sign, I go back into the castle. Chibi-Robo looks around and for some weird reason, the interior looks less castle like and more futuristic. The aliens must've been doing something here...

The end of the level is soon after and I hit the gold saucer. Managed to get all items here too!

14 Chibi-Robo! Zip Lash 4-1 Bramblewood Forest, Europe

Dear Readers,

Today I'm finally flying the Chibi-House to the first level in Europe! it's kindly represented with lots of nice trees.

The first level has some nice forestry in the background and a pretty yellow sky. I decide to dress in the Link outfit, the fairy boy from the forest! :)

The music has a marching kind of beat and it goes in synch with these platforms that shoot up spikes in different directions. Makes things very musical. There are also blocks that grow thorny brambles. You can break these with the plug whip, but they grow back soon afterwards.

I find the Hitschies snack here in a bonus level.

After a certain point, the music goes faster in tempo. The spiky platforms then shoot their spikes quicker to match the beat. Nice touch!

Some new enemies here include ones which roll around in groups and they travel along the walls, ceilings and floors. They're kind of like the zoomers from the Metroid games. There are blue ones that take one hit, bigger red ones that take two and a mini boss at the end where there are large purples ones that take more hits again.

I get all the items and finish the level by hitting the silver saucer. I buy two '1' panels for the Destination Wheel, just to be safe.

13 Chibi-Robo! Zip Lash World 3 costumes and 100% items

Dear Readers,

Today I'm going to head back to World 3 in the Caribbean to collect all the costumes and the rest of the items I missed. Like World 2, I'll post the costume codes here.

Costumes were always part of the Chibi-Robo series. In the first game, you dressed up in various outfits in order to do many things.

3-1 Dashboard Dancer 46177

A hula girl outfit, with grass skirt, pink flowers, coconut bra. You also have a black wig with a big yellow flower in it.

3-2

There's no costume here but I have to come back here to collect a coin and two Chibi-Tots. There's a nice little guitar riff tune here when you come off the dashboard.

3-3 Scoundrel of the Seas 11156

A pirate costume with Jolly Roger hat, eyepatch, reddish coat and brown pants. No peg leg or parrot though!

3-4 Adventurous Astronaut 86229

The slow sub level AGAIN! Always painful to come back here! Anyway, this costume dresses you up as an astronaut with a fish bowl helmet and a white and orange pattern suit. Chibi-Robo doesn't need such a suit anyway as we could see in the prologue, where he was cleaning the outside of the space station.

3-5 Link 53540

Dress up as Link from Legend of Zelda! Looks like it has Toon Link's belt. Crazy looking eyebrows too. The hair and other features look like the other Links. I guess this suits Chibi-Robo as well when you think of the plug pulling you towards things like the hookshot.

3-6 Rubber Ducky 45379

I have to collect 2 Chibi-Tots in this stage too. I lost the alien in here too. Gah! Luckily, there was a checkpoint nearby so I could die and go back to it. With this costume, you dress up as a rubber ducky with an egg shell bottom. I only got one of the Chibi-Tots so I had to come back once again and do the whole stage from start to finish, again! They're the first and last ones and they're hidden off to the side. One just before the first checkpoint and the other to the right of some disappearing platforms in the cave.

12 Chibi-Robo! Zip Lash World 2 costumes

Dear Readers,

Today I'm going to go back to World 2 in North Africa to collect the costumes I missed. These are the ones where you have to rescue an alien in the level to collect them. The alien only appears when you already have the stage completed. On top of that you have to input the code on the Chibi-PC so that it'll activate. You can find individual digits to these codes on the game's Miiverse pages. It's a fun way to use it.

I'm going to post them here:

2-1 Cluckertron 87164

This is a funny chicken suit.

2-2 Intrepid Explorer 73396

This one dresses you up as an explorer with the pith helmet and everything. Looks like just the thing for exploring Egyptian pyramids! This was at the very end of the level.

2-4 Spooky Skeleton 65465

This one's pretty cool. You're dressed all black and there's a green skeleton painted on your body. Your eyes are green too. I especially like that this was at the very start of the level and didn't have to backtrack so much!

2-5 Disco Dude 62985

For this you're dressed with a slick wig, sunglasses, mustache, teal suit, purple shirt and white shoes. Dig that 70s charm!

2-6 Dillon 53612

While revisiting this stage I decided to visit Crash. He gave me 50 coins, which is nice of him. This lets me dress up as Dillon from the game Dillon's Rolling Western. It's got his pale skin, red plated back, blue scarf, cowboy hat, boots, belt, ears and nose. It suits Chibi-Robo pretty well when he does the plug lasso!

While revisiting stages you have to recollect the plug length power orbs every time. It's like having to do them for the first time again.

11 Chibi-Robo! Zip Lash - Giving Birdie the last of her snacks

Dear Readers,

Happy Christmas!

Birdie appears in 3-4 again. This is my fourth time doing this level and it's the slow sub one. This time, Birdie's portal appears at the end.

First I give her the Charms Blow Pops from U.S.A. To me, they look just like normal lollipops. Birdie remembers a time when she was on a shelf next to some lollipops in an stand. She said it was like being near a forest.

Lastly, I give her the Napo from Germany. I talked about this one in a previous post.

Birdie thanks me for all the snacks by giving me the Birdie Outfit. I tried it on and Chibi-Robo not only wears the wedding dress and veil, but he takes on her skin complexion and blonde hair as well.

The 3DS battery was about to give in at this stage, so I had to charge it. I gotta hunt for more costumes!

10 Chibi-Robo! Zip Lash 3-1 Trouble in Paradise return, more snacks with Birdie

Dear readers,

Today I'm gonna talk about going back to 3-1 to meet Birdie.

The portal to Birdie's place appears on this stage on the map so I head back there. This is my second time playing this stage.

It's the opening stage to this world but I haven't blogged about it yet. It's a good introduction to the water hazards you'll often face in this world. There's one cool part as well where there's a close up of a jet ski in the background.

I find Birdie's portal once again and give her some snacks.

First, I give her the SakuSaku Panda from Japan. They're chocolate and white chocolate biscuits in the shape of a cute panda. I'd love to try these! Birdie imagines what life would be like as a panda.

Second, I give her the Fruitella from Holland. I'm familiar with these but haven't had them in a long time. Birdie tells another old boyfriend story where they dug up a fruit that tasted really bland. Sounds like they found a vegetable :)

Third, I give her the Giant Caplico Strawberry from Japan. I think I'd prefer a real ice-cream cone. Birdie says this would be a perfect alternative for her wedding as ice cream would melt too quickly in the Caribbean heat. It would be perfect if it didn't remind her of ice cream.

After this, Birdie stops asking for sweets again. I have to go back to the map now and find her portal again! Gah!

9 Chibi-Robo! Zip Lash Redoing lost progress in The Caribbean

Dear Readers,

It's frustrating, but I have to give Birdie those snacks again. Why didn't I save!

So I head to 3-4 for the third time. Birdie's portal doesn't appear before the slow sub this time though, so I have to play through the whole thing in order to find her. Oh well, I had to do this anyway because I missed a hidden Chibi-Tot first time round. It's tucked away in a hidden wall to the right of where these spiky platforms take turns moving. Sneaky!

I eventually find Birdie's portal. Some of the sweets she asks for are different this time though.

First, I give her the Bakauke from Japan. I talked about this in the previous post.

Second, I give her the Sayaendo from Japan. Interesting how peas are sold as snacks! She talks about an old boyfriend of hers that has a twin brother. She had a lot of boyfriends!

Third, I give her the Ogontoh from Japan. I talked about this in the previous post.

After this, she tells me to come back later, even though I have more snacks for her. I've no choice but to finish the level and look for her again on the radar.

8 Chibi-Robo! Zip Lash - Freely exploring The Caribbean, giving snacks to Birdie

Dear Readers,

On beating Old Ironhide, World 4: Europe opens up. It seems to be represented by lots of nice trees. This is true I suppose! :)

However, I'm going to head back to The Caribbean, so I can give Birdie more snacks.

She appears in 3-4, so I head back there. This is my second time visiting this level. It's the one with the slow submarine but luckily, the portal to Birdie's place appears before that. I head inside and talk to her. She says she's good at waiting but that doesn't mean she enjoys it. Still waiting for her groom!

When I give her snacks, she likes to toss and catch her own bouquet while talking about them.

First, I give her the Napo from Germany. These look nicely presented. She talks about visiting a German castle with an old boyfriend of hers.

Second, I give her the Bakauke from Japan. The description says it's banana shaped. Does it taste like banana too? She talks about one time she was hill-walking with her boyfriend. He got down on one knee and said to her "Will you carry me?". She wasn't too pleased with that! Funny story though :)

Third, I give her the Ogontoh from Japan. It's been around a long time! 92 years according to the description! It keeps the tradition of having only two ingredients. That's quite a nice thing! Interesting shape too. She remarks how it looks like a gemstone and that she'd give it to her husband to be.

Unfortunately, I switched off the game to let in some StreetPass Miis I met that day without saving, so I have to do all this again. D'oh!

7 Chibi-Robo! Zip Lash 3-B Old Ironhide, the Terror of the Deep, Boss Destination Wheel

Dear Readers,

Today I'll talk about the boss of this stage. First though, I'll talk about the Boss Destination Wheel.

The Boss Destination Wheel is pretty weird. There's only one boss here to face, so the panels are all filled with the same thing. Just one possible outcome. I really don't know what the point of it is. Maybe it'll come into play later? Many games have a boss rush before you face the final boss, so maybe that's something that happens here. At that stage, the Boss Destination Wheel might be something different indeed.

This boss in the Caribbean is a big blue robot whale. I had to face it in my submarine so there was a lot of slow manoeuvring to avoid its attacks. It opens up the front part of its nose to release mines, but this also exposes its weak point. Luckily its attack patterns aren't that quick, but you still have to be ready for them. It charges at you and shoots a beam now and again. Convert the green socket mines into torpedoes and use these on its weak point.

The music that plays here has this world's themed steel drums and an active beat, so it's quite fitting. When you beat the boss you can salvage the scrap it leaves behind.

On beating the boss, I gain the ability to explore the levels as I please without having to use the destination wheel. Yay!

6 Chibi-Robo! Zip Lash 3-6 Tilting with the Tides

Dear Readers,

Today I'm going to talk about this stage. It starts off going through a harbour for yachts. There's a nice looking seaside village here in the background. There are many see-saw platforms here to get past. Eventually, it goes into a cave with drops of water coming down from the ceiling. The music doesn't change.

Along the way I found the snack for this level, Charms Blow Pops. On finishing, I missed one of the Chibi-Tots, so I'll have to come back here later.

5 Chibi-Robo! Zip Lash 3-5 Shellfish Shore

Dear Readers,

Today I'll talk about level 3-5, Shellfish Shore.

It's so called because of the clam shells throughout the level that spring open when you step on them. This will launch you upwards. You can use this to reach higher ground and floating treasures in the air.

The music is the general one for this world in the Caribbean. An upbeat calypso style tune with steel drums.

I did pretty well in this level first time round and got all the items. The snack I got was the Sayendo and I hit the gold saucer at the end.

4 Chibi-Robo! Zip Lash - 3-4 All Aboard the Chibi-Sub

Dear Readers,

Today I'll talk about this level with its slow moving submarine.

Before you go into the submarine, the music in this level has a gentle jazzy feel, like it takes place in some kind of lobby. When you jump in to the submarine and go underwater, the beats become a lot more pronounced and have an echo. The tempo is still very chilled out.

The submarine is quite slow! It's tough to get moving and tough to stop and change direction. You can only shoot your plug upwards but you can use it to grab torpedoes to fight enemies and break walls.

On finishing this level I only had 2 of the 3 Chibi-Tots so I'll have to do it again later! D'oh! The snack I found here is the BAKAUKE. I also hit the bronze saucer, so I changed many of the panels in the roulette wheel to 1. Bronze only gives you one spin, so I decided to play it safe.

3 Chibi-Robo! Zip Lash - 3-3 Keeping Cool in the Caverns, Meeting Birdie, Chibi-Tots

Dear Readers,

Today I'll talk about this stage and meeting the toy in this world for the first time. I'll also talk about the Chibi-Tots.

The cavern has some nice mellow jazz music playing throughout.

The toy who lives in this world is a little doll dressed up like a bride. She has a large bobble head and a bright smiling face. Kind of odd that someone so bright and cheerful lives in this dark cavern... She asks if I'm her groom and I say no. She introduces herself as Birdie the Bride. She has a Japanese lady sounding voice. She dreams of getting married here in the Caribbean when her groom shows up. Waiting is making her hungry though, so she asks me to find snacks for her.

Luckily, I have the first one: Fruchtgummi Monster from Germany. I found this in 3-1 earlier. They're jellies shaped like monsters and look quite tasty. Birdie talks about her little brother being like a monster, but he was very good to her one time when she was sick.

Next she asks for SAKUSAKU PANDA, but I don't have it yet. Later on in the stage, I actually find it. I'm not able to go back to her though, as the portal to her home closed up when I left.

Later on in the level I find a socket that gives me a temporary ice power up. This enables me to turn water into a traversable icy surface. It's fun to smash frozen water pillars too. It's pretty cool :)

The Chibi-Tots are pretty weird in this game. There are three to find in most levels. In the first level they introduce themselves as these little guys that need rescuing, but they sometimes run away when I'm trying to catch them! My favourite way to deal with the runners is to corner them and jump in the air. When they try to jump over me, they'll bump into me and land on the ground, stunned. It's quite satisfying to do this! When I revisit a stage and I come across ones I've rescued already, I like to smash them with the plug for being annoying gits.

The second Chibi-Tot in this stage can be a little tricky to get to. Use the Zip Lash to look around and find a path to it.

The other snack I find in this level is the Giant Caplico Strawberry.

2 Chibi-Robo! Zip Lash - 3-2 Chibi-Robo hits the waves, the roulette wheel

Dear Readers,

In this level, Chibi-Robo goes wakeboarding. He stands on the board, whips his plug into the speedboat and away he goes! I'll also talk about the roulette wheel.

The wakeboarding is like those Scalextric slot-racers with three lanes to switch between. Here you try to collect all the items, jump off the tops of ramps and try not to crash. It can be tricky with some of the items placed between the slots, so you have to time your switching just right. I missed out on a few here, 1 coin and 2 of those mini robots. I'll have to come back to this stage later to collect them.

Make sure you hit the long, steep, pink ramp. Jumping off of that shoots you high up into the sky, where you dump the wakeboard and bounce on clouds to find more treasures. It's a nice surprise and the music changes here too. There's a little more wakeboarding after this before the end of the level.

At the end, I hit the gold saucer, which gives me three turns on the roulette wheel. There's sweets in one of the chests I collected: Fruitella. I haven't met the toy who lives in this world yet, so I'll hang on to them for now.

The roulette wheel works like dice. When you get a number, you move that amount of spaces on the world map and go to that level, even if it's one you completed before. You can avoid this by hitting the gold saucer at the end of the level. This gives you a choice to spin up to three turns if you want. The other way to avoid this is to fill the wheel with the number of spaces you want to travel by buying panels with coins. When in doubt, I always fill it with 1s, as I like to head to the next level in the sequence. When you finish all the levels in a world, you can take on the boss and you're free to select any stage you want to revisit then.

1 Chibi-Robo! Zip Lash - 2-5 Riding the Rails

Dear Readers,

Welcome to my first blog entry! It'll be about Chibi-Robo!: Zip Lash for Nintendo 3DS. I've already played up until this point so I'll record from here.

World 2 of the game takes place in a desert in North Africa. I've already completed this world but I had to return because of some unfinished business. In every world, there's toy that comes to life and they ask you to find sweets for them. The toy that lives here is a monkey with cymbals for hands named Crash.

I found all the sweets Crash asked me for in this world but when I went to visit, he only took some of them and disappeared off the radar. I then had to finish another level so he'd appear again. I decided to do 3-1: Trouble in Paradise, which takes place in The Caribbean. On finishing this level I flew back to North Africa in my little Chibi-House space ship to find Crash here in 2-5.

2-5 is notable for its runaway minecarts. They move on their own when you hit the little yellow brake with your plug whip. Not to worry though as they don't move too fast. You'll often have to whip something to swing off to the next platform or pull down a bridge for your cart to cross. The music in this stage has a mild trumpet tune.

I finally find the portal to Crash's house and make my big sweet delivery to him. When he talks, he claps his little hand cymbals with every word.

First, I give him the PEZ Hedz Bearz from USA. I've never seen these before in real life. They're in the shape of teddy bear faces and the ears have different flavoured sweets of their own. He talks about being chased by a bear.

Second, I give him the Salmiakkiruutu from Finland. They're diamond shaped pieces of salty liquorice. The description says they're used like cough medicine. I wonder what they taste like? He talks about going on a one-monkey-band world tour.

Third, I give him the Saure Fruchtgummi Monster from Germany. They seem to be standard sour gums shaped like monsters. He talks about using his cymbals to protect himself from being chased by monsters.

Lastly, I give him the OTOKO UME CANDY from Japan. They're Japanese plum flavoured boiled sweets. He reflects on his life having cymbals stuck his hands, but he says life is too short to feel bitter about it. He seems to be making the most of it at least!

When I give him the last of the sweets he asked for, he rewards me with a Crash outfit so I can dress up like a monkey. At that point I was dressed as a chicken with the Cluckertron costume. I decided to dress up in the new monkey costume for the fun of it!