Well, this was a bit of a surprise. Announced in a mini Nintendo Direct this morning, Chibi-Robo Photography is a new Chibi-Robo game for Nintendo 3DS that’s available on eShop RIGHT NOW. Naturally, I bought it and have had a bit of a play around.
While this certainly isn’t the fourth full Chibi-Robo game we’ve all been waiting for, Chibi-Robo Photography is still a pretty fun app. It’s an augmented reality game in which you have to help Chibi populate a museum called Nostaljunk by taking photos of things in your own 21st century home. The game will give you loose prompts – like take a picture of something circular – but the clever part is that Chibi will then interact with that object by popping out of it and carrying it away. Check the official site for some neat example videos.
THIS IS EASILY THE BEST USE OF AUGMENTED REALITY I’VE EVER SEEN.
For many years now I’ve wanted a real Chibi-Robo to exist in my house, running around on the kitchen floor or on the coffee table and I guess that this is the closest I’m ever going to get. In that respect it’s actually much closer to the concept of the original GameCube game than you’d first think.
Aside from the AR stuff, there’s a nice amount of traditional Chibi gameplay here. A little workshop to run around with some minor exploration and climbing, plus a second room with dust to vacuum up, some familiar faces to talk to and some mini-games, such as the one in which you have to guess the length of a tape measure.
This app isn’t the only way Chibi-Robo has been resurrected after 4 years absence. The Nintendo Direct video he was announced in features some nice if bizarre animation of Chibi cleaning up around Satoru Iwata’s head while it also seems that Nintendo is hosting an in-game photography competition, the grand prize for which is this one-of-a-kind Chibi-Robo/Nostaljunk branded Wii U.
There’s also some cool T-shirts up for grabs that really make me wish I was eligible for this contest. Nevertheless, it seems Nintendo is really putting its weight behind this small Chibi-Robo release. Could this be a sign that the publisher is planning a full resurrection of the Chibi-Robo series or even a Wii U game? I obviously hope so.
Which also raises the question – is Chibi-Robo Photography actually developed by Nintendo itself? Skip’s name doesn’t appear on the website or game’s title screen, leading some to speculate that this was made by Nintendo and not Skip. I’m trying to investigate this further…
By the way – If you don’t have a Japanese 3DS and would like to get a closer look at Chibi-Robo Photography then keep an eye on my Twitter feed. I’m going to be posting images and Vine videos there over the next few days to show off this interesting game in more detail. In the meantime, here’s a picture of a fun new character introduced in this game. It’s Chibi-Chibi.
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