Nintendo is putting an extremely rare GameCube game on Switch 2 next week
When Nintendo announced that it was adding GameCube games to its (inexplicably Switch 2-only) Nintendo Switch Online offering, people were understandably excited about the likes of Super Mario Sunshine and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker joining the service. And I was one of them (even if I’d personally lose little sleep if Super Mario Sunshine was fired directly into the sun).
But as much as I want the obvious GameCube classics on my Switch 2, it’s the more underrated gems I’ve heard so much about from hardcore Nintendo fans over the years that really pique my interest. Games like Chibi-Robo!, for example, which Nintendo has confirmed as the next title joining the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion pack library on August 21.
Chibi-Robo! is a 2005 platform-adventure game about a friendly little robot whose main goal is to help the Sanderson family by taking on various housework-related missions and performing generally good deeds on request. Chibi-Robo’s helpfulness isn’t limited to humans, though. In its quest to spread happiness, it also assists several animals and even enchanted toys along the way. As a player, you have to keep an eye on the robot’s battery life and use power outlets dotted around the house to recharge it. Fail to do so and it’ll collapse, and you’ll lose a chunk of the in-game currency you’ve collected.
Chibi-Robo! looks like a typically charming Nintendo game in every respect, but it was actually originally conceived by now-defunct developer Skip Ltd. as a point-and-click adventure game, with Bandai as the publisher. Exactly how or why the game ended up moving over to Nintendo remains a mystery, but director Kenichi Nishi told Time Extension that Shigeru Miyamoto took a particular liking to the character design. The legendary Mario creator then went on to play something of an overseer role in the game’s development under its new publisher.
Chibi-Robo! spawned a number of handheld spinoffs, but the original game remains the one with cult classic status. It’s also become increasingly hard to play over the years, with Nintendo choosing not to port the game forward. These days you can expect to pay as much as $200 for a second-hand physical copy. As someone who categorically does not have that kind of cash to chuck at a 20-year-old video game (or any game for that matter), I’m looking forward to seeing what all the fuss is about when it lands on Switch 2 next week.
