Former Skip staff announce KoROBO, their own successor to Chibi-Robo

The newly formed Tiny Wonder Studio has announced that they are working on a spiritual successor to Chibi-Robo called KoROBO. The real clincher here is that it’s being worked on by former staff from Chibi-Robo’s developer, Skip Ltd.

It seems to be early in development, but currently, KoROBO looks like a pretty clear copy of Chibi-Robo, right down to certain mechanical and aesthetic choices that look more than similar to the often overlooked GameCube classic. Amusingly, that actually ties into the story, which states that the protagonist is “not the coolest and latest in tiny household robo tech, but some knockoff model.”

While it looks like a lot of work is still to be done, the developer is planning on taking to crowdfunding through Campfire and Kickstarter to help get KoROBO made. But there’s plenty of reason to be optimistic because there is Skip staff on board. And not just any Skip staff, but high profile Skip staff such as co-founder and Love-de-Lic alumni, Kenichi Nishi, as well as prominent members Hiroshi Moriyama and Keita Eto. They’ve even got Hirofumi Taniguchi to do the music for the game. However, even though he’s one of my favorite composers, Chibi-Robo was far from his best work.

Chibi-Robo is among my favorite games. It stuck in my craw that Okaeri Chibi-Robo, the direct sequel for the Nintendo DS, was never localized for North America. But worse is that, this past March, Skip Ltd. was shut down. Before that, sequels like Chibi-Robo Photo Finder and Chibi-Robo Zip Lash didn’t feel much like Chibi-Robo games. Hopefully, now that they’re separated from Nintendo, the developers can create something more true to the original.

With both Skip and Vanpool now shuttered, it’s a rough time to be a fan of Love-de-Lic. I’ll be keeping a hopeful eye on KoROBO.

KoROBO doesn’t have a release window, but it’s planned for PC and “modern consoles.”