Advance Wars Switch dev wants to make a new Chibi-Robo game
WayForward Games, makers of the Advance Wars Switch port, is keen on reviving more niche Nintendo games, including Chibi-Robo. Director James Montagna made the comments on a recent episode of the MinnMax show shortly after Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp released on Nintendo Switch.
“I’d love to work on something obscure, you know?” Montagna said. “So for me I think about games like Kuru Kuru Kururin, I think of games like Rhythm Heaven, WarioWare. There’s also things like Chibi Robo – that would be interesting to explore.”
WarioWare isn’t quite as obscure as the rest of Montagna’s list. Nintendo launched a new WarioWare game in 2021, which went over rather well with critics and consumers. Kuru Kuru Kurumin was a Game Boy Advance launch game and only arrived in the United States recently as part of the Switch Online GBA collection. Kuru Kuru is a quirky puzzle game with multiplayer elements, where players guide a rotating stick around an obstacle course. It's more fun than it sounds.
Rhythm Heaven, meanwhile, seems to have danced its last dance with the 3DS.
Chibi-Robo could certainly do with a loving revival a la Advance Wars. The series charted a somewhat confused path, from a 3D platform adventure on the Gamecube to a 2D sidescrolling action game on the 3DS, shedding its bizarre, charming take on family life and problems in the process.
While some critics argued it was uninteresting and even unnecessary when it released in 2006, attitudes toward what counts as a good game have changed significantly since then. Montagna was just speculating, of course, but now might just be the right time for a Chibi-Robo remake.
