Chibi-Robo! Zip Lash

Chibi-Robo! Zip Lash is the fifth (and thus far final) game in the Chibi-Robo series, and its only 2D entry. This time, Chibi-Robo must stop aliens from taking over the world. So begins a worldwide adventure, featuring unusual gameplay mechanics (a spin wheel to randomly select levels and grinding for coins to fight the final boss).

Zip Lash received mixed reviews from critics, and negative reviews from fans. This, along with poor sales (in part due to Nintendo’s general lack of marketing for the series in the past), resulted in the game being the final entry for the series as of 2026.

To do:

There's leftover debug and test files in the shader folder: ds_debug.shbin and test00.shbin.
There's multiple unused models in the "gfx" folder which reveal that the developers created a test level with its own unique assets (Airship, rockets, background of the actual New York City, etc.) and boss fight. However, these files are in a weird compressed format known as ".h3d", which needs to be figured out in order to view these assets.
There's a glitch before the World 3 boss where the player can bring up an invisible debug menu that can play its intro and defeated cutscenes. Look more into this.

Unused Models#

Test Boss#

An unused boss that's purely meant to be used for testing exists within boss_test.lyt.

Dummy Tracks#

Present in the stream folder are three music tracks named DUMMY_HOK_STR, dummy_hzmt, and dummy2. None of them contain any audio.

Unused Text#

Trial.msbt#

Leftovers from the demo version of the game.

Text
trial_04 Tidying up trash, sir? How thoughtful! If this were the full game, we could turn it into watts back at the Chibi-House.
trial_05 This concludes our demo. Do you want to close this software and visit Nintendo eShop?
trial_07 Oh, Chibi-Robo, sir! I forgot to mention something very important.
trial_08 This is as far as we can go in the demo version of this software, but here's a little preview of how the game will continue.
trial_10 Do you want to close this software and visit Nintendo eShop?

Toy_debug.msbt#

A pretty simple debug menu to allow developers to test out various things.

DEBUG_PLANE_SELECT_0000 Increase/decrease snacks

Designate problem (view order)

Designate problem ("giving"--)

Confirm snack effect (all snacks)

Right before clearing all correctly

Confirm clearing all toys

Free talk

DEBUG_PLANE_SELECT_0001 Please hand over

DEBUG_PLANE_SELECT_0002 Have NPC's snack

Do not have NPC's snack

Have all snacks

Do not have all snacks

DEBUG_PLANE_SELECT_0003 View dialogue only

From handing over snacks

DEBUG_PLANE_SELECT_0004 Receive money

After receiving money

DEBUG_PLANE_SELECT_0005 Clear only that NPC

Clear all NPCs

DEBUG_PLANE_SELECT_0006 View only post-handover dialogue

From the handover spot

DEBUG_PLANE_SELECT_0008 After 1st request received (No intro)

View introduction event

Interval

Do nothing

param.template#

A debug parameter file to test out plenty of things.

param.template

パラメータ設定ファイル パラメータ名の前に（間を空けずに）*を付けるとデバッグパネルで値を変更できます

entry debug ; 一番最初に読むマップ名を指定します dashboard 0 ; 起動直後からデバッグ情報を表示する

collision_disp 0 ; コリジョンのワイヤーフレームを表示する
msglabel_disp 0 ; メッセージスタジオのラベルを表示する
freemem_disp 0 ; 空きメモリサイズを表示する
depth_level 30 ; 立体視の基準面（カメラNearからの距離）
stereo_factor 100 ; 立体視の調整％（デフォルト値に掛ける倍率）
script_debug_menu 1 ; スクリプトの$DEBUG_MENU変数を1にする
script_debug 0 ; スクリプトの$DEBUG変数を1にする
cbr_immortal 0 ; ちびロボのワッツ減らない
longthrow_debug 0 ; ロングスローのデバッグ機能初期青玉30コ、パワースロー有効、反射有効
sand_disp 0 ; 砂の矩形を表示する

snd_from_hio 1 ; サウンドアーカイブをHIO経由で読み込みます

References#

Nintendo Co., Ltd. Earning Release for the Nine-Month Period Ended December 2015 - nintendo.co.jp↩︎

v · t · e The Chibi-Robo! series
GameCube, Wii	Chibi-Robo!
Nintendo DS	Park Patrol
Nintendo 3DS	Zip Lash