Nintendo explains why Chibi-Robo is starring in a platformer

Coming from Nintendo producer Kensuke Tanabe and assistant producer Risa Tabata...

“One of the first things Skip suggested was having Chibi-Robo throw or spin his cord instead of having it plugged into the wall. From that, we began thinking about different actions that Chibi-Robo could do to interact with a stage. Maybe he can destroy enemies with it, or throw it toward a panel to scale an insurmountable wall. This wasn’t enough, though, so we decided to also have items that could change the length of Chibi-Robo’s cord. We also added the ability to perform Zip-Lashes, by which Chibi-Robo can charge up and throw his cord so that it bounces off of surfaces.”