As much as Nintendo has an extremely loyal following around the world, having produced some of the most beloved games of the last 30 years, something it's never been good at is leveraging that player base. While Microsoft and Sony have encouraged development of multiplayer focused games of various genres, Nintendo has been quite restrictive and though Super Smash Bros, Mario Kart and more recently Splatoon have been online successes, it's never done anything on an MMO scale.
While Chibi Robo: Zip Lash isn't that, it does at least utilise the huge player base for the same sort of end. Players in the game can collect new costumes for their alien companion, but to do so they need five codes in sequential order and opening chests only ever rarely gives them one. To get the others, they need to trade them with other players and can post them directly to a special forum through the Miiverse.
As much as this feels like Nintendo wielding a mighty war axe to cut through a paper plate, it's exciting to see it finally starting to realise what sort of numbers it can leverage.
If it launched an MMO experience with collaborative play on a scale grander than this, it would be fantastical and there would clearly be enough players.
What would you like to see Nintendo do with a system like this? A Pokemon MMO is the obvious choice for me.
