I guess that makes sense. I never played any of the other Chibi-Robo games before so I don't have the shadow of the past games hanging over me. Had the game been released as a stand-alone title without the Chibi-Robo tie-in, maybe it would have been better received. I feel like the game does stand on its own though and doesn't need to be compared to Mario, DK, Kirby, etc.
This reminds me of another game that was widely panned for similar reasons back in the day, Alundra 2 for the PS1. There isn't much wrong with the game itself, and I personally love it and recommend the game whenever I can. But nearly every review I've read laments that it has little to do with the first Alundra and tries to compare the two games against one another. And then it summarizes by saying "not a bad game, but slapping the Alundra name on it is why I score it a 4/10"...
Oh, and I forgot to let you know sworddude that I appreciated the well thought out reply earlier in this thread about the later gen Pokemon games. I ended up buying a copy of Pokemon Ultra Sun based on your recommendations, though it might be a while until I get around to playing it... I have a few other RPGs that I'm currently in the middle of...