SImple, fun and very addictive. What more can you ask from the quirky new PSP title?
The game’s story is only really in the background here, as the game doesn’t require a ‘storyline’ as such. But in a nutshell, there are the spider like creatures called ‘Moja Corps’ which are invading the planet in which the little blobs live on and it is your job to tilt, roll and bounce the cute fellows to safety. There is no voice acting anywhere, but really there isn’t a need for it at all.
The game is all set in a 2D world of lush and vibrant colours which doesn’t fail to impress. All of which stands out very well as you make your way along the landscape. The point of every level is to try and achieve the best score you can by collecting everything that is on offer. The prime objective is to gain Berries (out of twenty per level), so that you make your LocoRoco grow and prevent straight kills if you hit spikes. There are also other things, such as the fruit you have to collect (a lot per level)..they go towards a whole accumulated total so that you can play the mini-games. Plus finally, the MuiMui’s which there are three of on each level to help unlock certain things that you can use to ‘create’ your ‘Loco House’. These parts include rotating platforms, normal platforms and other weird and wonderful things! As you finish a level, you unlock the level after it and there are eight levels in each ‘world’. With a total of five worlds to get through, and the prospect of playing through each level again to gain perfect scores the game could be never ending almost. The gameplay itself is very fluent, albeit a tad unresponsive, but nothing takes it away from being a superb game.
Then, onto the game’s extras. These are the 2 demos that have been previously been distributed plus the three mini games. The first mini game is a simple, prize grabber game that you might see in an arcade. Entitled the ‘MuiMui Crane’ you guide the MuiMui controlled crane towards the prizes below, which include more LocoRoco’s for the Loco House and actual parts for the House. Not the most entertaining mini game ever, but you may want to try it to get the prizes on offer. The second game is called ‘Chuppa Chuppa’, and it involves the LocoRoco’s being shot out of the Chuppa’s (avoiding being killed and getting towards the next Chuppa), to try and reach the goal at the end which is yet another Loco House prize. Once again, once you complete this there isn’t much reason to go back. The third mini game is something that people cried out for, the ‘Loco Editor’. It allows you to use all of the pieces that you have unlocked to create your own level and in turn, distribute that level to other LocoRoco owning fanatics. This is a good idea, and one which has yet been tried much.
It’s music, much in the vain of games like Katamari is very well suited to the game and is a refreshing change from all of the rock/skate rock EA trax lists for example. Each sort of level(whether it be snow, normal etc.) has it’s own little elongated piece of music, with some being much better than others. Also, at times the LocoRoco get up and sing which varies from each different type of LocoRoco and they have their own signature tunes.
The game does not support Wi-Fi multiplayer, and to be fair it is quite hard to see how they could implement it considering the simple gameplay. But, you can spread around the screenshots you take, and the levels that you create on the Editor to other people with the game and fellow PSP owners.
So, in conclusion LocoRoco impresses. It may not really pose a challenge but it isn't really supposed to. So, PSP owners from Europe (and importers from the rest of the world) rejoice in the LocoRoco love. In simple terms, buy it. Really, buy it and smile all summer.