GamesRelay

Name: LocoRoco

For a game that’s cover looks like someone did it in Paint, LocoRoco on the PSP has quite a few quirky tricks up its sleeve. While the graphics are simple and the colours are vibrant, the characters look cute and loving. So you’re wondering what exactly this game is and what’s it all about? Well, read on to find out just how good this game really is.

LocoRoco doesn’t have much of a story to go with, but in this sort of game, who really needs one? The LocoRoco and their friends, the Mui Mui are tasked with looking after nature and helping things grow, generally making the world a better place to be. Unfortunately for the cute and cuddly blobs and Mui Mui of course, an evil race called the Moja Troop come to try and take the planet over and generally make it a bad place to be, turning all the vibrant and pretty colours into dark and nasty ones.

The controls and gameplay for the game are easy to pick up and play for all gaming ages. The shoulder buttons on the PSP have you pressing them to turn the world so that your LocoRoco roll around within it. The whole point of the game is to find and collect more LocoRoco which in later levels change colour and music, but on top of that you are also tasked with collecting your Mui Mui friends. The gameplay is fairly easy from the get go, with not much thought provoking action required, it’s a perfect game to take on the move with you and as long as you don’t play it none stop then the game doesn’t get repetitive but stays fresh and fun.

While your rolling around the world looking for more friends, rolling into vegetation will germinate the buds and make them grow into flowers and stalks which you can use to progress further through the level, but the added strategy is that some are not accessible by your cute blob, which means you may have to go back the way you came to look for more LocoRoco to help you. With your LocoRoco in tow, you can either use them all as single individuals or combine them into one larger blob which can access certain areas or move all your LocoRoco around much easier, since as separate blobs they all react to the environment individually thus meaning when you tilt the world, if it’s tilted for to long you may go further than you needed to be leaving some of your friends behind. So you have to be careful not to lose too many as some areas require a set amount of LocoRoco before they let you continue.

Your LocoRoco even have a house where they live, which throughout the game you will find content which you can use to build your house to make it a fun place for the LocoRoco to be. Some of the items are large and make it difficult to position inside all together, but it adds a nice distraction to the gameplay when you fancy something different from rolling all over the world all day. You also are able to unlock three mini games to play which involve you performing certain tasks and for the most dedicated of LocoRoco players, a simple level editor can be unlocked to make your own basic levels. There isn’t any multiplayer in LocoRoco unfortunately, but you do have house sharing capabilities and you can also share your created levels with friends.

Aside from that, you also have the time trial mode which you can continue playing through to beat your score. It also keeps track of the things you find and do, for instance how many Mui Mui you find and how many Pickories you collect. Pickories allow you to spend them on the extra content for your house, so shopping can be a nice experience, if you like building a LocoRoco house that is. While the game has a lot to offer, the game is best suited to casual play otherwise it possibly could get tedious. It’s a game you will enjoy and appreciate a lot more without diving in and trying to get to the end as fast as possible.

We touched on the graphics earlier, but it is worth mentioning that the faces of the LocoRoco do add personality to your blob. The whole experience has a very unique style of graphics which is charming, simple and fun. Your LocoRoco react with the environment in such a way that having to split them apart into smaller LocoRoco will enable you to get through a wind tunnel at incredible speed, while the characters get squished and squeezed through parts of the level. On another note, the music is fantastic. The whole game has different stages of music and some of it, especially the main title are very catchy and cute, sung by Japanese children for those in the know. While you can’t understand a word there saying, unless you speak Japanese that is, you don’t need to – to appreciate the charm and quality of the music. It makes the experience more enjoyable as a whole, and you’ll soon be humming the tune or playing it in your head even when you don’t want to.

With the game being nothing like anything on the PSP currently, it’s a great package. With fun gameplay, great music and lots of replay value. The charming 2D visuals are a charm to look at and you will be very impressed with its simple yet cute style. LocoRoco is set to be one of the “must haves” for the PSP and anyone not experiencing it is missing out on a really fun game.