Tuesday 09 Sep 2008

Another game in my backlog and one that I am sad to say I should have played ages ago. In my view it should not take longer than an hour to start enjoying a game. Games such as Grand Theft Auto, Mario Kart and Tetris are all good examples of games that have you mastering the controls within minutes of picking it up, and they’re brilliant titles.

Loco Roco breaks the record though as I rolled the squishy yellow Loco Roco off his first platform, ate some fruit (which made him grow slightly in size) and listened to him sing along to the most bizarre, but brilliant, music…and fell in love straight away.

The principal of the game is quite simple – guide your little blob from point A to B by using only the “L” and “R” triggers on the PSP. Your squishy Loco Roco’s are a mix between a blob of jelly and a space hopper, complete with eyes, mouth and a surprising amount of personality with such featureless faces.

As you progress you eat little flowers scattered along your path, and often hidden as well. As mentioned earlier this makes your Loco Roco grow in size, making it one fat, bloppy and very happy Loco Roco. This is all good for him because he could not care for his waistline, but it’s not good for you if you reach an area where you need to fall through, but you’re all sumo now. Simple, press your “circle” button once and a bolt of lightning zaps your Loco Roco into small Loco Rocos (the amount of flowers you have eaten which is represented in the top right corner) thus allowing all of them to fall through individually. Once you want them back in one handy blob, summoning an earth quake (by holding ‘circle’) frightens your Loco Rocos, making them huddle together in one big happy ball. Yes, this game oozes with cuteness.

What makes Loco Roco such a joy is that most of the traditional obstacles in games are nowhere to be seen. Levels are largely squishy, curvy, cushioned affairs with no holes of doom or bad guys to shoot. Even when you do face spikes or enemies of any sort it only squishes you into little Loco Rocos (like when using lightning) or eats up one of your little ones. When you do have an enemy, or beastie, munching away at your Loco Roco it is really disturbing though! Fortunately they are few and far between and munching another flower regenerates your lost Loco Roco.

Without all the dangers you might be pondering what on earth you should be playing the game for? The real point is going back and exploring each and every inch in the level to find all the many hidden secrets. You are rewarded with parts for your Loco Roco house, which I must admit is quite worthless.

The levels are exceptionally original. I thoroughly enjoyed the slippery Ice world which had me feel a bit of nostalgia as if it was the good old days with Sonic when you nearly felt out of control, but also just enough to feel really cool. Later on you find yourself in a whale’s stomach, dodging teeth sticking to roofs with all squishiness all over. It’s all very original and something that has never been seen before.

It’s a brilliant game - a simple cross between puzzle and platformer that has happy smiley faces entertaining you throughout. You won’t find a cuter 2D platformer on the PSP.

Pros: The Squishiness; watching Loco Rocos sing to smiling mountains.

Cons: Collecting parts for a Loco Roco house which really has no use.

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Contributor:	Dawid

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