Loco Roco Review (PSP)

There's always a certain danger in appealing too much to a certain target audience. If you get too entrenched in giving them only what they want, projects that differ largely from the norm aren't going to attract much attention from them, regardless of the quality of said game.

Loco Roco is one such title. A 1st party game (that means Sony themselves developed it) that offers little among the lines of gritty, realistic environments. Cinematics, deep storylines, and heroes with troubled pasts are all in short supply in this game.

Instead, you will be introduced to a happy race known as the LocoRoco, whose fair home is now under threat by creatures that want to eat the Locos. You must now guide the denizens of the land to safety.

First things first. You don't actually control the LocoRoco themselves. What you control is the ground. Using the shoulder buttons, you can tilt the landscape, sending the Locos rolling across the terrain. Other functions (such as pressing the shoulder buttons simultaneously in order to make the Locos jump, and pressing O to split a large Loco into a bunch of smaller ones) are utilized. All this sounds deceptively simple, but skill is definitely going to be needed in order to complete your tasks.

As for the sound effects, well... The Loco love to sing. Ridiculously catchy tunes sung in a made-up language will fill your ears as you progress through the game, and it even serves the purpose of gameplay by letting the singing activate stuff like elevators and doors. Graphics are appropriately bright and cheerful without descending into the nauseating, and level design is great.

As said before, this game won't appeal to a large amount of the PSP fanbase due to its cutesy art style, which is a crying shame, because before anything else, it's a quality title. If you have a PSP, mark down this game on your list of titles to get.

By: Jonathan Lau