Australian Gamer Review

TOO DRUNK TO MAKE ONE

LocoRoco

Reviewed on: Playstation Portable
Available on: Playstation Portable

One of the most anticipated games of the PSPs short lifespan, Locoroco has had our interest since we saw video at it at E3. Does the game live up to the hype?

Players: 1
Genre:
Release: 2020-07-07

Developer: SCE Studios Japan
Distributor: SCEE

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I've commented a number of times about the video games industry lacking originality and innovation. Apparently Sony was listening.

LocoRoco is one of those rare titles that stands with games such as Pikmin, Rez, Ico, and Katamari Damacy, as games which have no genre but are a genre in themselves.

Unlike those games, though LocoRoco has had the benefit of being unmercifully flogged by its publisher (Sony) and has consequently been a great success. This proves that innovation and originality, if tied with a decent marketing budget can actually work.

The story of LocoRoco is simple. The worlds of the LocoRoco have been taken over, invaded by nasty black things called Moja. The LocoRoco are small colourful blobs, which actually do very little other than sing and bounce a bit. One of the more interesting things about the game is that you actually don't control the LocoRoco themselves. Rather you control the world on which they sit.

You can tilt the world to the left with the L trigger, or tilt it to the right with the R trigger. Pressing both causes the world to bounce. That's it. That's all you can do. You then guide and roll and bounce your way through the obstacle course the level becomes, bouncing your LocoRoco into various pickups and secret areas, over danger, and into your heart.

Ok, that's little lame, but they really are pretty cute. The design of the LocoRoco is purest simplicity, and much like the controls it works because it's simple, not despite it. In fact, the design of pretty much everything is simple. Flat, bright colours make up everything in these 2D environments. The limited patterns are simple and flat coloured.

LocoRoco excels in its character design. There basically isn't any. The main characters (the LocoRoco) are bouncy blobs, differentiated by nothing more than their voices, their faces and their colours. The stunningly simple character design still leaves a lot of room for personality, thanks to cute animations, random gleeful yells, and general bouncy playfulness.

The enemy are similarly simple. Dark blobs, like spiders, fly around and attempt to eat you. They are called the Moja, and they're here to eat the LocoRoco. A bounce into them (up at them works best) will kill them, but bad luck or bad skill could see them snatching a piece of you off for lunch.

The controls and character design are simplicity itself, and if that were all there was, it wouldn't be enough. Where things start to get complex are the levels. There are several differently "themed" level types. Some are flowery fields of green ground and purple flowers. Some have a "sky" theme, with a lot of high jumps and springs and a generally upwards direction. Others are staged in ice, and are fast and very slippery. Others are set in Aztec style ruins, with strange mazes and machines. One that really stands out is the final levels of each stage. Making kind of a boss stage, these levels are essentially horror themed. Machinery in them is actually quite nasty, with sharp claws that grab your LocoRoco and hurl it against walls, or smash it apart. While they don't actually damage you, it's quite unpleasant, and very effectively done.

The other stand-out levels are the Huge Creature levels. These odd levels involve you being swallowed by? well? a huge creature. You then have to make your way through various bits and pieces and do what you do best (find secret areas, munch flowers, get fat). There comes a point at which you're back outside again. I've checked, and the transition from "in" to "out" is very indistinct, and completely devoid of any sort of farting or pooping noise. Which I think is an opportunity lost. Still, these levels are gross and pink and organic, and I kind of respect them for taking such a silly idea and just running with it.

I mentioned machines previously, and I probably should expand on that. Frequently in LocoRoco you lose direct control of your character (not that you ever had it) and must surrender your guys to be broken up and whisked away on the winds, or plunged through the bowls of some spinning machine. Cogs often make an appearance, with one LocoRoco neatly filling in each gap, and there are assorted sliding, leaping, hurling and squishing things to keep life interesting. While you don't really have any control in these sequences they do help break things up nicely.

The other aspect of LocoRoco that stands out is probably its greatest asset: The music. The music in LocoRoco won't really be to everyone's taste. But really if you were open to getting the game at ALL you'll probably find you can pretty much embrace it. LocoRoco's music is perfectly suited to the game in every respect. It's bright and upbeat, fun and clever. The music is also misleadingly complex. For such bubblegum music a great deal of time and attention, not to mention talent, has been put into making sure the music is absolutely top notch. The music is multi-faceted. Each LocoRoco (each colour) has its own theme music, a distinctive and very individual melody that perfectly suits the little blobs. These themes occur occasionally when playing, but more often the individual voices of the LocoRoco are used to sing the theme of the level. These completely different sounds, from rock to swing to junglebeats to Mexican to French to Japanese children make for a varying feel as you move from level to level, or rather, LocoRoco to LocoRoco, and they stop the music from getting samish.

Two other neat features of the music are firstly that the LocoRoco can be seen actually singing along. How this is achieved I'm not quite sure, but presumably some sort of rhythm track matches their mouths to the music. It's not a profound thing, just a replacement of simple shaped mouths with other simple shaped mouths. But it's well done, and? let's be honest? really cute.

The other thing that is impressive in the music is that while in one blob (as you are through most of the game) the music is catchy and clever. Breaking the LocoRoco, however, also breaks up the music. The music splits into four distinct tracks, with your LocoRoco singing all four tracks, in some complex and pleasant harmonies. This level of musical depth is frankly rather startling in a game that's supposed to be about bouncing blobs. Another nice feature is that you can see your individual locoroco singing the alternating parts, singing backup or "doowop" or lead. In little clusters of random song they individually move their mouths. It's very well done, and again? very cute.

It's frankly all so cute. Everything in there is cute and clever and well done, as you would expect from Sony in a landmark title like this.

In fact, it's almost cute enough to forgive its flaws.

Almost.

But we really wouldn't be doing our jobs if we didn't at least give them a quick mention, would we?

LocoRoco is simple. But its greatest charm is its downfall as well. To be honest, after a little while it gets just a bit samish. You get a little bit bored, and you think you'll put it down after this level. Well. Maybe after this one. Actually, I like the ice ones, I'll do it after that. You get the idea.

It really feels like LocoRoco has missed out on some opportunities it had. For example, the LocoRoco themselves are different colours, but apart from music there's no actual difference between them. None of them bounce higher, or slide faster or? anything. They're exactly the same. There is no reason whatsoever to choose one colour over any other. Some sort of Pikmin-esque difference might have been nice. The same can be said of the enemies. There is basically no variety, and certainly no growth. Enemies are either bottom level, or bosses, and the bosses are spectacularly easy.

Also, while a quick tap of the O button makes your LocoRoco split up from the supersized Sumo it's become, there's actually little or no reason to do it other than the bits where it MAKES you. There are a few puzzle sections where you need to split up and use multiple loco-parts, but these are VERY few and far between, and very obvious. There are maybe four or five throughout the entire game. There was a lot of opportunity to do things like requiring you to put one LocoRoco on one sensor, while getting another one on another to open a door, or? hell, various things involving deliberately splitting your little fat bastard.

Another problem is that sometimes things just seem? arbitrary. LocoRoco is clearly a game based on physics, on bounce and slide physics within a specific environment, rather than story or pre-defined gameplay. But one of the side effects of that is that things can happen that are a little? unexpected. And frankly a little inconsistent. It can be hard to tell, for example, what sort of hill you will slide gently down, and what you will zoom down. Some surfaces are extremely slippery, and it's not always obvious. Certain bouncing techniques seem to have varied successes, seemingly at random, making the frequent long chains of difficult jumps an exercise in frustration. Similarly, the difference between a Moja killing blow and him eating you seems to be almost random.

LocoRoco can be very slow. From repeated attempts at the same jump, to trying to go faster on a gentle slope without leaping into your doom, LocoRoco can be surprisingly tedious and actually a little dull.

LocoRoco is quite short. You can finish it in a night without trying especially hard. It's really pretty easy to come to grips with the controls, and with each level taking maybe an average of 10-15 minutes, and there being 6 x 5 worlds? you're looking at a maximum of? damn I wish I knew numbers. Around 6 hours total, to get through them all.

It's not really about rushing through them, though. There's no real goal, no final boss, no dramatic CG ending. The real goal is to get all 20 of the LocoRocos hidden through the level. To get all of the bees. To find all the MuiMuis. To get all the house parts. That is actually quite an accomplishment, and actually finding all the hidden compartments and tricky paths is going to take you a good solid time.

There's a reasonable amount of other non-game stuff to do, including three minigames and the LocoRoco House.

LocoRoco House lets you build a "machine" for LocoRoco to play in. They basically follow the path set out and built up of parts found through the rest of the game, including the mini games. Initially you can't build much because you don't have any parts, but soon you start to amass a collection of bits and bobs to get things interesting, especially if you're willing to play through the game over and over to get the parts.

The only problem is? and maybe this is just me? you're not really that sure whether you want to. LocoRoco is fun to play, and an impressive feat of a game in terms of "break through gamers", getting non gamers interest. Where it falls down, though, is that it's not actually THAT fun, and serious gamers will find themselves losing interest relatively quickly.

In fact, in about two weeks you're more likely to be showing other skeptical people than actually playing yourself. It's much like WarioWare Touched in that respect. The bug bites hard and fast, but then leaves. In the mean time it's a really good way to convince people (girl people) that your spanking hardware is actually pretty cool.

(much thanks to Elice, for lending me her copy to review even before she'd played it herself)

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Final Verdict

LocoRoco is everything it promises to be. Cool and fun, innovative and addictive, but with just barely enough gameplay depth to keep you interested. You'll play it and enjoy it, but you'll be humming the tunes long after you stopped playing the game.

Pros
Charming, fun, easy to pick up, hard to put down. Insanely catchy music. Innovative and original.
Cons
Too short. Gets a little monotonous. Not enough done with some of its potential.