139th played so far
Genre: Puzzle/Platform
Platform: Playstation Portable
Year of Release: 2008
Developer: SCE Japan Studio
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
On this blog we like to put forward the idea that there is some form of consistency in this list… well there is not. There are instances where most of a franchise are on a list despite the fact that some of them are not too different from one another (yes Mario: The Lost Levels I am looking at you) and then there are remakes (like Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes and Ninja Gaiden Black) which appear on the list alongside the originals. LocoRoco 2 is like neither of these. The reason it made it onto the list is because it was seen as the same game as LocoRoco but with a lot of improvements. Good work list, you done good.
Our Thoughts
Without a doubt LocoRoco 2 is one of the cutest games that I have ever played. Any game which involves navigating Space Hoppers through a colourful environment by tilting the entire world using the shoulder buttons is alright by me. Was I the only wondering whether actual tilting might work better for this? As the level progresses your LocoRoco grows by eating berries and you are able to use your ever inflating character to solve puzzles, blast through walls and generally save your planet from the evil (and still very cute) Moja.
It has previously been described by some reviewers as a slow motion version of Sonic The Hedgehog because of all the hills and ramps that you find yourself rolling down in order to collect fruit. With Sonic being all about speed, that seems a bit weird though… and the similarities are only superficial. If anything, if we want to list early examples, we might be more inclined to look at Snake, Rattle ‘n Roll. In many ways the style of animation is one which you would probably expect to find on a children’s network like Nick Jr. or CBeebies and that really should be a turn off for a semi-serious gamer such as myself but it also resembles a slightly brighter Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends where the world could have been easily made out of construction paper.
A really cool feature of this game, apart from tilting the entire world using the shoulder buttons, is the fact that you are able to split your character into smaller LocoRocos (via lightning) or reform them into the larger one at will (via an earthquake). This is necessary for completing certain puzzles as well as being unbelievably cute to just watch their uncertain faces. They also start making really cute sounds, and indeed the way to progress is sometimes not just to split them, but to have them sing with their cute squeaky voice. They’re quite simply adorable for a large part of this. To be honest this is not the hardest game but there is beauty in it’s cute simplicity.
Final Thoughts
What’s there to be said, really? Not having played the first game (yet!), I can’t judge whether it’s a major improvement, but all in all the game is solidly put together. It’s great fun to play, with a control scheme and physics engine that starts out a bit bewildering, but actually starts making sense really soon and offers a more integrated experience.
At the same time, it feels like there are so many more worlds and things to explore in here that we’re really just waiting for a sequel… Can we have some more please?