Gaming Trend

Gaming Trend Review

by Chris Miller

There is a subset of games that are best described as 100% pure, unadulterated Japanese quirkiness.  Games like Katamari Damacy, Patapon, Rez, Pikmin, etc. are games that fall well outside the box of standard genre classification, are supremely creative, are completely bizarre, and are generally very well-received in the gaming press.  Unfortunately, most of these games fall completely flat with me.   There’s something about them that I just don’t “get”, and while I can appreciate the tremendous amount of creative energy that went into them, they never seem to hold my attention for long.

Enter Loco Roco 2.  Having skipped the original game in the series, I was caught a bit unprepared for LocoRoco 2’s particular brand of insanity.  When I fired up my PSP I was hoping for the best, but expecting this to be an incredibly painful review.  Would it succeed where the others had failed, or would I toss it on the heap with the others and walk away with the baffled look that so often accompanies these type of games?  Here goes nothing…

At first glace, I was rather disappointed with LR2’s graphics.  The style could best be described as "minimalist”, with all the characters and landscapes looking like paper cut-outs pasted onto cheery, pastel backgrounds.   Once the game really got into motion, however, I was blown away at the amount of detail and polish that had gone into creating this whimsical world.   Just looking at screenshots don't do the game any justice, and it is something that needs to be experienced to appreciate.  Trees may appear to be nothing but a simple circle placed on top of a stick, but when that tree explodes in a flurry of dazzling colors and shapes that realistically blow in the wind as you roll past, it becomes something truly amazing. 

This is a feel-good game, and there is plenty to see in this world that will penetrate the cynical crustiness of even the most hardcore, jaded gamers.  From the veritable zoo of cutesy critters, to the cross-eyed and expressive LocoRoco’s themselves, to some of the most insane levels you will ever see (the goal of one level was to navigate my character through the digestive tract of a giant penguin.  Seriously.), there were plenty of times I was left thinking “what the hell was that?”.  Thankfully, at no time was I doing it without a big smile on my face.

It is a testament to the talent of the LR2’s artists and designers that although not a single actual word is spoken, there is no doubt as to what the characters are thinking and doing.  It actually reminds me quite a bit of the opening act of Wall-E, in that all communication is done through expressions, movements, and Sims-esque jibberish as opposed to actual speech.  The artists do an amazing job at conveying the story through simple squawks, chirps, and grunts, especially during the many cut-scenes. 

The music in LR2 is a work of sheer genius.  Every area comes complete with it’s own musical score, and I can guarantee that you will be humming these catchy little ditties long after the game is done.  Just as with the jibber-speak, the music does a fantastic job at providing guidance and clues in telling the story and explaining what to do or where to go next.  The composers did a masterful job, and the sound designers for this game deserve a huge pat on the back for adding an incredible amount of life and energy to the game world.

The control scheme for LR2 is amazingly simple.  You take control of a LocoRoco, which is an anthropomorphic blob of what appears to be jello.  Having no arms or legs, it’s main form of locomotion is rolling, which you need to help with.  In order to move your LocoRoco, you simply tilt the entire game world using the L and R shoulder buttons.  Press R to slant the entire world to the right and cause your LocoRoco to roll in that direction, and vice versa.  Since rolling alone would not get him/her/it where they need to go, you can also press both triggers to jump.   Jumping can be tricky, as the tilt of the world will determine how high and where your character will land.  It takes some getting used to, but will quickly become second nature.  The only other button used is circle, which will either break your LocoRoco apart into smaller units (good for squeezing through small gaps) or bring them back together again.  Forget about complex control schemes and crazy button combinations - LR 2 is about as basic as it gets.  It’s simple and yet completely and wholly effective. 

It’s worth noting that since the entire control scheme is based on tilting the world, the physics engine had to be solid in order for the game to succeed.  Thankfully, it is up to the challenge and – in most cases – performs remarkably well.  You can perform actions with confidence knowing that your character will land, roll, spin, or squish exactly like you would expect him to.

I’m not sure I could accurately encapsulate the story of LocoRoco 2, so I’ll defer to the exact description that I received from Sony’s marketing folks to sum things up:

Having triumphed over the invasion of the Moja army corps, the LocoRoco have been living happily on their joyous planet.  Unwilling to concede defeat, the boss of the Moja army ran back to his home world and started preparations for a new attack, helped by his cunning mother.  They came up with a new plan, and a new weapon:  a terrible song that can suck the life-force out of living things.  Armed with the brutal song, the Moja boarded their meteorite and set off once more on a mission to conquer the LocoRoco planet.

OK, so we can all agree that the premise is completely insane.  However, the game itself is pretty basic.  The bottom line for you – the gamer - is that you will be responsible for rolling your LocoRoco from one side of the level to the other.  Along the way, you’ll need to solve some incredibly clever puzzles, defeat some baddies in classic platformer fashion (by jumping on their heads), and collect the fruit, prizes, and other goodies that are scattered throughout the world.  Your LocoRoco starts each level small, and gains additional size the more fruit you collect.  It behooves the player to have as big a LocoRoco as possible, since the bigger they are, the more damage they can sustain from enemies and spiky traps without dying.  At the end of each level, you will see how much you collected, how many hidden items you found, and how long the level took, and will be awarded a score. 

Simply put, the levels are absolute genius in their design.   You select each stage by cycling through a world map of sorts, which then transports you into the particular level.  Some of the areas are pretty standard fare (forests, oceans, snowy mountains, or jungles), while some are more bizarre (such as the guts of a penguin or a crazy haunted clocktower).  The early stages are very basic and will see your LocoRoco cavorting over simple hills and jumps in order to get the hang of the control scheme.  However, you will quickly learn that there is far more to this game world than first meets the eye.  You will need to position your blob over an air draft or catch onto a dandelion flyer to blow them up to an unreachable platform, find ways to wiggle yourself into cracks to reach hidden items, and zip Sonic-like through loops and whirls that will have your head spinning with the speed.   Sometimes just keeping up with what is going on in your surroundings is challenging, but I rarely found myself stuck.  This isn’t a game that will induce controller-throwing levels of frustration, but the solutions to most puzzles do require you to think a bit.  One of my favorite mechanics was breaking the LocoRoco up into smaller units, which would allow them to fit through tight areas or into particular areas of the screen.  Once through, holding the button down will bring the blob back together.  This is one of those rare games that strikes a perfect balance between platforming and puzzling.     

In addition to the levels themselves, there are a number of mini-games as well.  These range from a whack-a-mole segment, to a side scrolling shooter (a la Gradius), to furnishing a giant hive/house with the items you collect throughout the game.  Most of these mini-games are very basic, and I never spent much time with them outside of the story segments that require you to play through them once.   I found the actual levels to be far more fun.  There are also some boss-fights mixed into the action, but I found them to be somewhat lacking compared to the levels themselves.  Although I have to admit that defeating one mid-boss by yanking out his giant nosehairs did bring a huge smile to my face.

This is typically the point in the review where I describe things I had issue with, espeically after heaping such praise on the game.  Amazingly, however, there aren’t many bad things to point out.  Any problems I encountered were very minor, and were more a function of my lack of platformer skills than any issue with the game itself.  I did find the difficulty to be a bit uneven, with some levels that I could zip through with no problems and others that I would get stuck on for quite a while.   I also found that in the final third of the game, I had a hard time collecting more than half of the items available in the level, even after multiple attempts.   There were many areas that left me wondering “how on earth do I get up there?”, but that is an issue that I’m sure will be resolved with additional run-throughs.

It will probably only take a few days for dedicated gamers to rip through the main storyline in LR2.  However, most of the fun comes from replaying the levels and trying to either find all the secret items and areas, or simply trying to best your previous time.  With multiple paths and branches in every world, there’s a ton of replay value to be had here.  The mini-games can also be replayed as often as you’d like, which could add on additional hours for those who enjoy them.  LR2 is a game I imagine will be in my PSP for a long time to come.

I’ll be honest, I did not expect to like LocoRoco 2 at all.  It simply looked too quirky and bizarre for me.  However, with it’s simple controls, incredible levels, amazing artistic and sound design, and all-around charm, it has completely won me over.   It probably won’t be one that you’ll be showing off to your hardcore gaming buddies, but I can guarantee that you’ll be coming back to it over and over again.  This is the sort of creativity and plain ol’ fun that most of today’s games are missing. 

Simply put, if you own a PSP and do not buy this game, shame on you.  You’ll be missing one of the best games of the year.

Gaming Trend Score

93

1. Graphics: 93
2. Audio: 97
3. Controls: 93
4. Gameplay: 92
5. Value/Replay: 90
6. OVERALL:93