“Holy crap! This is awesome!”

That was my first reaction to LocoRoco 2 (well, right after, “what the...?”). I’ve not played the original, so if you’ve been missing out as well then don’t let the thought of a sequel deter you. If you’ve already played the first one, how could you not want more?! This is by far the most engaging, charming and plain joyous game I’ve ever played. Sure, it’s not for everyone (if you have no heart) but anyone with a PSP needs to try it. You may kick me in the knee caps if I waste your money.

The premise of the game is simple, though slightly odd. You begin life as a single LocoRoco, a smiling, singing, round blobby thing of varying colours and personalities. Starting out with the yellow Loco, Kulche, you roll your way around the levels as Kulche laughs and giggles infectiously. Reminiscent of Sonic’s rolling adventures, the LocoRocos roll and jump through each level collecting items until reaching the end. Along the way you need to knock out the dreadlocked Mojas and free the landscape of the evil black soot. All while avoiding black spikes and nasties that’ll either eat you or throw an axe at your head.

Gameplay seems deceptively simple, using mostly only the shoulder buttons. The Loco is moved by tilting the whole world, causing it to roll in the tilted direction – L button tilts it left, R tilts it right and pressing them both together makes him jump. As you play you’ll unlock different moves, where, for example, holding L + R for four seconds will make him jump extra high, or tapping them both rapidly will pull on the exposed hair of, er, some weird-looking creatures to pull them out of the landscape and land you with a bonus item. The O button is used occasionally in the mini-games, but otherwise it’s all shoulder buttons. I said  ‘deceptively simple’ because although that may sound easy, it’ll take a while to get used to the movement. (Note, tilting the PSP itself doesn’t seem to actually help, though that doesn’t stop me doing it).

As your little Loco rolls and bounces his way through each crazy level, you need to find the Loco fruits. Eating the fruit will increase the size of your Loco, making him ever fatter and sluggish. Each fruit you eat also means another Loco collected. Pressing O will cause your big, fat Loco to break up into individual Locos, while holding it down makes them join back together. There’s a maximum of 20 Locos to collect on each level and finding (and keeping!) them all before the end is extra challenging. Usually, you’ll want to keep your Locos together in one big blob – having them separate into individuals makes it too easy to lose one. Parts of some levels, however, have been cleverly designed so that you have to split your Locos, either to continue through the level or to unlock a special item.

Throughout each level you’ll come across a number of places where you’ll need a certain number of Locos to receive an item. Sometimes this unlocks a simple rhythm mini-game, the song here depending on which Loco you’re using. After completing the song (I don’t think you can fail it) you’re rewarded with musical notes and an item. If you don’t have the required number of Locos, you’re sent on your way with, usually, no way to back track.

Every level is creatively and brilliantly designed. Simple, cheerful pastels greet you in most of the levels with a side-scrolling adventure that sometimes seems melded with an insane pinball machine. Despite the linearity, there are plenty of hidden rooms and side paths that can lead you to hidden items or lost Mui Mui (friendly blue humanoids). Finding them all is a real challenge. Even after playing some of the levels a dozen times, I still haven’t found all the secrets. Removing the last of the evil soot can be a challenge in itself, some staying annoyingly hidden. Initially, I thought re-playing the levels would get old real quick but I’ve found it more enjoyable each time – maybe I’m just a collecting nut and have become obsessed with collecting all of the LocoRocos. The closest I’ve come so far is finishing 19 Locos, damn me if I can find the last one!

Items you collect go towards building materials for your Mui Mui Home. As you rescue more Mui Mui, they’ll return home to sing their happy song and interact with new items you build. While being restricted to building set items in particular rooms, decorating and adding on to the Mui Mui home is strangely compelling. One of the mini games that will pop up from time to time is an attack on the home by the enemy Bui Bui (red humanoids). After being sent on a mission to retrieve the parts to build a Mui Mui cannon, you can enter the mini game. Using the thumbstick and the O button, you save the Mui Mui home by firing on the enemy aircraft. While simple, like most of the mini games, I found aiming with the thumbstick awkward, causing me to miss several shots – a problem when the cannon isn’t rapid-fire but needs to be re-loaded each time by your helpful little Mui friend.

Besides the Defend the Home mini game, LocoRoco2 has a bunch of other mini games. Each of these is unlocked as you progress, offering different games of varying appeal. There’s a whack-a-mole style game, a Loco race where you pick one Loco and collect phat loots if it wins, a Loco rider where a Mui Mui rides a Loco and duels with an opponent Loco, knocking him into spikes and causing him to lose Locos. Chuppa Chuppa is a fun challenge, being shot around a dangerous course by the power of long-snouted bird things. It’ll cost you Pickories to play each game, but these are collected as you play the regular levels. Alternatively, if you complete a Loco Stamp Sheet (more things to collect) you’ll be rewarded with 1000 Pickories.

The world of LocoRoco2 is broken up into about a dozen locations, ranging from vine-swinging jungles to slippery ice slopes. Each one has a unique look and feel, some changing the way your Loco moves (a world where you have to bounce everywhere makes for some frustrating times) and sometimes increases the difficulty. While most of LocoRoco2 is a fun romp of bouncing, singing, sliding and collecting, sometimes the quests or boss fights can be genuinely difficult. I’ve given up in frustration on some of them, or put them aside to try another time when I’m no longer cursing my blobby friend. The fact that the Locos seem to have minds of their own is what first attracted me to them. “How cute!,” I thought. However, this is what makes some of the more difficult stages really frustrating, in that they tend to want to bounce or move off in directions they want to go.

Overall:
The charm and character of every single creature in the game (even the somewhat evil Mojas) and the wonderful presentation more than makes up for any minor flaws the game might have. You’ll find yourself humming along to the music or imitating the cute sounds of the Mui Muis, Locos and Mojas before long, and the replayability is great. This is definitely one of the best games to be released for the PSP and will keep anyone from a young age to the older gamer satisfied for a long time.