One of the main criticisms when reviewing current video games is that they are blasted for having a lack of fresh ideas. LocoRoco for the PSP doesn’t even have that thought register when playing through the delightfully original exclusive. The game would be easy to dismiss on any store shelve but this is one game that PSP gamers must own to have their collections complete.

Features

Original PSP exclusive game

40 stages to roll and bounce through

Mini-games

Different LocoRoco to find

Build your LocoRoco a home

Story
The story is light and sweet. The LocoRoco live on a planet that is past the moon and stars and further than any telescope can see. When you see the world, it is like a Dr. Seuss book in a video game. However, all is not well on the LocoRoco’s planet. Dark forces called the Moja Corps have descended on the once happy and peaceful land that the LocoRoco inhabit. Seeing that the LocoRoco are peaceful by nature, they do not know how to handle these intruders. What are you to do?

Control
You don’t control the LocoRoco directly but rather, the world they live on. You tip the world left or right and make it bounce. The only other “control” is that you can make one giant LocoRoco or break it up into lots of mini-LocoRocos. These tasks are accomplished by using just the left and right shoulder buttons and the O on the face buttons. That’s all there is to the game and it makes it very easy to pick up and start playing, no prior knowledge of complex control schemes needed. From there, you travel the landscape and make the round blobs grow as they eat fruits and berries. There is no reason why anyone can’t enjoy this game because the controls get in the way of diving into the LocoRoco’s world.

Graphics
LocoRoco is a crowning achievement in art direction and graphic style. There has been no other game quite like it. LocoRoco doesn’t take full advantage of what the PSP is capable of, but it’s like a color book come to life. Taking visual queues from books like Dr. Seuss, LocoRoco is a believable world. The game is entirely done in 2D but it doesn’t take away from amazing visuals the game treats you too. After putting down the game you can’t help but feel a sense of “happy” for the rest of the day. You’ll wonder why more games don’t pump in more of these kind of semi-trippy visuals to make you want more.

It isn’t all sugar plums and gumdrops (even though it looks like it) in the graphic department. After you make it through the first world, the same color templates are used for the rest of the game. It seemed like the late levels were an extension of the very first levels that are available. More variation in the colors and themes would have been nice but what is there is already one of the most impressive visual titles on the PSP.