Sony Japan’s cheerful, vibrant platformer stands as a testament to the studio’s unique abilities and is just an all-round joyous time.
| Developer | |
| Publisher | |
| Franchise | LocoRoco |
| Genre | 2D Platformer |
| PSTV | Yes |
| PSN | EU/NA |
World-building & Story
On an unnamed planet, the colourful blobs called LocoRoco live in peace with other species including the chatty Mui Mui and elephant-like Chupa Chupa. This is all thrown into chaos when they’re invaded by the evil Moja Troop and you take control of the planet as it tries to protect its inhabitants from this new danger.
Barely a word is muttered throughout the campaign of LocoRoco yet it manages to create a fascinating world full of unique creatures, perilous hazards and yet most of all, just a lovely feeling of upbeat optimism. Everything here is popping with colour and life and it has the same positive energy that makes things such as Katamari and Super Monkey Ball such a joy to experience. It means that the story – which is basically non-existent beyond ‘save the LocoRoco’ is something I still enjoyed seeing through from start to finish.
Presentation & Sound
Offering bright 2D visuals that obviously shared a development pipeline with Patapon (meaning it shares a very similar look), the graphics in LocoRoco hope sell this adventure as a carefree, happy time.
It’s rather amusing that the playable characters are simply coloured blobs with little else to them, although each variety you come across has its own personality thanks to facial features and they all sing along with the music playing which is a nice touch to make things a bit more personal. You’ll encounter various species from deceptive plants that try to trap you with the promise of fruit, owls that suck you in to eat you and change your shape and the Moja Troop, which are like flying octopuses desperate to feast on unsuspecting LocoRoco (even if they contain a few racial undertones which I’m sure are unintended, but are a bit unfortunate). It’s a bizarre world but that just makes it all the more charming.
Backgrounds are a bit less impressive – don’t get me wrong, they’re very colourful and you’ll explore everywhere from rolling green plains, to snowy mountains with underground water passages to the inside of monsters with plenty of giblets and the like to avoid, but they all feature basic design and feel like something done in MS Paint. That of course is part of the simple charm of LocoRoco but I couldn’t help but wish for a little more – although I did like the ability to customise my own Loco House with parts I found while adventuring.
Music is a huge part of the experience in LocoRoco with a variety of upbeat songs with ridiculously catchy lyrical rhythms filling your playtime. A couple of these veered on the side of being annoying for me but generally I loved what was on offer here and I liked even more that the same leitmotifs are used over and over but adjusted depending on what colour LocoRoco you’re controlling. Otherwise, you’ll just be greeted with the incoherent sounds of the LocoRoco talking to each other in Sims-esque gibberish(although I did notice the Ripper Roo laughing sound effect from Crash Bandicoot found its way in here somehow!).
Soundtrack highlight – Yoi Yore
Gameplay & Content
Like a 2D platformer in reverse (you don’t directly control the characters, just influence their movement by manipulating the world), LocoRoco is a simple idea executed well and although it trends on the easy side, I still had an ace time with it.
You move the planet by pressing the left or right triggers and this tilts the world, causing the LocoRoco to move with it – although you can press both triggers at once to launch the LocoRoco (holding it down will cause it to ‘jump’ higher). You’ll use this to navigate various platforms and puzzles, your goal being to make it to the end of the level where the LocoRoco will sing to grow a tree which helps to defend against the Moja Troop invasion. The more LocoRoco there are singing, the more it grows which feeds into the second mechanic – eating and multiplying.
As you explore around, you’ll find berries and if your LocoRoco eats this it’ll grow in size, to the extent that you can have a fairly gigantic beast by the middle of a level. Being a planet, you can summon bolts of lightning with the circle button and doing so splits up the LocoRoco into smaller beings, which is used to pass certain platforming and puzzle challenges. The smaller variety can also be blown by gusts of wind, fit through gaps and turn wheels by their sheer number but it’s generally more difficult to move ten of something than one, so you’ll mostly spend your time playing with the bigger variety.
There’s no end of inventive ideas here, aside from those already mentioned you’ll need to swing from vines, float in water and engage in occasional combat with the Moja Troop which mostly involves jumping to knock them down then landing on their heads to finish them off. There’s a big emphasis on exploring off the beaten path here and you can find lots of collectables by smashing through walls and poking around the corners of levels. This is important because the game as a whole is pretty easy, but going for 100% requires significantly more skill as lots of items are well hidden and need some skill to reach.
One of the collectables you find can be used to unlock mini games outside the campaign such as a seaside-esque crane or Angry Birds inspired flinging course and items you collect here plus in the campaign are parts which fill your Loco House, a cute little feature where your LocoRoco run around an obstacle course you construct for them. It’s a nice little bonus and a great example of the attention paid to making a cheerful, cute adventure here – you also unlock some things by just stopping and letting your LocoRoco sing, but I found this a bit of a time sink by the end and wasn’t a massive fan.
Bosses take the form of monsters which eat you and you have to get them to spit you out from the inside which is also nice, plus the fact that there are different coloured LocoRoco here provides a little variety (although I don’t think they changed the gameplay in any way, but aesthetically and audibly they were different). On the whole I found LocoRoco to be a easy, short experience clocking in at just over 5 hours – replayability comes by collecting everything as previously mentioned and I can see myself returning here just to relive what was a joyous experience from start to finish.
Conclusion
A Japanese game very much in the way that only Japan can, LocoRoco is a cheerful, colourful 2D platformer that has you performing simple tasks to save your cute creatures from invading aliens. I got more than a reminder of Japan Studio’s heritage when playing (everything from Ape Escape to Jumping Flash!) and it’s lovely just to exist and experience this one – even if it is on the short side, it’s just so damn charming that it’s difficult not to love it.
8.0/10
kresnik258gaming 
Thanks for this review. I loved LocoRoco and LocoRoco 2 is still in my top 10 games of all time. It’s sad that we’ll never have another LocoRoco game.
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I still have to play 2 (and Midnight Carnival) so I’ve still got some LocoRoco love to come, but yes. It’s such a shame so many of these quirky, cheerful IP’s from Japan Studio will have died out with their closure. Patapon is another one.
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