Loco Roco: - Rolling Through Life Singing a Happy Song

Loco Roco never made much sense to me. I had a very difficult time understanding the premise from screenshots, and videos of the game in action didn't exactly help either. All I knew was that according to Sony, Loco Roco was going to be the handheld game to own in 2006. Although I never truly bought into the hype, I added it to my gamefly to see if there was any commotion after the dust settled. Is Loco Roco the handheld savior we've been told it would be? Read on to find out.

The world is in a very weird situation when it comes to gaming right now. It seems that most gamers in the US and Europe eat up games simply because it adheres to wackiness. It's true, the world is in a state of loving anything and everything from Japan that's even slightly zany even if it's not that great. Personally, a wacky presentation or idea alone isn't going to sell me on a game; it's gotta be fun. I went into Loco Roco unbiased; ready to judge it solely on how entertaining it was. While the game certainly isn't bad, it's not all that great.

Loco Roco

The story is the first indication that you're playing a rather different game. Basically a species of animal called the Loco Roco live on a far off planet. This is a jolly breed of alien; shaped like a blob with the innate ability to sing joyful songs. Life is peaceful until intruders arrive on the planet and begin to systematically eradicate everything. Our celestial body isn't too happy about this, and decides to fight back by tilting it's body. What does this accomplish? It causes the Loco Rocos to roll about and it's up to you to guide them through each of the game's areas. Will the Loco Rocos pull through or is it the end of happy times?

You don't actually have direct control over the Loco Roco in this game. As odd as that sounds, it's true. You guide them by tilting the planet left or right with the shoulder buttons, but you can also make the planet bump them into the air by hitting both at the same time. In addition to this, you can also break your Loco Roco into smaller Rocos by pressing the circle button which causes lightning to strike down on the rather blob-acious fellow. Your main task in the game is to guide the Loco Roco to the end of each area. Sound simple? Well there's actually a bit more to it than that.

In order to successfully split into many Loco Rocos you will first need to make your current Roco larger. This is accomplished when it eats the various fruits scattered around each level. Separating into smaller Rocos is used to gain access through sections of each level in which you can't quite squeeze through, sections where you're too heavy to float through, or when you'll need more than one Roco to get multiple pieces of fruit. A few secrets are built around this feature, but besides that, it's mainly just there for show.

The level designs are extremely well done. They each have their colorful themes fit with animated elements in the background. On top of this, the levels have small gameplay elements. These include hands that will pinch and carry your loco roco, along with animated cogwheels, bumpers, ground that bends under the roco's weight, and more. This works to keep up a little bit of variety, but further into the game you'll realize that these are just for flash and rarely present any gameplay diversity.

Loco Roco is built quite vividly around secrets. Sure you could play with only the end target in mind, but that would take away almost all the fun to be had. First off you've got the Mui Mui. By finding these little guys you will unlock objects to use in your Loco Roco house. You'll come across other characters which will give you goodies too, but sometimes they have requirements. The fruits your Roco can eat are also hidden at times, which give you more reason to search. Besides those, you've also got in-game currency that you can track down at your own leisure to open up even more stuff.

But what would a platformer (or hybrid platformer/puzzle game in this case) be without enemy obstacles? Throughout many of the levels you'll come across the black Mojas. These will consume one of your Loco Rocos if you are hit by them. Along with that you've also got underground Burrs, but you won't see these as often as the Mojas. The only problem with the enemies is the fact that they are far too uncommon to create any sort of challenge, and even when they are around, they're pretty darn easy to dodge. You've got a few other things that can hurt your Loco Roco, but dodging them isn't a huge part of playing the game.

The game really isn't a challenge; it's mostly about taking in the sites and finding tactics for getting your Loco Roco through different areas and around obstacles. Without the secret content Loco Roco would classify much more as a tech demo than an actual game, at least in my opinion. Even with the secrets though, I can honestly say that I never had an urge to return to the game. This was one of my shortest gamefly rentals, and I feel absolutely no urge to romp through it once more. For how long it’s been in development I'm severely disappointed in the main game's length.

Another problem is the fact that many of the secrets aren't really that well thought out. Many times you'll simply encounter a character that will hand over the goods, or help you reach a different part of the level if you have enough Loco Rocos. This is too simplistic for a game with so many secrets and paths. This doesn't even serve well as an obstacle because of how easy it is to come across each level's fruit. I'm all for simplicity and creative presentation, but in this case it's used to mask a slightly boring game.

Something else that rubs me the wrong way is the different Loco Rocos that you can play as. You can find and unlock them on your quest, but they aren't that special. The only difference between them is the song that plays and their appearance. It's purely aesthetic, and renders this feature pretty useless. It seems like the developers were going to put in some cool features with this, but ran out of time or something.

The Loco Roco house is also badly done. It's basically a customizable level of sorts that you can build with parts you find throughout the levels, but serves no real purpose. Although you can build bigger houses if you find certain amounts of Mui Mui, it's still nothing special and a bit boring. I'm as creative as the next guy, but it just feels so pointless to work on it. At least it's mildly distracting, and it's certainly better than the other mini-games.

The graphics are the extreme high point of the game. This is the part of Loco Roco that I love best. The game sports a rather abstract style to it, with a very colorful happy appeal. While simplistic, the graphics are so smooth and stylistic that they make the game simply amazing to play. There's never a bland looking area, and each level has a lot of character. Most of the fun here comes from simply watching Loco Roco in motion.

The music is also very well done and adds even more personality to this package. Each Loco Roco has their own music; it's all very catchy even despite the overly happy high pitched antics of it all. This is a very uplifting and upbeat game even when just taking the music into consideration. The sound effects aren't a big part of the design and lay mostly in the background. They get the job done, but you probably won't notice them.

The controls are highly simplistic and very easy to master. The L, R, and Circle buttons are the only ones you'll need to worry about within the main game, but in the mini-games and Loco Roco House mode things get more complicated. Both way, the controls are very responsive and everything works well. The only complaint I have is that sometimes the game makes me feel sick because of the constantly rotating environments.

Final Recommendation
It's not that I don't get Loco Roco, I really do. The main game is just too repetitive and just not all that fun. The style seems to be a distraction from the game's problems though. This is a perfect rental, but as a game, I rate it just slightly above average. Three and a half stars overall.