LocoRoco Remastered

released on May 09, 2017

A remaster of LocoRoco

The peaceful world of the LocoRoco is under attack by the not-so-nice Moja Corps! These evil outer space creatures have come to take the LocoRoco from their land of blowing flowers, lively creatures and pastel scenery. You must move the LocoRoco through more than 40 levels of slippery slopes, teetering platforms, and maze-like passages. The LocoRoco have the uncanny ability to fluidly morph to their landscape, so all you need is to tilt, roll, and bounce the happy blob-like creatures to safety.


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A game I have played a lot back in the day on the PSP, glad it was ported to PS4. Need to come back to finish the main story.

Very dull and uninspired. There's pretty much nothing going on gameplay wise. Didn''t hold my attention. Why did this get good reviews on the PSP?

I hate swirling around so many negative thoughts in my head regarding this game because the intentions are utterly pure. it is abstract, buoyant, and dedicated to showcasing an alien natural world that few other games can compare to. its graphics have a cheeky lo-fi bent to them, relying heavily on undulating curvature and bold primary colors. the songs its blob-like creatures constantly sing along touch upon many genres and play with language in fascinating ways. and yet, despite all of this, as an creative work locoroco reminds me most of the kind of project that would reduce your art school friend to tears after getting eviscerated in crit for being particularly lazy. the definition of a C- game, if you will. something entirely resting on its quirky graphical presentation with a game sort of tacked on underneath.

over an astounding 40(!?) levels you will help the titular locoroco roll across the landscape by tilting the world around them via the bumpers, and somehow doing little else in the process. locoroco is sprightly and highly maneuverable when tiny, but in their aggregated form they expand in size when eating red berries strewn across each level, and as their size expands their responsiveness takes a dive. that undulating property I mentioned prior isn't merely a neat graphical trick; it feeds into an exaggerated physics system that showcases the weighty locoroco sinking into the ground at various spots as if a water balloon were to traverse across molten rubber. in the process, locoroco frequently will get trapped even on sloped surfaces or will meander despite the world being at full tilt in a given direction. to compensate, obstacles tend to be more suggestions of adversity than true challenges, and I want to stress this is not a "the game isn't hard enough!" complaint. most levels will literally consist only of rolling in a given direction while occasionally jumping or using one of a rotating selection of simple interactables (spring, sticky ceiling, vaccuum monster that shoots you in a given direction). even with one of the few members of the moja troop on-screen to halt your progress, your solution to actually dealing with them will generally consist of rolling right past them. for what should be the core features of the game here, it's a bit shocking how undercooked it all is.

with such a simple mechanical realm to work in, locoroco may have succeeded as something without a discernable genre, or perhaps a puzzle game with a couple additions to the interactable set. unfortunately, the game opts to pursue a classico platforming structure instead. this is perhaps the great incongruity of the game: what could have been aesthetically novel or even boundary-pushing settles into the plodding rhythms of so many games that have come before. much of the incentive structure of the game is built around endless collectables such as the aforementioned berries, mui mui aliens, and locoroco house parts to decorate within the main menu. there are rare moments these are actually hidden behind challenges that escalate whatever the loose mechanical through-line of a given level is, but in the vast majority of cases exploring for these consists of merely finding a spot where the wall is intangible and moving into a secret area to collect your prize. there's absolutely no heft to this design whatsoever beyond giving these purely linear levels little stubs as branch-off points for observant players to be rewarded for finding - or in practicality, anyone who misses a jump and ends up falling through some indentation in a wall into a glob of items.

I actually thought there were six worlds (and thus, 48 levels) and felt a little shocked that right as the game was beginning to consider adding some basic platforming trials to the experience within the final few levels, it just ended. a few hours of watching my locoroco burst into bits and tumble down winding tunnels pachinko-style over and over again just to sit and watch the game attempt a half-hearted boss battle. feeling like I had missed something, I took a look at the minigames where I found only one unlocked... a crane game. tried it twice and then my friends came back with takeout, so I turned this shit off and we watched fulcrum/damianluck925 instead.


Amazing little game. I love an experimental title, and this one delivers in that department and provides a cuteness overload. Wish Sony still made quirky exclusives like this, a little bored of award bait AAAs now.

Captures the 2006 kids cartoon style very well and the game is incredibly cute both visually and graphically, but the gameplay just ain't it. The controls are unreliable and turn a very cute game into a chore