I'll start this off by saying that I didn't entirely love the first LocoRoco. I'm not sure what I expected going into that game, and whether I was a bit too influenced by early hype, but I remember really feeling that I didn't quite understand what made the game so great, other than a pretty awesome soundtrack, and some really bright, vibrant visuals on the PSP. The platforming element never really clicked, and I felt like the majority of the stages were constantly pushing me towards the goal, rather than opening up the levels and letting me do a little exploring of my own.
Thankfully, LocoRoco 2 has pretty much addressed that issue for me. This time around, the little balls of goo are back to battle it out (in a way) against the Moja, the villains of the first title. The basic play mechanics from the first title remain the same here, where you start off with a single blob, and slowly eat more of the orange fruit that grants you additional LocoRoco, combining together to make one giant blob. With a press of the button you can break them down into individuals, or hold down the same button and have them join up again. Certain puzzles will require either form, and it's pretty easy to figure out when you need to do it. The only other real form of control in the game comes from both of the shoulder buttons on the PSP. Pushing down either left or right will tilt the screen in that direction, causing your LocoRoco to roll along downhill, which is your primary form of movement. If you tap both buttons you'll perform a small jump, allowing you to clear obstacles and ledges, and also serving as your only form of attack when necessary.
That said, LocoRoco 2 is less about fighting and bopping enemies, and more about traversing the wildly designed levels in search of orange fruit, pink flies, hidden MuiMui, and small blue objects that unlock various pieces of furniture for one of the game's many distractions. There are a lot of hidden rooms to discover in each level, and most are pretty obvious to the naked eye, but there's a few that'll take some head scratching to find. Combine that with small event's within each level that usually take a certain amount of collected LocoRoco to unlock, and you'll find that each stage has quite a bit going for it.
While I felt the original was a bit rushed, in that you'd hit a lot of wind currents or other tunnels that would push you along towards the end of the stage, LocoRoco 2 feels like its opened up a lot more, allowing you room to explore each stage for the most part, without having to restart a level because you can't go back and access a certain area anymore. There are still sections of the game where it does force you along a path, but there's a lot of alternate path's to discover, and just a ton of hidden objects and other goodies that actually serve some use for the other sections of the game.
In addition to the basic platforming levels, there's a MuiMui house, wherein the MuiMui you discover will take up residence. In each level there's a certain amount of hidden items to find that you can then turn and use to outfit the house with new rooms and furniture, setting up your MuiMui in some comfy digs. There's not much here that affects the main game, but it's strangely addictive to go back through levels and try to find more stuff to toss into this house. Later on you'll unlock a cannon for the MuiMui to fight off their evil alter ego's, the BuiBui, which in turn unlocks another mini-game. Along with the house, there's some stamp collecting, where you'll find and unlock various sheets and then different stamps based off of the creatures and items in the game, and once you complete the stamps you'll earn different items. There's a couple other small mini-games that you can unlock early on as well, including one challenging game that involves shooting your LocoRoco from one suction creature to another through a series of passages filled with spikes and other dangers. To play a lot of these games you'll need to have some pink flies on hand which act as currency in the game, but there's never any real shortage of them available, so you'll generally be able to play what you want, when you want.
Once again, the LocoRoco 2 soundtrack takes center stage for me, with some great tunes scattered about the levels that are only aided by the different noises the LocoRoco and other creatures will make that seem to run in tandem with the music at times. The soundtrack is really light hearted, filled with quirky melodies that you're really not going to find the like of in any other title. Very catchy, and instantly recognizable stuff here.
Likewise, the visuals haven't really seen an improvement over the first title, but then again they didn't need to either. The levels do feel more varied this time out, with quite a few different elements being used for stages, and a lot of interactive material scattered about to unlock the musical notes required for leveling up each stage. Besides that, the animation work on the LocoRoco, Moja, and other creatures is still top notch, and you can't help but feel that you're looking at something from a Saturday morning cartoon while you play.
There's even a coherent story this time out, which in my mind feels like something ripped straight out of Smurfs or Fraggle Rock. It's not particularly deep, but it works really well for the LocoRoco world, and the little cutscenes that the game presents just adds to the overall charm.
The main storyline isn't particularly long, but you'll get more than a few hours out of it, even if you just rush through each stage. However, there's a lot of stuff to find and unlock, and if you're willing to put in some effort in locating things, this one will give more than enough bang for your buck, especially considering it's priced at a very modest $20. I highly suggest picking this one up, the level design feels like a vast improvement over the original, so if you're in the same boat I was, in that the first one didn't really grab you, then maybe this one will. It's certainly managed to eat up quite a bit of my time, and will continue to do so.
