LocoRoco: Midnight Carnival is the new follow-up to the previous two titles on the PSP, and this time out it's a download only game on the PSN weighing in at a measly $15 price tag. Don't let the price fool you into thinking you're not getting a full game's worth of content here though, Midnight Carnival is a fully fledged sequel to the second game, featuring quite a few levels, items and other secrets to find, including one of the hardest difficulties the game series has seen yet. In fact, Midnight Carnival might be a bit too hard for some, especially if you've grown accustomed to the pace and setting for the previous titles.
I prefer a bit of a challenge from my games, but I'm not a masochist when it comes to game difficulty. I'll toy around in Dante Must Die mode in DMC, or something along those lines, but finishing it? Eh, probably not. I won't go so far as to say that Midnight Carnival features a difficulty level that's equivalent to the toughest action games on the market, but for a series that has been a pretty easy outside of a few notable stages, Midnight Carnival really amps up the difficulty, right from the start. One thing you'll notice more of is the bottomless pits, which are plentiful in just about every stage. This requires you to be a little more precise on your jumping and overall handling of the LocoRoco as you guide them through the stages, and this time out the control scheme seems to reflect a little more control to help you out. One thing you'll notice is that there's a new combo number attached to your jumps, as you make successive leaps you'll get a number that pops up, and the strength and height of your jumps will increase as well, allowing you to bound over large obstacles or to even wall jump back and forth to reach new heights.
The LocoRoco all seem to move a bit faster as well, which is necessary now because the stages are also timed. You can play around in them as much as you want, there's no actual timer that kills you when it hits zero, but if you don't manage to finish a stage in the target time given, your score is halved, making your progress a little moot if you care about those things. There's still a number of hidden things in a stage, additional LocoRoco to collect, and Pipl's to gather, along with counters for all of that at the end of the stage, so chances are you'll be making multiple trips through individual stages to get all of it right. Of course, if getting one hundred percent completion isn't your thing, you can attempt to blaze right through the stages with your life intact, but that's a far harder thing to do this time out than it was in previous games.
While LocoRoco: Midnight Carnival has managed to switch things up in regards to the difficulty, everything else that makes the series work is still present, right down to the overly simple control set-up (you just use the L and R buttons) to the awesome and downright weird visual style. This time out there's a bit of a Halloween influence, which is roughly the time period the game launched, and it's adapted quite well into the LocoRoco world. There are still the wacky designs for each LocoRoco, along with plenty of standard creatures and enemies that the series has had since its inception. If you've been a fan of the games up to this point, you'll still enjoy the charm and look of this one.
It's hard to say whether the difficulty will put you off of the game though. For those that are a little more casual in their approach to how they play the game, and enjoy slowly opening up new sections and finding little secrets within each world, I could see Midnight Carnival being a frustrating experience for you. It's easy to die in this one, and while the penalty for death isn't particularly maddening, and the checkpoints are frequent enough to feel fair, the design of the new stages don't really lend themselves to exploring or moving around slowly. There's plenty of spikes, tricky jumps, and enemies to keep you occupied and on the move, making this a far more frantic experience than the previous games. Personally, I enjoy the challenge, but it's definitely going to put a few fans off of their game.
If you've felt that the series has started to get a little stale, on the other hand, then I think Midnight Carnival will be the game for you. The game is full of great level designs with a difficulty to match, and the challenge makes it a far more addictive experience than the previous two titles for me. I can't find much to complain about with this release, honestly, and I look forward to the next game in the series whenever it shows up. If the developers continue to take the game in this direction I'll be a pretty happy guy, this is definitely my favorite in the series up to this point, and one that I hope everyone takes the time to check out.
