Platforms: PSP
Publisher: SCEA

A giant, black meteor roars through the sky and comes crashing down. When the Moja Moja emerge and begin ravaging the world, another round of tilt and tumble gameplay takes off as Loco Roco returns on the Sony PSP.

Unless you’ve been asleep over the last two years, you may remember the really obscure title called Loco Roco. The game featured a cute singing blob character called Loco Roco that moved across the world in a melodic bliss. The main gameplay element consisted of using the L and R shoulder buttons to move about the world via mechanic of tilting the screen. It simulates the effect of a PSP having motion/tilt sensitivity.

The game is cute yet equally ridiculously bizarre. Using the L and R shoulder buttons, your Loco Roco rolls about the world and combining the two shoulder buttons and releasing them allows him to jump. Loco Roco starts off small, but eating buds off of plants makes your little guy grow bigger. When you have to maneuver into small places, simply hitting the O button will call a strike of lightning to split Loco Roco into smaller versions that can fit almost anywhere.

As you progress through the game, you encounter more Loco Roco which you can play as but essentially, they all do not differ in ability from each other and are merely color variations.

The core gameplay will have you roll and hop your way along from stage to stage, trying to collect up to 20 Loco Rocos per level and grabbing items that can be used in the Mui Mui house that you can build and customize. Featured in the original game as one of the more time-consuming parts of the game, the Mui Mui house returns with a greater level of customization and a lot more expansion.

Using Pickories (in-game currency) that you pick up through the game, the developers have also made sure to include mini games to play as a diversion for you from the main story. The Chuppa Chuppa game returns and this time it provides a real challenge. By shooting your Loco Roco through a maze of Chuppas, this game alone generates the best rewards, but it can drain your money. There’s also a racing game and a game quite similar to Whack-A-Mole that all provide mindless entertainment for hours.

Loco Roco 2 returns with more polish and a few innovations, but all that aside, it is a game that the player will want to take in small doses. Though not a flawed game, Loco Roco 2 can get easily repetitive and boring after 20 minutes of play. The level design and overall cuteness of the game cannot sustain it for very long. The $19.99 price tag does make it a game worth trying out and adds to the PSP library that as of late, has seen a drought of quality games.