Aye Caramba!

With the recent firmware update 2.71, European PSP owners have been filling themselves up with joy for the summer release of LocoRoco there. There is a current playable European demo* (which can be also downloaded universally and there is an English version), which many users have jumped right on to. In this YouTube clip, you can see someone playing the Japanese version, which arrived in May, shortly after the 2.70 release.

 

I downloaded the Japanese version and found it quite addictive. The English version finally gave me a concept of what the game was about and helped me out quite a bit. I was really moved by the 2D graphics, which look very colorful and almost Mario-like. I actually told my friend to come over so he could see the English demo. He caught onto it easily. I think that the big thing about LocoRoco is that it's easy to play. Unlike other games for PSP, LocoRoco only uses 3 buttons in gameplay (L to tilt left, R to tilt right (combine both to jump), and Circle Tap to separate LocoRoco/Circle Hold to combine them), which makes it easy and enjoyable.

A recent interview with a Japanese LocoRoco developer showed that he was trying to make the game easy to play and enjoyable, but very fun overall. It looks like that has been accomplished. With everyone catching on to the craze, I hope SONY will have enough copies for America to sell! 

I'm so excited about Loco Roco! How bout you? :-d