LOCOROCO REMASTERED
World’s happiest game earns encore
Sunshine pressed into UMD form, this upbeat platformer brightened up PSP’s early days, and remains one-ofa-kind in all its new 4K glory. The eponymous critters are happy little blobs that you control by tilting the world with the shoulder buttons, 1 while pressing both together makes them jump. On each level you’ll gobble fruit that increases the number of LocoRoco, up to a maximum of 20 – but it’s easier to guide them by holding e so they assume a single, larger form, like a squashy space hopper. Your only goal is to get as many as you can to the exit, though there are grinning, humanoid creatures tucked away on every level, and tiny, fluttering collectables to find and consume.
In truth, completionists won’t get the most from LocoRoco, because mastering some stages can be quietly maddening. Trying to marshal a blob of not-insignificant bulk as it balances precariously on a swaying flower can be frustratingly fiddly. Meanwhile, the odd physics quirk can mean individual LocoRoco get left behind (and eaten by Moja, a CBeebies version of The Matrix’s sentinels) through no real fault of your own.
Forget 100%ing it, then. Just sit back, relax and enjoy LocoRoco’s many other pleasures. Like arguably gaming’s bestever ice levels, which play out like a cross between SSX and Sonic. Or when a group gathers to sing to wake a slumbering cloud. 2 Sure, it feels more at home on a handheld. But LocoRoco Remastered is more colourful than a family bag of Skittles, and will leave you with the same kind of sugary high. And you’ll be humming its infectiously cheerful tunes for weeks.
FOOTNOTES1 There’s a new tilt control option (toggled with ), but it made me feel slightly queasy. 2 These songs are played through your controller’s speaker – a lovely and worthwhile change.