Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’,
Though your Loco Roco’s swollen,
Keep your blob a rollin’…
I’m not actually sure I have much to say about this game other than; it might very well be the best platform game ever written. It seldomly puts a foot wrong, as an example of the art of game design it is exceptional. As the latest in a long and esteemed tradition of blobs in games, the genre has reached it’s apex. It is a platform game, but unlike many platform games you are not in direct control of the blob. Instead you must sensually massage the environment in such a way that your Loco Roco will roll to its destination. Seemingly indirect control is flavour of the month in the world of platform gaming.
Initially the indirect control makes movement, especially up to those high awkward place, very tricky indeed. But the difficulty curve ensures that you will master it without too much frustration. The excellent difficulty, curve and tactile controls mean that this game is always fun to play. The game extends it’s life by giving you a time trial time for each level once you’ve completed that level. This kind of artificial extension of the game life is something that would usually annoy me but in this instance the game is so fun to play I really didn’t care. My only issue is that it would be nice if there was an extra harder set of levels to complete once you’d collected everything. It would have been nice to have an extra challenge once you’d totally mastered the UI. Still, you can’t have everything and there is a new one coming.
With it’s primary, colourful, scalable vector graphics set on a white background you could be forgiven for thinking that you’re playing “Web 2.0: The Game!”. As you get to design your very own Loco Roco house, all it needs is an internet wrapper so that you can upload your favourite houses to a database and then go and visit other people’s houses and then it really would be completely Web 2.0 compliant. The presentation of the game is superb and this extends to the the music as much as it does to the graphics. As you play it’s exceptionally hard not to sing along with all the music, not least as the little Loco Roco you are guiding sings along too.
Hmmm, I don’t really seem to have said very much about the game. You’re a blob. There are 6 worlds with 8 levels to complete. You control the blob by tipping the world and allowing it to roll around. There. 9/10
