There's so much to interact with that you'll be finding new things every time you play. Basically you're a sort of opportunistic shepherd, keeping one eye on the flock and rummaging around in the bushes when you get distracted, occasionally lobbing a sheep into the unknown if you can't see over a hill. Again, it's all about playing with the environment and coaxing blobs into helping you where necessary. Sixaxis is also used to tilt platforms and operate flippers, allowing you to fire the LocoRoco into new areas.
Shaking it will dislodge hanging LocoRoco, uncover helpful Mui Mui creatures, deploy weird fish to push you down alternative pathways, charge up fountains that fire your LocoRoco into the air, and clear away obstructions. What's more, it turns out that the decision not to use Sixaxis for basic control is something of a masterstroke, because the way it is used is critical to Cocoreccho's charm. You basically have to go looking for trouble to find it. There are still elements of danger to contend with, mind you, including those black, dread-locked nasties that eat your LocoRoco if they get too close, so watch out for that - but the normal route through each section is safe from enemy attention. Like the PSP game, there are lots of telltale indentations in the walls that hint at hidden LocoRoco, and glowing plant stems that you can touch to unfurl additional platforms hung with new friends. Hammering circle encourages them to "try harder", which basically means "jump", which they will do when they get round to it. You do this by holding the circle button, which creates a ring of authority that gives you a certain amount of influence over the blobs. Instead of trying to keep all your LocoRoco safe, instead you play with the environment and call for help when you need it. Once you accept this, you stop trying to constantly baby-sit them all like you did on the PSP, and instead concentrate on the bit of the level you're in, eyeing up different paths and potential secrets and then dragging a few LocoRoco off their merry course to help you explore. Where LocoRoco was about keeping half an eye on the world around you and most of it on your pals, in Cocoreccho you concentrate on the world and reach for a helping hand when you need it. The key thing to understand is that your gloopy friends are quite safe without you. Collect enough and you can open a gate to another section. Left to their own devices, the blobs will happily march around a small section of the game's one big level tumbling down slides, rotating through water wheels and riding along on air currents, but by coaxing them off course at different points you bump into other, dormant LocoRoco who then spring to life and join the procession. Your role is a sort of mystical butterfly, who can beckon the blobs and encourage them to jump this way and that like a flapping mentalist Pied Piper. But Cocoreccho gives you even less direct control. Instead we've got an entirely different game made out of the same parts - not just a decent sequel, and certainly not an "interactive screensaver", but what's actually a better game all round.Īs with the PSP game, your job is to herd little singing blobs around 2D platform levels, trying to get to the end with as many as possible in tow.
We all expected Sony to replace the shoulder button tilting of the PSP version with Sixaxis motion sensors and then sit back and count the money. LocoRoco Cocoreccho might just be the boldest PlayStation Network release yet.