Title: LocoRoco 2

From: Sony Computer Entertainment

For: PSP

If there’s one thing that all gamers will agree on with LocoRoco, it’s that there’s nothing else quite like Tsutomu Kouno’s masterful concept. It’s simple, but not too easy. It’s technical, but accessible to even the youngest of gamers. It looks easily made, but would actually be a logistical nightmare to design.

The original LocoRoco was a resounding success, and therefore it makes perfect sense that its sequel hasn’t reinvented the wheel. LocoRoco 2 is basically more of the same – and that’s music to the ears of anyone who enjoyed the original. All too often developers try too hard with sequels to keep things “fresh” and “interesting” but only end up fixing something that wasn’t broken in the first place.

It’s a pleasure also to see a game that’s built to take advantage of what the PSP has to offer rather than the fiddly, thrown-together also-rans that are FPS and 3rd PS on the handheld console. As in the original, three buttons is all you’ll need to play LocoRoco 2 – L and R plus circle will do everything you need to do in the game. The beauty of its apparent simplicity is ever present once again.

The LocoRocos are a collection of blob-shaped creatures, varying in shape, colour and personality. They, along with the tiny Mui Mui care greatly for the well-being and harmony on their planet. The Moja are a race of evil flying aliens whose sole purpose in life seems to be the destruction of every living thing on the LocoRoco’s lovely planet.

Having been defeated in the original game, the Moja army retreated to its home planet. The Moja boss, Bonmucho creates a song that drains the life-force from anything living. This spells bad news for the LocoRoco as the Moja launch another invasion on their planet. It’s up to the LocoRoco once again to drive them out. While it’s fair to say that the story does take a distant backseat to the gameplay itself, it’s there nonetheless and does serve to gel the whole experience together.

Exactly the same as the first game, the gameplay is split between the inventive platforming/puzzler element and the need to collect everything along the way by discovering all the hidden areas. Longevity kicks in here as you’ll find yourself replaying levels over again in an attempt to find those elusive last berries or Mui Mui. There’s nothing worse than getting to the end of a level only having found one Mui Mui – it’ll do your head in trying to think back as to what you missed and where.

Collecting berries is paramount, this makes your LocoRoco bigger and able to complete different tasks that require either mass or individual numbers. Just as before, pressing circle will cause your LocoRoco to split into a number of small LocoRoco, allowing them to pass through cracks and small gaps. Holding circle makes them huddle together and join back into the larger mass.

There are some new characters in the sequel, some there to help you like sea otters, penguins and specialised characters such as Nyokki who perform specific tasks. One even lends yout LocoRoko his afro hair so you can smash through barriers, yeah I didn’t get it either, but this is a land where weird things are the norm. Then there are other characters who are there to harm you like Bui Bui (some kind of anti-Mui Mui), angry bees, pufferfish, carnivorous plants with long tongues and of course the ever-present Moja, who, funnily enough are probably the easiest enemies to defeat.. It’s a treacherous world out there for an innocent LocoRoco. Coming into contact with an enemy or spiky object causes you to lose one LocoRoco and unless you can quickly gather it in again before it disappears then it is gone for the rest of the level.

The level design is once again a work of art. The more LocoRoco you play, the better you will get at finding the game’s secret areas. It’s a satisfying feeling when, while you’re being whisked on a gust of wind to another part of the level, to catch a glimpse of a platform or area and then backtracking or replaying the level to find out just how to get to it. Your LocoRoco can now dive underwater too, which allows for some below the surface action in a shipwreck, but not too much to make it an over-used feature.

The levels range from the stark and gloomy so the bright and surreal. One even takes place in the bowels of a giant penguin. Well let’s face it, the long narrow tubes are ideal for a LocoRoco level and when you find yourself swinging from what can only be described as polyps, then you know you’re playing a game like no other and are entering the mind of the imaginative (and probably quite sick) level designer.

There’s a lot more to collect in LocoRoco 2, meaning you’ll be replaying levels more often than the original game. There’s stamps, which you can then use to complete templated scene cards, or even create your own. There’s the obligatory nuts, seeds and objects that can be used to build at the Mui Mui house, which makes its return in what seems to be exactly the same format. It’s a novelty to build different rooms etc for your rescued Mui Mui, but not essential to the main quest. In fact I completed the original LocoRoco game without even looking at the Mui Mui house once.

There are also a couple of mini-games thrown into the sequel – but neither are worth writing home about – in fact they’re downright stupid. One is a Whack-a-Mole type affair and the other has you picking which LocoRoco will win a race – the winner of which is chosen completely at random, so success is nothing but pure luck.

The music follows the style of the first game. It’s original, strange, annoying, beautiful and infuriatingly addictive all at the same time. But without the music, LocoRoco would be nothing – the gameplay and the music are symbiotic. There are times when you will come across a sleeping creature which needs to be woken to proceed. This prompts a kind of mini-game where a cursor will follow a series of notes around the screen and you must press a button in time to the music as the cursor passes over the top of the note. It’s a clever inclusion that doesn’t seem out of place due to it being tied in closely with the musicality.

LocoRoco 2 is designed with the nature of the PSP in mind. It’s not a game that you sit down and play for 3 hours straight – although there’s no reason why you can’t. It’s a game designed to be picked up for a 10 minute bash and then put down again. Ideal for that bus trip to school or work or a quick blast in your lunch hour. These are the types of game that should be smothering the shelves for the PSP.

LocoRoco 2 isn’t better than the original and it’s certainly not worse. It’s more of the same, with a few tweaks here and there – and that’s just perfect in my books. I’m not sure whether the series has a third game in it, not without bringing something new to the table, however I wouldn’t say no to another ‘expansion’ a year or so from now either.

Pros: Such an uplifting game. Platforming and puzzling perfection.

Cons: Perhaps a little too short. The Mui Mui house could be developed into something worthwhile doing. Added mini-games are stupid.

Score 90%

Watch the trailer

Title: Skate It

From: Electronic Arts

For: Wii

The original Skate was something of a success for EA’s first foray into the skating genre. It presented a more realistic gameplay as opposed to the 200ft high, multi-trick combos and arcade handling of the Tony Hawk franchise. It also introduced a whole new control method with FlickIt, which took some getting used to, but once mastered made Skate the skate game for skaters as you cruised the enormous cityscape throwing down realistic tricks in a realistic world with almost realistic graphics.

Now, with Skate It, the series comes to the Wii and of course adopts the obligatory motion sensor control method. Sigh. Before I’d even started playing the game I knew from experience that this was going to be a patience-testing time.

The storyline in Skate It somewhat bridges the gap between Skate and the upcoming Skate 2. It’s based in San Vanelona directly after a devastating earthquake levels the city to rubble. Ignoring the human deathtoll and tragedy of this event – you decide that this would be a great time to go out and skate on the new, giant skatepark the earthquake has provided for you. “Sorry Mom, no time to lift that concrete slab off you – there’s this killer rail I have to try over on 5th”.
As you progress in the single player campaign, and if your patience holds out that long, then you open up more areas of the city to explore.
But in this presumed skaters’ paradise, you never really come across another skater taking advantage of the new terrain. This creates quite a lonely feeling in the game.

Starting Skate It for the first time, you are asked to choose a control method. This could be the Wiimote, Wiimote and nunchuck or the Wiimote and Wii Balance Board. It should be noted however that all three are equally as frustrating. In fact sometimes you think that somebody else altogether is controlling the game as a move you successfully pulled off 30 seconds before all of a sudden becomes impossible to pull of again despite a seemingly identical action. These are the unfortunate pitfalls of motion sensor technology in its present form.

I tried two of the above control schemes, the Balance Board and the Wiimote/nunchuck combo – I just couldn’t face trying out the third.
My first try was with the Balance Board as I thought this would perhaps provide the most realistic skating experience. As any skater knows, you need to have a good feeling for the centre of the board, but the game never gives you this using the Balance Board. Skating in a straight line was an exercise in futility as you seem to either go hard right or hard left. This can be solved somewhat by dulling the sensitivity of the board right back, but this obviously makes it difficult to turn sharply when you actually need to. So it’s a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation. Pulling off the tricks is easy enough, but ultimately what I thought might have been a promising control method turned out to be a disaster. To make matters worse, the calibration screen kept popping up if I lifted my foot off the board too far, which was a pain in the arse in the middle of a lengthy combo of tricks.

Next came the Wiimote and nunchuck method. This solved the problem of travelling in a straight line and therefore made the game more accessible, but a new problem presented itself. I had great trouble performing some tricks, especially grabs because the game would recognise a movement and perform the trick, but then perform a totally different trick with what I believed to be an identical movement. In the end it seemed like, as I mentioned earlier, someone else was controlling the game. After this experience, I had pretty much had enough. If just using the Wiimote fares any better, which it might, then it’s something you’ll have to find out if you’re keen to check Skate It out.

Graphically, Skate It is a Wii-ified version of Skate. Yes, that’s right I invented a new word. Take the difference between the PS3 and Wii versions of Tiger Woods 09 for example. Going from the PS3 version to the Wii makes the game look like an Amiga 2600 is running it. Ok, ok, not quite that bad, but you know what I mean.
The same applies to Skate It. There’s seams galore, jaggies and a seemingly very limited colour palette. It’s not awful to look at by any means, it helps to imagine the game is deliberately cell-shaded to a degree, but I’d like to believe the Wii can handle something better than this.
In true EA style, there’s plenty of options to customise your character with a clothing and skate shop.

If you’re planning on purchasing Skate 2 for your PS3 or 360 then the soundtrack for Skate It will serve as a small preview to the Skate 2 track listing. All the songs featured here will be in Skate 2. The music as usual compliments the genre nicely, the pick of the bunch coming from LL Cool J – ‘Rock the Bells’, Suicidal Tendencies – ‘Possessed to Skate’, The Clash – ‘Death or Glory’ and The Specials – ‘Ghost Town’. The original announcer from Skate returns in Skate It, giving you hints to help you out, but due to the fact I was biting the asphalt on a regular basis, I got tired of hearing him say the same thing over and over.

Skate It had promise, especially with the Balance Board, but the very thing that could have made it a great game, is the thing that ultimately proves to be its downfall. The game is a nightmare to control, and in a skate game, accessibility is paramount. Unless you’re prepared to spend a whole heap of time coming to grips with it, and I have no doubt that this is possible, then I’d recommend steering clear.
Pros: Nice soundtrack. Large, expansive world to explore. Good customisation options.

Cons: The control method will have most people reaching for the off switch. Average graphics.

Score 50%

Title: Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3
From: Electronic Arts
For: PC

Real-Time Strategy games have never sparked my interest for some reason. It’s not that I don’t have a strategic mind or anything, I just get bored with them too quickly. C&C: Red Alert 3 managed to hold my interest longer than most however due to the good pace of the game, broken up by cut-scenes which feature well known actors and a decent story.

The single player campaign is standard RTS fodder. You each faction has it’s own side of the storyline except joining the Russian and Allied forces this time is the Empire of the Rising Sun. Gameplay is typical of the Red Alert series, but there are some changes to the interface which can be confusing until you figure out what is where.

I love games that use real actors and Red Alert 3 includes Tim Curry, Jenny McCarthy and George Takei among others. The acting is deliberately cheesy which makes it fun if you know they’re not taking it too seriously.

Graphically the game is superb and the sound will blow you away on a decent sound system.

Score 75%

Title: SingStar Abba
From: Sony Computer Entertainment
For: PS3

I’ll take a punt here and guess that you’re either one of two kinds of people when it comes to Swedish pop sensations ABBA. You’ll either jump up on the dancefloor and know every lyric by heart (or think you do) or you’ll run as fast as you can in the opposite direction. If you’re the latter – then stop reading now.

Picture this: 25 original ABBA tracks to test your vocal chords on in the usual SingStar format and the ability to make your own music videos using the PS3 Eye camera and then upload them online. Sounds good? Excellent.

I’m not going to list songs here, if you love ABBA then you know them all, and they’re all included. There was probably 4 songs I hadn’t personally heard of before but the rest were all burned into my cerebral cortex from years of crummy DJ’s at equally crummy work Christmas parties.

This is a must-have for any ABBA fan, otherwise…run like the wind.
Hard game to score as it will polarise people, so it’d be unfair to give it a rating.