Review #266: LocoRoco 2

 It's SOOOO cute!

 Did you like LocoRoco? Well, you are in luck, as LocoRoco 2 is pretty much LocoRoco 1.

 Everything I said about LocoRoco 1 still holds water as far as the sequel is concerned, but for a refresher course: A LocoRoco is a singing colorful blob that you must guide throughout a level. But you don't play as the LocoRoco, not directly anyways, Instead you tilt the world by holding the L or R button, or make your blob jump by holding both triggers together and letting go. You can also collect orange fruit in order to grow bigger, and if you press the circle button you'll divide into little LocoRocos, or hold circle to fuse them back into a single entity. In the previous game, sometimes you'd come across certain barriers that required a certain amount of LocoRocos to open, and if you met the required amount, the LocoRocos would sing... this time around, the song has been turned into a simple rhythm mini-game that has you tapping circle over certain notes. Speaking of songs, the soundtrack is nothing short of stellar.

 As you go through the game you'll earn new abilities, like sinking underwater, holding onto branches, pulling creatures from the ceiling or the very cumbersome Super Jump. I'm gonna be honest, none of these 'abilities' are game changers or add any more depth to the game. They feel like window-dressing, 'hey, look! Now you can do this and this!', but when it comes down to it, none of them feel like they have any huge impact on the overall game.

Other new features are a new purple LocoRoco and the addition of multiple mini-games. They aren't half bad, even if they are little more than a diversion, and they add incentive to collecting the pink collectibles, as they are turned into currency in order to play these mini-games. The Mui-Mui house has been altered, so that now you have to collect materials in order to build furniture and new rooms, then there's the 'Stamps', which you can collect and then have to fill stamp pages with the appropriate stamps.

 Surprisingly, when it comes down to it, the game is actually shorter than the first game! They made up for that by forcing you to replay stages. For instance, there are secret levels that can only be unlocked by completing the Mui-Mui house, which translates into redoing stages for materials. Then there are a few levels that are unlocked by clearing the Moja smog from each level, and since some areas on some stages are inaccessible until you earn a new ability at a later stage.... well, you'll find yourself replaying most of the 10-minute long stages in order to unlock everything.

While it is technically a better game than the first one. There's more variety in the levels, there's more abilities, and one more LocoRoco, I just can't condone forcing the player to replay old levels. Mind you, it probably has to do with the fact that LocoRoco just isn't my kind of game, so while the idea of having to replay levels doesn't appeal to me, maybe it won't bother others.
 7.0 out of 10