One of the best gifts I got for Christmas was Lumines. After half a year, I had it thoroughly beaten: all slots in the high score list are showing 999,999, which is as high as it goes. While I still occasionally go back to Lumines, I feel like I’ve squeezed most of the fun out of it by now.

With excellent timing, LocoRoco has arrived to fill the gap (from the same source as Lumines: a gift from Eric).

(Side note: I also got Katamari Damacy a few months ago. I never really got into it, which surprised me a bit, since I’d heard so many good things about it. The concept was interesting, but I found the controls unintuitive and the game hard to master. I think it requires more experience of fast fiddly games, which I don’t have. Also, it had lots of tedious waiting between levels.)

LocoRoco is a kind of a platform game. You control a creature named LocoRoco, which is a cuddly amorphous yellow blob, sort of like a smiling water balloon. Well, the player doesn’t actually control the LocoRoco: you make it move by tilting the ground below it, making LocoRoco roll to one side. It can also jump, and be burst into smaller parts to get through narrow passages. So the game controls are extremely simple: the two tilt buttons at the top of the PSP, and one button to burst the LocoRoco.

LocoRoco rolls around in cheerful brightly coloured environments, backed by cheery songs, and grows by eating berries. Sometimes the LocoRocos separate themselves, line up like a children’s choir, and just sing. You’d think that a bright game with simple graphics and childish songs would get annoying, but the whole combination is surprisingly charming and amusing.

The game is commendably non-violent. The goal is to grow the LocoRoco by eating large red berries, which you discover by exploring each level, and to gather extra points by catching insects. Even the bad monsters are kind of cute. It truly is suitable for anyone from age 3 upwards just as the packaging indicates. Somehow, I find the idea of playing games meant for three-year-olds strangely appealing.

There are (according to reviews) dozens of levels, and each one looks and feels different. The difference is not just visual: the surface and terrain of the world also change. Some are icy and slippery, other are bouncy like jelly. While dexterity is required to get really good results in some levels, I found all levels perfectly manageable, unlike in Katamari Damacy, where I just got stuck.

Each level is quick to get through – around 3 to 5 minutes – which makes it great for brief bursts of playing. It’s easy to pick up the PSP for just one or two games, and that suits my gaming style very well. On the other hand, it encourages replay, since I’m always reminded of my best result for each level, as well as the best possible.

But the game’s greatest strength is that it keeps making me smile.

Screenshots at GameSpot.