Locoroco is… like… a cross between Katamari, Badland, and World of Goo? I dunno man. It’s a simple but engaging platformer where you tilt the whole world using the shoulder buttons, which makes your blobby little character roll around, and both buttons to nudge, making them jump. When you eat fruits the “Locoroco” gets bigger, and can split into multiple smaller copies of itself, although in practice this is rarely useful and mainly used when it’s automatically activated contextually.

I guess the headline feature of this game, apart from its accessible and simple control scheme, is the aesthetics. The soundtrack and visuals are charming and disarming, an inextricable part of the game’s identity and make it a little bit special. Not that there aren’t other games that hit the same notes, but this one is very solidly constructed into a convincing package with heart.

Secret areas and hidden collectibles are fun to find and pick up, and often have you doing interesting things with the mechanics, or meeting a strange creature or geometric shape, doing a small rhythm minigame to entertain them. Pickups go toward a mode where you expand the house of your little “Muimui” pals; this aspect is not especially entertaining or rewarding but it’s better than just having numbers on a menu screen. Other little modes include a stamp book and a few underwhelming minigames.

It’s clever, it’s fun, it’s cute. As with the entire PSP library I’m late to the party and not an expert on the standouts, but this one is a gem. Of course the studio is overworked on a bunch of varied projects for Sony, so don’t expect another one of these, but it’s worth seeking out for the price I found it at.