If you hang out at our forums, you’ll know that I downloaded LocoRoco for the PS3 and hated it almost instantly. After the 10 or so minutes I spent with it, I turned it off and never expected to play it again. Frank asked about the game and I decided to fire it up and show him how terrible it was. Then, as if the game somehow hypnotized me, I suddenly started to enjoy it.

I’m not sure what it is, but it seems to have won me over. Once I got over the fact it was the most sickeningly cute thing I’ve ever seen, I started to enjoy it’s casual pace. The whole object of the game is to find and gather different LocoRocos. You do this by controlling a butterfly that the Locos seem particularly attracted to. By holding onto or tapping the circle button, the Locos will follow the butterfly. If there is something on the screen you want to interact with, you shake the Sixaxis around like a wild person and something might happen. In one instance, you need to gather a bunch of Locos on top of a water spout. Shaking the Sixaxis will cause the spout to erupt and the Locos to go flying, revealing even more Locos. After you find enough Locos, you need to bring them to a gate that can only be opened by having the amount of Locos that it requests. You only need 40 Locos to fight the final boss, and then you win the game. That isn’t where it stops though.

When you beat the game for the first time, it’ll tell you that there are 200 LocoRocos in the entire game. It will then open up a new part of the stage that you originally couldn’t access. This enables you to find more Locos, and also the three mini games that are hidden in the game. Once you find as many Locos as you can, you simply beat the game again to unlock more of the stage. Eventually you’ll be able to open up the entire world, and find all 200 Locos.

Anyway, it’s kind of fun and addicting to try and find all of the Locos. I spent close to an hour gathering 100 of them before I stopped playing it. Watching the Locos sing an overly cheesy kiddy song in Japanese is both too cute for it’s own good, and hilarious at the same time. It’s fun just watching the Locos fly around the screen, going about their business, singing and talking to each other.

It’s a charming little game that most people probably wouldn’t be able to stomach. The asking price of $6.99 is a little steep for what is here, but you could do much worse. Though for people who get into it, the online leader boards could help prolong the experience.