The LocoRoco series is known for its use of the left and right shoulder buttons to assist you in your controlling the LocoRocos. That has certainly not changed, but what has changed is the way in which the game plays out. In the past, the goal of each level was about pushing your LocoRoco through the large levels in the attempt of finding secret paths and bonus goodies. In Midnight Carnival, the objective is to go through each level as quickly as possible.

 

 

Each level is timed and you are given a limit that you need to try to achieve; the goals are typically only about 2-3 minutes depending on the level. Unlike previous games, there isn’t much of a way to backtrack nor are there secrets paths to discover. The levels are often set-up in such a way that you should be able to complete the level without much of a problem; at least that is what they want you to think.

 

Midnight Carnival is an extremely difficult game regardless of the fact that the levels only last a short period of time. Unlike LocoRoco 2 where the only way you really failed a level was if you got lost or fought and lost against a Boss character, here you can easily fall to your death or land on something that also causes your demise.

 

The reason for this is connected with the game’s new movement called “Boing”. “Boing” occurs when you manage to string together combos of jumps. Every time you jump in succession, you get “Boing” points that are added to the level’s final score. Since jumping is now a focus of the levels, you are more likely to over-shoot or under judge of how much power you need. Because of that, the likelihood of falling to your death is significantly greater.

 

With the small size of the levels, you often will have to start again from the very beginning. If you manage to reach the half-way checkpoint, you can spend your collected pickories to restart from there; those only give you three additional chances. If you still need more tries, the cost increases.

 

 

With this high level of difficulty, it really takes the series in a completely different direction from LocoRoco 2. The level designs are nice, but because of increased chances of dying and having to restart, it really makes it difficult to fully enjoy.

 

Th last thing to mention is that this game is built for the PSP Go. This is one of the first titles that can be played in the Go’s closed position. Everything, including scrolling through the menus, can be done by simply using the Left and Right Shoulder Buttons. If you are someone who owns a Go, then this could be a perfect example of showing off some of the unit’s functionality.

 

 

Both the graphics and sound don’t feature anything that stands out from previous LocoRoco titles. The game still has a very unique art-style coupled with one heck of a catchy soundtrack.

 

As the theme of the game is focused around night-time environments, you will see a lot of dark colors used in each level. Even with smaller levels, the designs are still really well done with a lot of earthy colors used. A nice touch is the cool visual effects during “Boings”. Once you reach a chain of ten or more, the streak that follows your LocoRoco as it jumps is absolutely fantastic.

 

If you were a fan of the extremely catchy and high beat music from previous LocoRoco titles, the same will likely hold true here. The cool sound effects from the LocoRoco calls to the environments themselves manage to hold their own. Again, there isn’t too much to report in terms of new music, the fact that the formula here hasn’t changed is a plus.

 

 

Value

Thanks to the difficulty, even with what might seem like 16 short stages, you will be playing them a lot in your attempts to progress through the game. On top of those stages there are bonus stages that occur after a certain amount of playing and two mini-games that you will unlock. The first is a crane game where you need to grab LocoRocos and the other is a Pachinko type game where your LocoRocos are used as balls.

The two other key features to Midnight Carnival are the expanded online options. Levels can be played with friends and that certainly adds some extra playtime. The other feature is the game’s ranking system. Since each level has a Time Requirement and a Score is given, you can see just how good you are in comparison to the rest of the world. A nice addition is that those in the top five of each category for every level have the ability to upload their level replays. With that, you can download the top replays and use it to help you figure out what you might be doing wrong.

Conclusion

By no means is Midnight Carnival a bad game. The problems with it lie in the fact that it is just too difficult to be enjoyed by a wide audience. The new challenge, interesting multiplayer and the incentives brought with a world-wide leader-board are perfect additions for long time fans. The extremely difficult challenge and frustration most people will have with nearly every level will only give newcomers the wrong impression on what this series is actually about. If you are fan of the series, you will pick this up without hesitation; for everyone else, I strongly suggest playing through the demo before spending the small price for the game.