all games are not created equal

When I first started writing this review, I was only about an hour into Loco Roco 2.  I decided that I should play it a little more and really get a feel for it before I try to compare it to the first one.  I'm glad I did.

Loco Roco 2 adds a lot of things to the formula.  Stages have more things to do in them and give you reasons to go back and revisit the stages in order to collect everything.  They also have cool new little gameplay things, like swimming.  Only problem is, I don't really think it makes the game any more enjoyable.  In fact, I find it a whole lot more frustrating than the first.

In the first one, I found it kinda fun to try and find all 20 of the little fruit things that make your character bigger.  That still exists in Loco Roco 2, but now, they've made some of them impossible to get once you go past a certain point.  They had this in the first game a little bit, but it seems like the majority of them in the second one are like this now.

So let's say you're playing a level and you've done everything perfectly and found all the fruits so far.  Then you accidently move over a hole that sucks you in a spits you out at a totally different section of the level before you could grab the fruit next to it.  Tough luck, gotta go through it all again.

If you totally ignore the "collect them all" mentality, you're left with decently fun game, albeit simple.  A little too simple for someone who wants to play a real game and not roll a ball around a stage just to get to the end.  There are no real challenges except for trying to collect everything.

Loco Roco 2 is 20 bucks though, which isn't bad.  But I still prefer the first.

I've played both of these games on my PSP on the way to and from work.  I got pretty far in Loco Roco 2, but I ended up really hating it because it wasn't challenging at all.  You're able to pass levels by doing almost nothing.  You can try and collect all the random little things scattered throughout the levels, but I found that to be very frustrating.

On the other end of things is Final Fantasy Tactics: a turn-based RPG.  Each battle can easily take over 10 minutes and, if you're not careful, you might lose and have to do it all over again.  This can get pretty frustrating too, but at least it's a challenge I feel that I can take on as opposed to the ones in Loco Roco 2.

It's like this for these two games.  Buying a game for an 8 year old?  Buy Loco Roco 2, they will probably love it.  Buying a game for a real gamer?  Buy Final Fantasy Tactics.