One of those games where you're better off playing the first world, going "well wasn't that delightful" and then putting the game down. Every level feels like the game has no new ideas to bring to the table, all the same tricks rearranged a couple times, maybe more spike balls in places. Also, if you're looking to collect everything in a stage, it not only requires never getting hit but also a lot of weirdly precise platforming. This is a game that should be putting vibes above all else, and yet for a game that only uses the shoulder buttons to move, it expects some quick reaction and precision, usually just so you can collect an item for a mode that, while fun, is ultimately not all that engaging. It also felt unclear what was the surefire way to defeat enemies, sometimes hitting them from under works but once in a while they'll stop you and eat one of your locoroco, same with going from above, the way the Moja work in this game doesn't feel fair compared to what's at your disposal.

It's a shame I came away feeling like this, because this is a game with a lot of delightful things. The locoroco themselves are adorable in both design and sound, each having their own theme and voice lines for specific things in levels. They all speak in a made up language, one meant to sound like several different languages at once, and every song they and the Mui Mui sing is incredibly charming and catchy. A game so poppy should be a lot more consistently exciting, or just shorter and more focused. Five worlds of levels was clearly too many for this team to fill.

Also, man, the design of the Moja sure is questionable, huh? And also the black locoroco sounding and looking like that. I mean, it was 2006, surely they could have avoided stuff like this. It's not a huge deal breaker, but it just feels like this one thing that taints this game's happy-go-lucky attitude, I don't buy it's positivity anymore. Because of this, it brings me no joy to admit the black locoroco's theme goes hard.

This feels like a project that started with the best of intentions, but just ended up getting bloated while also having nothing to fill all that bloat. It's best to be looked at from a distance, as there's nothing to be gained from getting closer to it.