Man, CES isn't for another two weeks and yet here we are with our first trailer for the upcoming rhythm game Patapon. A certain luck Editor got a preview copy that he is even now probably playing on his way to his festive holiday festivities. The design on this one looks great and ties in very nicely with Japan Studios' highly addictive and eternally cheerful Loco Roco. You can definitely tell they are part of the same family yet completely different in their gameplay. Considering how much I loved Loco Roco, this will be a must-have for my PSP.

Kotakuite Spence sends in this interesting tidbit about the possibility of Loco Roco coming to the PS3. It seems that during Phil Harrison's keynote speech at this year's GDC, an eagle eyed NeoGAF forum poster noticed a Loco Roco achievement trophy within the Home demonstration.

Now, Spence has found an ad for an upcoming edition of PSM3 magazine in this month's edition of UK's EDGE magazine. I know, it's all a little confusing. But, suffice it to say that the ad is touting a feature called "Future of PS3" and shows a bunch of hand drawn Loco Roco blobs with the line "Loco Roco - PS3!" written underneath them in huge letters. Now obviously this isn't rock solid proof of the game appearing on the PS3, but it certainly does give one hope. All will be revealed when the issue of PSM3 in question hits UK shelves on April 12. Flynn De Marco

Singing balls coming to the PS3 [Spence What?]

Tsutomu Kouno, the director, says that the three ideas that were integral to the game were it being easy to play, fun, and dramatic. Did that come across? Who knows, we (and by we, I mean me) haven't played this game before. We (again, me) are lost.

Now there's a Japanese lady translating the Japanese to English. We think she's missing something. There's about 3x less words when she's translating. There's no way for us to confirm without Ashcraft here, though.

So he and a two programmers made some crazy pre-prototype in March 2005.

The translator's breathy whisper is kinda sexy. "Ooooh, it's very good!"

Prototyping took 3 months, actual development took 11 months. So, there were various textures to the world being experimented, but many of them turned out to be "weird".

Back to the American translator. We had to say it, but Kuono-san is pretty boring. This is a packed house, actually, and has more in attendance than the Gears session this morning. Weird.

They spent a lot of time on the music, making it feel like "live" music, kinda dynamic. You know who would love this session? Mrs. Ashcraft. She likes Loco Roco. Not as much as Mario—she loves pot-bellied, hairy guys (which means I have a shot!)—but enough.

Anecdote: he sang his Loco Roco song on the train, and people looked at him like he was a weirdo.

Not sure if it's this guy being boring or the translators taking the fun out of his talk, but we're about to fall asleep.

You know what? I don't even have a PSP. Bet you didn't know that.

The most interesting thing to come out of this talk? That Loco Roco 2 is confirmed. Oh wait, you already knew that since last December, didn't you. Then yeah, we got nothin'. No wait, these things coming up are kind of interesting.

He wouldn't say whether LR2 was going to be for the PS3 or PSP or PSP2.

Loco Roco was actually best in Europe, and after that, Japan. That's not what you would have thought.

Someone just asked whether the development budget of the PSP impacted the development. Looooooooooooong pause. You can actually make PSP games "very sophisticated", but "the PSP is portable and easy to use". So that makes PSP games lower budget, but developed in a shorter span.

Doesn't the Loco Roco look like flan? We could use some flan right about now.

Aaaaand, we're out of questions. Oh wait, someone's asking about whether Loco Roco is going to be made into a cartoon series and whether Sony wants that. The answer? We want to do it, but it hasn't moved in any direction.

Someone's question was a wish for him to add a zoom-out feature in Loco Roco 2.

So yeah, look forward to Loco Roco 2 on some undecided console. Jason Chen

• SingStar and SingStore for PLAYSTATION 3 shown again with new features, including streaming song previews, custom user pages, video uploads of performances, and My SingStar community features.
• Super Rub A Dub shown. The PlayStation Network game, sure to be the subject of Monkey Ball comparisons, features SIXAXIS tilt control and will be available before the European PS3 launch.
• The sequel to the PSP game LocoRoco is playable, but platform and release date weren't given.
• The PLAYSTATION 3 online platform will continue to evolve "aggressively". Phil wouldn't specify timetables or feature sets.

If anyone has any questions, throw them in the comments. I'll try to answer when I can. Michael McWhertor

He says that while in-house developed games like Gran Turismo 2 and God of War II max out the PSone and PS2 respectively, no one will ever be able to tap 100% of the power of the Cell-powered PS3. In fact, Phil says Sony software is currently using "less than half" of the machine's capabilities. Does that mean Genji 3 has the possibility of being twice as good as the second? Amazing!

And what does Phil see as the gaming industry's "biggest challenge"?

I fervently believe that the biggest challenge we face is that our industry is referred to as 'video games,' and games are supposed to be fun. Games should deal with fear, should deal with comedy and with death. They should deal with peril, with drug offenses.

Okay, I'll admit that genre-busting, boundary-breaking software is something I'd like to see, but that's our biggest challenge? I wonder if Phil's teams are up to it. Michael McWhertor

PlayStation Exec Talks Shaky '06, Reveals Plans For New Gaming Feature [MTV News]

Ho ho ho! Michael McWhertor

Happy Holidays From LocoRoco!

Los Angeles is disgusting. From the game store/check cashing combo, to Melissa's blas pep, to Batman's creepy laugh, to the Hulk hustling for a tip ( and being denied), this whole segment gives me the jibblies.

Not the jubblies.

It's like watching your fat friend run.

Well said, Batman. Eliza Gauger

[thanks Hal]

Thanks to Sven C. for pointing out the amazing Loco Roco inspired art of Deviant Art member Black Mago. Oh, sure, Eliza's probably sneering right now: "Why are gamers so impressed by rote copying? How can you post this, Florian? Why aren't you supporting real art?" The answer to that question, of course, is that I am an easily amused idiot. Florian Eckhardt

Blackmago's Loco Roco Page [Deviant Art]

Featuring 71 minutes of mind numbing chanting and la-la-la-ing, it's enough to either drive you batshit insane or make you the happiest go-lucky S.O.B. on the planet. Perfect for marching down the street looking like a madman! Michael McWhertor

Ashcraft and I trekked over to Sony Computer Entertainment to pick the brain of Tsutomu Kouno, senior designer of Loco Roco. After some wacky scheduling mix-up hijinks, we were escorted to the Yasuda building and led into our waiting area. We were then quickly booted out.

It wasn't that we'd pissed anyone off (that came later), we'd just walked in on someone else's interview and Sony PR seemed quite serious about keeping an eye on us. Probably a good idea as Ashcraft started snapping pics of the bathroom and scoping for top secret documents.

We were brought in to speak to Kouno after a short wait and served delicious iced coffee. Loco Roco programmer/swell fellow Gregg Tavares sat in with us and helped out with translation.

Finally getting down to it, I asked Kouno why he became a game designer and why he made Loco Roco. He told us, "In elementary school I did AI programming and then again in college. I always liked to snowboard and wanted to make a snowboarding game." Instead of doing dangerous tricks, he watched videos of snowboarders but wanted to speed up and slow down the action, as well as change the angle. Obviously this couldn't be done and it inspired the game design of Loco Roco.

Despite making such a hyper cute game, Kouno plays games for an adult taste. He likes Age of Empires, Monster Hunter, and, like everyone else in Japan loves Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. He even plays first person shooters. When I asked him if he wanted to make the games he plays, he said no. Loco Roco was designed to target a worldwide audience.

Kouno told us that he designed the characters during his commute to work, sketching the cast on his PDA. These sketches even made it into the He played with art styles that looked like clay and paper, but due to time constraints had to settle on the simple flat visuals.

When asked about the questionably "racist" character designs for the game, he told us "I drew the moja because I thought it was cool. My favorite character was the black Loco Roco". He also told us some of his best friends were black. Kidding, he didn't say that, but it was obvious from the staff that there was no harm intended.

Then it got a little ugly.

I asked Kouno if he'd like to work on any other hardware — Wii, DS, or Xbox 360. Unfortunately, the Sony PR folks chimed in at this point, wondering what the hell kind of question that was. It was hypothetical, people! I was just looking to see if the man was inspired by the possibilities of the other systems unique hardware and software capabilities. Kouno politely declined to answer. "Well, what about new Sony hardware? Anything you'd like to do with the PSP accessories?" After I prodded him, he said he had no game designs yet that would take advantage of the GPS and camera attachments.

Sony PR asked me to stop at this point, but I had one more thing to ask.

"How do you feel about the PlayStation 3? Will you be working with it?"

He kept his mouth shut about the PS3, only mentioning that, yes, he'll be working on it. "I'll be focusing on the PSP. The DS is outselling the PSP in Japan and I want to make a game to change that. Maybe Loco Roco wasn't it, but I'll keep trying."

Dude, that's going to be way harder than pulling off some snowboarding tricks. Good luck! Michael McWhertor

Yakuza (PS2)
Sega's brawler adventure puts you in control of yakuza tough Kiryu Kazuma. Lotsa punching, lotsa swearing.

LocoRoco (PSP)
You are a yellow blob in the happiest game ever! I just wanna pinch its blobby cheeks!

Spy Hunter: Nowhere to Run (PS2, Xbox)
It's like the last Spy Hunter but with The Rock. Whatever happened to that movie anyway, Rock?

Test Drive Unlimited (Xbox 360)
Pretty looking driving game that takes you all over Hawaii.

Xbox Live Arcade Unplugged Vol. 1 (Xbox 360)
Play those great Live Arcade games (like Geometry Wars) without an internet connection.

You kids snapping up anything this week?

Oh, PSP, have you no shame? Are things really so bad in Japan that you're forced to take a fourth job? I thought you were selling fairly well in the East, but Kotaku reader Dennis just sent us the following concerned e-mail:

Today I just happened to be in the Tokyu Hands in Shibuya and I came across this. Apparently hackers and pirates are not the only ones finding innovative uses for the PSP. This one has been pressed into service as make shift ad kiosk. It is quite common in Japan for one to find monitors attached to store shelves running a continuous loop of an ad video for some new product (ostensibly on the shelf the monitor is attached to). Such is life for this PSP...hawking what appeared to be insoles of dubious holistic value.

Is this how you're planning on appealing to the office lady demographic, PSP? Isn't Loco Roco supposed to be your game for girls? Keep your chin up, little guy.

Thanks, Dennis! Michael McWhertor

Now, 1UP blogging champ and militant anti-Treasure-ist Jeremy Parish has something to say on the topic: you're all a bunch of mouth-breathing dicks. Between the namecalling and missing the part where Eckhardt says he thinks Alejandro is not a racist, Jeremy makes some excellent points about the cultural differences and ignorances that lead to something as innocuos as disembodied cartoon heads being labeled racial propaganda.

Go on, read it. You might learn a thing or two about Japanese perception of American culture. And have a little fun thinking about the goodness of Loco Roco while you're at it! Michael McWhertor

Internet 1, Civility 0

Mobile gaming blog Mobile Militia just posted these brand new, non-demo Loco Roco screens, along with an adorably bad-tempered jibe:

You aren't going to find these on any other website (...till they steal these and put their own lame-ass watermarks on them. Fuck you guys).

Easy there, tiger. See how nice we link? Linky linky link link.

Thanks, John! Eliza gauger

See the post that started it all! [Mobile Militia]

• Ceramic White PSP Value Pack with Loco Roco (249 Euros)
• Ceramic White PSP GigaPack with 1 GB Memory Stick and Loco Roco (279 Euros)
• Ceramic White PSP GigaPack with 2 GB Memory Stick (299 Euros)

Hey, SCEA! Get off your ass and give us Americans (and our Canadian brothers!) that pretty white version ASAP! Michael McWhertor

Les LocoRoco s'amusent en soir e

The official Loco Roco site uses a clever Flash navigation scheme to get around. The game's simple controls—simply using the L and R buttons to revolve the world and jump—are also used to get to downloads, screenshots and more.

And that soundtrack! It's so deliciously cute!

If you didn't make it to E3, this is as close to a demo as you're going to get until the game ships this September. Wait. This September?! What the hell is taking so long, Sony? MICHAEL MCWHERTOR

Official Loco Roco Site

There is a video interview for those of you who don't feel like readin'. It's worth a viewing if just for the fantastic bubbly feel-good music.

This Vagabond Life [1UP]