Reviewers often praise video games for their great graphics, cool sci-fi settings and replay value.

With "LocoRoco," heaps of cuteness, creativity and charm make what could have been another boring platformer into one of the year's most original and irresistible video games for the PlayStation Portable.

The E-rated, $39.99 game has you leading the rescue of the hopelessly happy LocoRocos from a gang of evil aliens called the Moja Corps.

LocoRocos are tuneful, tiny blobs in various colors that grow into mega blobs as they gobble up red berries scattered around the world.

Ending each level with as many LocoRocos as possible, though, is really just an excuse to experience the game's fabulously simple controls.

Only two buttons (the L and R shoulder buttons) are used to roll and jump around the whimsical worlds, which range from the squishy insides of chameleons and whales to the slippery slopes of winter wonderlands.

What's disorienting at first is how the controls actually work.

Instead of moving the LocoRocos, you pivot the angle of the entire world to make them roll, jump and slide in various directions.

It definitely takes some getting used to, and it's a sensation that still has me bending my neck in odd angles when I play.

The Japanese synth-pop music and childlike mutterings of the LocoRocos lend further whimsy to the game, though the songs got rather repetitive after a few hours.

Beneath all this sugary-sweet happiness, there's a certain amount of redundancy to be found in the levels as well.

The game isn't particularly difficult, and there are only so many ways one can roll and jump a collection of singing blobs, after all.

But all that is mitigated by the tremendous creativity and myriad secret tunnels and locales to discover.

LocoRoco is definitely a landmark title for the PSP, the sort of game that makes owning the pricey handheld worth the money.

It's also one of the few titles I felt compelled to show my non-gamer friends and say, "See? There's a lot more to video games than just dragons and gun battles."

Three stars out of four.