![play locoroco play locoroco](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/locoroco_2.png)
So, if you add a sizeable PSP userbase (something Japan can't count on) to a love of "non-games" (to a greater extent than in the US, at least), you've got an audience ripe for a new kind of PSP game. That's why Nintendo recently put out a fourth variant in Europe - Nintendogs: Dalmatian & Friends. Nintendogs has been a phenomenon around the world, but it sold best here. The PSP and the DS are pretty much even, but the market here has proven itself open to the sort of simple, broadly popular games that have become the hallmark of the DS. The situation in Europe isn't all that different from the US. There the PSP and the DS are more evenly matched, though some big releases for the DS, such as New Super Mario Bros, are shifting that balance slightly.
![play locoroco play locoroco](https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article10432782.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/LocoRoco-game.jpg)
There's hardly a week that goes by without the Top 20 Japanese sales chart being dominated by DS games, and the hardware is far outselling not only the PSP but also every single other piece of hardware.
![play locoroco play locoroco](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/YGh1_vfhncA/maxresdefault.jpg)
It may seem an odd choice at first to debut a PSP game in Europe, but it actually makes sense when you think about it. In+Japan,+you+can+buy+a+full+LocoRoco+bundle Even though LocoRoco was created internally, at Sony's development studio in Japan, the game was released first in Europe about a week ago. Here, finally, was the kind of game that I wanted to see on the system - something more, dare I say it, DS-like in its simplicity of design. She's a frighteningly serious person at times, so I took her giddiness as a good sign, and I wasn't disappointed. A friend of mine, who's the editor of a big magazine in the UK, ran up to me and told me to check out this game at Sony's booth. I first came across LocoRoco at the Tokyo Game Show last year. But one game has almost won me back to the sleek side. When I want games like most of those in the PSP's library, I'll use my PlayStation 2. Then there are the games, which I find uninspired. For one, now that the überscreen goggles have come off, it's easier to see the hardware's flaws, such as the awful analog nub that works nothing as well as the PSP deserves. With the exception of the odd occasion when I've been asked to review a game for the system, my PSP has seen very little play in nearly a year now.