With all the talk last year about LittleBigPlanet's Sackboy being the PlayStation 3's 'mascot,' nobody really thought about the PS3's poor younger sibling -- the PSP. It's been around much longer than the PS3 but has had an even harder time finding a standout character, unique to the system, that provides a sort of summation of the device's strengths and appeal. Well it looks like Sony might finally be prepping the darling LocoRocos to become the Pokemon of their handheld.

Included in today's press release regarding the imminent arrival of LocoRoco 2, Sony breathlessly declared LocoRoco as the PSP's 'icon.' While not fully coming out and calling the little blobs of fun the PSP's mascot, it seems pretty obvious that Sony is trying hard to great an identifiable character for the PSP. LocoRocos are a reasonably solid choice as well, since they're cute and recognizable and they show off the system's crisp and clear screen. Also... they're one of the only PSP exclusive characters on the system -- I mean I love love Patapons but they're not really 'iconic' material, and outside of that there's really not much to choose from.

Regardless, both LocoRoco 2 and the PSP need all the love they can get, so hopefully pairing the two together will give both of them a much needed hype-bump. LocoRoco 2 hits North America this Thursday for the low price of $19.99. Check back soon for our review of this fun little puzzler.

LocoRoco 2, the long anticipated sequel to the game which first introduced us to the PSP's unofficial mascot, has landed in Europe, with a Japanese release planned for next week. But we're still getting no love from Sony, which still has no confirmed North American release date for the game.

I beat LocoRoco two long years ago, and although I found it to have an unusually high level of replayability, now that I know there's more out there: I want it, and I want it now. LocoRoco Cocoreccho! was fun, albeit weird and very different from the original. In fact, instead of being produced as a true sequel, it was billed as an interactive screensaver. I find it immensely frustrating that this sequel is finally finished, it's ready to go and so am I, but because of geography we have to wait. In the meantime I'll have to content myself to replaying the original (yet again), playing the official LocoRoco 2 Flash Minigame, and watching the LocoRoco 2 trailer [after the jump].