LittleBigPlanet - Review

There comes a time when something new and fresh hits the scene. Sometimes it's a new twist on established genres, or a completely new genre altogther. But then you have something else. Something which revisits most of our own precious beginnings in gaming, expands on it, makes it better, and then lets you do it yourself. That game, is LittleBigPlanet.

What I'm talking about is platforming. All the classics were platforming - Mario, Metroid, Sonic etc. and LBP is the first game in a long to time to revisit this almost forgotten genre and reinvent it in a whole new way. You play as Sackboy (or indeed Sackgirl) and inhabit the LittleBigPlanet. Your adventures thoughout the story mode take you all across the globe, to a greeny/castle themed Eurozone, to the African Savannah, across the Altantic to the haunted South American section, up north to the bustling metropolis, then west to oriental Japan and a quick stop off in India before you make your way to the Tundra wastelands. Each area has its own unique feel and theme, all beautifully created using the LBP tools, and each section starts you off with a little costume zone to dress for the occasion. The story-mode in itself is rather good, though I can't say the game really has a story and really, the story mode levels are there to inspire you, the real creator of the LittleBigPlanet.

As Sackboy, you can do a couple of things. The controls are basic and can easily be taken up by anyone - I'm sure my 6 year old sister could even play it - X is jump, R1 is grab, move with the Left stick and change your emotions with the D-Pad: Up = Happy, Down = Sad, Right = Tough, Left = Scared. While the emotions don't change how you play the game, they can make the online mulitplayer experience more enjoyable and funny. If you hold L2 and move the left analog you control Sackboy's right arm, the R2 button and the right stick control his left hand. Combining these and tilting the SIXAXIS/DUALSHOCK 3 you can animate Sackboy by dancing, waving to other players, pointing to a direction or whatever. The default tilt controls Sackboy's head, while clicking L3 then changes the tilt to control his hips. It's remarkably intuitive and clever. By pressing SQUARE you can open your Pop-It, from here you can dress your Sackboy in all manner of things (too many to name, but at one stage I was a half Roman Centurion-Ninja type guy with a lions tail). You can open your sticker collection and decorate the levels or indeed decorate your pod. The pod is where you enter LBP, it hovers above the planet in the stars and online acts as the waiting room while you (or indeed whoever is the host) picks the next level.

While you don't have to play the story mode, I can see no reason why you wouldn't. Playing through the story unlocks costume elements, materials for contruction, level elements (as in pre-built stuff) and bonus levels. And like I said, you can get incredible inspiration from playing. You need to play through the story to unlock trophies and it is absolutely essential you play online or with friends if you want to get the illusive Platinum trophy. Speaking briefly on the trophies, many are rather straight forward and encourage community interaction as well as playthough of the story. Some also encourage creation and others are approriately graded for the challenge, example: you earn a gold trophy if you complete each level without dying once. Take it from me, that is NOT an easy thing to do. Any preconception you may have of this game being kiddy or childish or not for hardcore gamers is ridiculous. LBP is surprisingly challenging at times, and also frustrating it might be said. A shallow review would comment the difficulty at points being a flaw, and I will admit I planned to include it as a flaw when I first began this review (some weeks back I might add) but it isn't unfair difficult, it is challenging. I think many of us in this modern gaming generation have forgotten that games should challenge us, just because we keep dying does not mean the game is unfair!

Anyway, back on track here, LBP is intended to be used online. If you only plan to play the game offline you are cutting yourself off from an incredible experience. LBP allows you to make your own LEVELS!!! In this respect the game can never end. Each level in the story is made using these tools, and that is why playing through them is essential for inspiration and additionally in understanding how the tools work.

Before you begin you have to sit through tutorials which teach you how to build. Stephen Fry's narration can seem a little slow at times (we're not idiots) but it's a nice touch. The tools themselves are easy to use but difficult to master. I would recommend simply messing around and playing with different machines and objects before setting out to make a level. Some tools require a fair amount of understanding to nail perfectly, and it is highly recommended that you plan out what you're going to do, rather than jump in and see what happens. Doing that can lead to frustration and broken controllers. From my experience the building is a hell of a lot of fun, especially being an engineering student. The thermometer limit on the left really isn't a hindrance at all. Assuming you played through the story well you will have a whole host of objects, materials and stickers available to make your level as brilliant as possible. Expanding what's in your "Goodies Bag" is all the incentive you should need to collect everything in the story. What's great as well is you can make your own objects, then save it (like a car, or a bike, or a catapult - whatever!) and place it as a prize that other people can win when they play your level.

You don't have to upload your level, but as I mentioned earlier there are trophies to be earned when you do - for simply publishing a level, getting a certain number of people to play it, getting hearted and so on. Hearting a level is simple and quick to do. You can access other people's levels from the pod. All these levels are original content created by other LBP players from across the globe. Much like Youtube, the levels on "Planet 1" are either very new or the cream of the crop and you will often find that they have been played in the thousands of times. Pressing R1 leads you to "Planet 2", then 3 and so on. The idea is that the better levels are kept closer to the top while the bad ones sink to the bottom. It works well and hasn't met any hitches yet. There are already tonnes of levels online, and I must say at times I was blown away by the quality. While the story levels are still the most polished, I have no doubt that we will start seeing better levels over the holidays as people master the tools more.

The community experience is simply brilliant. Completing a level, even on your own, ends with a scoreboard, and your score is uploaded to the worldwide rankings. Playing with more players makes it into a competition. As Media Molecule call it "Co-opetition". Whilst you're still competing, you need each other to complete the level. It makes for a great experience all round. After you play someone's level you can heart it and leave a description tag. Naturally the more hearts a level has the higher it will be up on the "Planet" rankings. You can even leave comments and like I said, there are trophies rewarding good community interaction.

What makes LittleBigPlanet special is its innovation. Not to mention top notch graphics and physics. Just because it looks simple doesn't mean the overall presentation should be, LBP is a beautifully crafted world, full of colour and animation. I can't even do it justice in my review; LBP is something you simply have to experience. I can assure you there will be laughs, smiles, tears and above all FUN. How can you not love that face???



Presentation: 10
It is a beautiful game with vibrant colours and environments and excellent fire and electricity effects. And let's not forget excellently programmed physics and material interaction.

Gameplay: 10
What more could you want, platforming with simple yet entertaining puzzles and innovation the industry hasn't seen in years. And don't forget the creation tools.

Design: 9.8
Surprisingly no major technical issues and perfect frame rate throughout, jumping mechanics could be a tad better.

Content: 10
A MASSIVE amount for a game that doesn't know if it's little or big, potentially infinite play time and the ability to craft your own world and play online, I don't think you could have anymore.

Overall: 9.9

It really is The Next Big Thing. I can't begin to imagine how HUGE the sequel is going to be... Yes, a sequel is already in the works!

~The Damo