Here it is. Its very long.
Little Big Planet started as a novel new game idea of two former Lionhead Studios game developers. They wanted to create a 2d console game that had multiplayer and predominately featured player made content (something that is almost unheard of in the console world). A meeting with Sony’s Phil Harrison eventually led to the founding of the game’s developer, Media Molecule, and the creation of what many have dubbed to be Sony’s next “Killer App”.
So does this “Indie” title that introduced the gaming world to Sackboy truly have what it takes to be a system seller and a great game?
Little Big Planet is not about flashy explosions, spectacular lighting and the most realistic graphics. Instead it is a 2d platformer that uses the PS3 hardware to create very detailed environments filled with cartoonish characters and Sackboys. The levels themselves are presented in pseudo 3d. Most objects that you can interact with, like boxes, rocks, etc are 3d models that have been placed on the 2d plane. The levels also have 3 different playable planes that your Sackboy can move around on.
One of the key features of Little Big Planet is the ability for any player to be able to pick up the game and within literally minutes they can learn how to create their own levels. For this reason there are a bunch of different themes to the levels and a player shouldn’t grow bored with seeing the same style of graphics over and over again.
By now everyone should be familiar with Sony’s Sackboy. If you aren’t, then what you need to know is that Sackboy (or Girl if you prefer) is the name of the character you use in Little Big Planet. The great thing about Sackboy is that he is wildly customizable. Everything from his sack color, to his hair, his clothes and facial expressions can be changed by the player. Sackboy himself moves incredibly realistically for a sack. What is perhaps most impressive is that Sackboy shows a wide range of emotions. The player can control whether or not he looks happy, sad or is excited, and on top of that there are varying degrees of each emotion. Sackboy is amazingly animated and realistic, especially when you consider he is essentially a character made out of sacks.
Little Big Planet looks exactly like what a 2d platformer should look in 2008. The graphics are sharp and detailed. The environments vary quite a bit. But at the same time don’t expect to use Little Big Planet as a showcase for the PS3’s graphical capabilities.
The first thing you will notice about Little Big Planet is that the developers took the game’s sound seriously. The game’s narrator is an essential tool in the story mode of Little Big Planet and Media Molecule hired a professional voice actor to do the job. Anyone who has watched the recent movie adaptation of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy will instantly recognize the narrator in Little Big Planet as the same one in the movie. His voice is very soothing and charming and it definitely adds to the quality and humor of the game.
The in-game music is entirely appropriate for each level. There aren’t any hard rock tunes or blaring music, instead the music is designed to be more in the background. During the process of writing this review Sony announced a recall of the game due to potentially insensitive lyrics contained in one of the game’s songs. I can honestly say that I’m not even sure which song contained the bad lyrics and I don’t think that the removal of the song in question will hurt Little Big Planet’s enjoyment at all.
If any criticism can be given to Little Big Planet it will be for the game’s controls. This is a shame because one aspect of the game has superior controls, while another has some of the most frustrating controls in any AAA contender in years.
First, the bad. As I mentioned earlier, the game is a 2d side-scroller with 3 planes of play within each level. The player is not capable of moving Sackboy fluidly in between each plane (i.e. the movement style in Double Dragon or Streets of Rage). Instead Sackboy has to be on one plane and one plane only and there is no in-between. This may not sound that bad, but I found it to be very frustrating. For example of you want to push a box and it looks like you are on the same plane as the box but you aren’t, suddenly you find yourself walking right past the box. Now you have to back track and then switch to the same plane as the box and then push it. Lining up steps and jumping onto items when you think they are in front of you but they are not also present problems. Instances like this will occur over and over again throughout Little Big Planet and can be frustrating.
On top of the frustrating plain issue it can be very hard to judge a jump in Little Big Planet. This is because the game makes heavy use of a physics engine that also applies to Sackboy. Because of the physics, Sackboy does not control nearly as tightly as Mario or Sonic and you will find yourself missing jumps over and over again until you get a good feel for the game.
Now the good. Everything else about Little Big Planet’s controls work very well and are extremely intuitive. The first set of levels in Little Big Planet are focused almost entirely on learning the controls for both Sackboy and his customization, as well as for learning level creation.
Within 2 hours of playing any gamer should be able to make their own unique and fun levels to share. The level editor itself is handled primarily with a good menu that has several subcategories that are intuitive and easy to navigate. Those players who really want to spend the time and create their own unique and expansive levels will be able to do so with ease.
Thus my conundrum with Little Big Planet’s overall control score. On the one hand it has some of the worst gameplay controls as far as player movement, but on the other hand, the level and player editor is so easy to use and revolutionary that it almost cancels out any complaints I have about the movement controls.
On its own Little Big Planet is a very fun 2d platformer with enough humor and charm thrown into its 20 main storyline levels to be a good game. What drives it over simply being a good game and turns it into an incredible game is the fact that Little Big Planet will continue to grow and become even better once all of the player made content and levels start popping up.
As of the end of the game's beta period there were already a host of unique and fun player made levels. One of the most memorable is a level designed to simulate God of War. The creator of the level had everything necessary to make anyone familiar with God of War instantly recognize the level's inspiration. There were chests to open with green orbs, huge doors to lift and the Omega symbol was displayed on a lot of the background.
Another player had created a Shadow of the Colossus level that tried to recreate one of the colossus battles. Still another player created a pretty convincing Metal Gear level. Keep in mid that these levels were all created within the limited time that the beta was released and you will be able to see that Little Big Planet truly has a lot of gameplay to offer. It’s expandability will be limitless.
Connecting online to the player made levels and joining in on multiplayer games is also extremely easy to do. Upon starting up the game you are in a lobby (it’s called your house in the game). From there you can easily select if you want to play the story mode, the editor mode or the player created level mode. If you choose player created levels then you are taken to a new screen that displays the player created levels and from there it is simply a matter of selecting which level you want. I found that the levels loaded fairly quickly.
As I mentioned earlier there are 20 official levels in the story mode. While there is somewhat of a storyline, don’t expect a groundbreaking story. Players won’t be compelled to finish the story mode for the story. Instead they will be compelled to finish it for the fun of playing the game and for all of the unlockable items contained in each level.
As far as actual gameplay goes the goal of each level is invariably to make it to the end of the level. The challenge doesn’t normally come from onscreen enemies; instead it comes from obstacles in the level and mini puzzles. To get around obstacles players will have to move boxes, push boulders, ride giant skate boards, jump and grab ropes, etc. all of which move realistically with the physics engine. If you die in Little Big Planet it is usually because you missed a jump or fell in fire. On top of that the levels are designed to be played in single player mode and multiplayer mode.
Throughout each level there are several “stickers”; the stickers are used as assets to create new levels and can also be used to modify Sackboy’s appearance. Many of the stickers are hard to discover and you will find yourself exploring each level very carefully to unlock everything. The player is awarded additional stickers at the end of each level based on how well they did in that level.
It should also be noted that you can use the Playstation Eye to create your own in-game stickers. I tested this function out and it worked pretty well. I was able to take a picture of my cat and use his picture as a painting on the side of a building within the game. I suspect that many gamers will use this function to create truly unique levels.
Little Big Planet is the very definition of replayability. The user created content is going to give this game legs like no other console game has had in the past. I fully expect to see thousands of quality user made levels two or three years down the road. In essence Media Molecule has created a game where you can play an entirely new level every day for as long as the game’s servers are online.
On top of that the single player story mode is highly replayable because of the amount of unlockable and hidden stickers. Players will find themselves going back through each level in order to get all of the stickers. They will then go into the level editor and see what they can make with their new stickers.
In short Little Big Planet is highly replaable and an incredible value.
By now Sackboy has entered the vocabulary of every gamer who has been paying attention to the console scene. What started as an idea by two independent developers has blossomed into a full fledged AAA title for Sony.
The only blemish on this package is the character controls and that’s a real shame because without that problem Little Big Planet might be the perfect game. Don’t let the shaky controls stop you from trying this title out though, because it has something for everyone and shouldn’t be missed.
Score- 90 out of 100
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