LittleBigPlanet (PS3) Review
Posted by Armando Rodriguez on 11.05.2008
One of the most anticipated titles of the year delivers a unique experience that everyone should play.
For several months now LittleBig Planet has been getting plenty of hype from gaming magazines and websites. It has been called a Game of the Year Candidate long before it even came out, has been praised for the gameplay and the innovation and many feel it will be the sleeper hit: Sandwiched between games with more hype like Gears of War 2, Fable 2, Resistance 2 and Fallout 3. The launch of the game was postponed for one week due to one of the songs in one level having lyrics from the Koran. But the game is finally here! For Playstation 3 owners, it is time to delve into one of the more unique pieces of gaming to hit the market in a long time.
In a personal note, I have to admit that I was not at all attracted to this game for the vast majority of the year. I dismissed it as just another cute platformer in a genre full of them, and quite frankly, it was hard to give a game like this a second look when so many other “Must-have” titles where coming out around the same time. However, I took a shot and bought the game, having spent the entire week delving into it and playing it non-stop. It is that good.
Gameplay:
In order to review the gameplay, it is important that we divide the game in two (maybe three) phases: the game and the editor.
The game is a side-scrolling platformer. However, all the graphics are done in three dimensions, so it is sort of a hybrid. The levels have three “planes” in which your sackboy interacts with the environment: fore, middle and background. This impacts the gameplay: One plane might be blocked by a wall, but the other is not, so you can go around it. The platforming gameplay is pretty simple: one button is used for jumping, another for grabbing on to things and one button to open the “poppit” menu, which is integral to the gameplay. In the “poppit” menu you can customize your sackboy, access stickers and decorations and much more.
The sackboy itself, the cute little puppet that is your avatar in the game, is the star of the show. When you first boot up the game, you have a “naked” brown sackboy with a generic look. However, you can customize your little friend to suit your tastes with a great variety of clothing options. Everything from a roman soldier to a blinged out gangsta can be done in the game and you can also change your sackboy’s brown color to a different skin once you acquire them. But don’t worry the game throws items at you with such regularity that you will not be naked for long. The sackboy is very emotive, you are not only able to choose different moods like happy or sad with the D-Pad, but also control his arms, head and torso individually by using the L2 and R2 triggers (for the arms) and tilting the controller (for head and torso). There is a reason for all of these options, since you can play online with up to three other people and each one will likely have a very different looking puppet. Sackboy is definitively the best new character in gaming, mainly because it is what you want it to be.
The game’s story mode features a series of levels based on a variety of locations that are typical to the genre, like a jungle themed level, and some pretty original ones, like the zombie wedding. Every level is full of “prize bubbles” to find. Prize Bubbles unlock new clothing, stickers and materials for use in the game’s level editor. The gameplay is pretty similar in all of them, but the scenery, music and creativity behind them is unique. This feeling of appreciation for the craftsmanship of the stages is more palpable once you complete the level editor tutorials (more on that in a second) and you have an inner understanding of how everything works. Everything is so varied that it feels like the producers got free reign to let their creativity shine. There are some truly memorable and ingenious puzzles and a couple of wacky races that will give you pause from the standard running, jumping and grabbing. There is no real combat in LittleBig Planet: in typical Mario fashion, enemies are usually defeated by jumping on their exposed “brain” bubbles. The bosses are more memorable because they usually involve several rounds of “combat” and require thinking to beat. For example, one boss requires you to drag a bouncy platform back and forth in order to bounce back the “bullets” he is firing at you.
What truly hurts the story mode is the fact that the narrative is very shallow. In every world you need to help the residents of LittleBig Planet in some shape or form and there are hints about something bigger going on, but it is not explored in-depth until you reach the final world, where the “mystery” is revealed and it concludes with little fanfare. I think the ending (which I will not spoil here) does a good job of tying the playing and creating aspects together, but it still felt weak. With a stronger narrative supporting the gameplay, this might have turned out to be pretty amazing. It is also a short game, as you can beat every level in six hours or so. There is incentive to replay the levels to find all the prize bubbles and the hidden keys that unlock secret challenges. Some prize bubbles can only be acquired with multiple players, others can only be earned after “acing” the level (beating it without loosing a single life) and others can only be accessed when you place a sticker in a specific location. Usually you find a blank wooden shape of a particular object, like a horse or a star, and once you find the sticker that matches the shape and place it in the correct spot, it opens up a secret stash of prize bubbles. This stickers are usually found in a level that goes after the one where the shape can be found, which gives you incentive to replay previous levels and see if you have found the matching sticker. Acing levels is pretty easy for the first half of the game, but later levels are truly difficult and require multiple tries. Acing levels earn you new clothing items and usually by acing every level in a world you will complete an entire costume: for example, the aforementioned roman soldier uniform or the pirate costume.
The multiplayer aspects of the game are well developed. Up to four players can play a level at once, both locally and online. Levels are made for cooperation, with several prize bubbles that can only be acquired when a minimum of players perform a certain task. Almost every level has a hidden stash of goods that can only be accessed when 2, 3 or 4 players cooperate to perform an action, be it stepping on two switches at once or helping another player reach a higher platform. However, they still retain their competitive edge: points are awarded to the player who comes in first during a race, for example, and the player that collects the most point bubbles is named the winner of the level. What this means is that whether you are working together towards a common goal or racing each other to the end of the level, you are guaranteed to have fun.
The multiplayer exposes the two most common problems with the gameplay: the camera and the planes system. The camera in multiplayer is usually focused on the “host” player or in the case of local multiplayer, on the first player. That means that you can be left behind and out of view, which starts a countdown meter and if you fail to reach “the camera” you die. This is both, a blessing and a curse. It encourages players to stick together, but at the same time might force players to commit “suicide” in order to allow another player to explore a particularly interesting section that the others cannot reach. The problem with the planes system also has to do with the camera. Sometimes it is hard to tell on which plane your sackboy is at and this leads to accidental deaths during jumping sessions when the platform you where trying to reach was on a different plane. However, these are just small gripes that should not discourage players from trying the game.
The level editor is amazingly complex and yet, very user friendly. Every object you see in the game can be recreated in the editor. The game has a series of objective-based tutorials that show you the inner workings of the game and teach you how everything works. My only gripe with this is that after finishing a tutorial you are transported back to your moon (where you create the levels) and have to wait for a loading time, then if you wish to play the next tutorial, you need to open the “poppit” menu, select next tutorial and wait another short loading time and so on. In other words, there is no way to play every tutorial back to back without interruption. Even worse, some of the tutorials don’t actually show up in the “poppit” menu and have to be manually accessed from the tools menu. I thought I had finished all the tutorials when the “next tutorial” option disappeared from my “poppit” menu, but there where several more that could only be accessed by going to the tools menu, selecting the specific tool (the ones with tutorials are marked with a “?” symbol) and selecting the option to play said tutorial. I think it would have been better, and more user friendly, if there was a “tutorial” option in the main menu where you could play them all back to back.
The level editor also requires a time investment. There is close to two hours worth of tutorials and each one unlocks various tools and materials. In other words, you need to play them all to have everything, including some really crucial tools. However, once you finished playing them all you will have an inner understanding of how everything in the game works and, with time and dedication, can truly create something amazing. Like I mentioned before, everything you see in the story mode levels can be replicated with the editor, which is an incredible achievement for a console title.
The share aspect of the game comes from the ability to share your user made levels with the online community. This extends the replay value greatly, because there are a wide variety of levels already available for play. Granted, not every level is good, but some users have really made some incredible levels that match the story levels in quality and ingenuity. Users can even place prize bubbles in their levels which unlock some of their creations for the player that finds them.
In order to make level sharing a true community experience, players have the ability to rate levels and even write comments on them. Also players can select a key word that best describes the level, such as “short”, “race”, “vehicles” or “tricky”. Players can then filter their search with these key words in order to display levels that feature these characteristics and finding the types of levels you really enjoy.
Finally, the game has trophy support. Trophies range from really simple, like selecting a costume for your sackboy or beating a specific set of levels, to more complex like getting a 20x multiplier or acing every single level. None of them are impossible and the game encourages the use of the create and share aspects by awarding trophies for completing all the level editor tutorials or sharing a created level online.
Graphics:
The fact that the game uses a side-scrolling viewpoint does nothing to hurt the graphics. The sackboys feature a great deal of character and amazing animations. The levels are full of color and charm. Most of the time you feel like you are playing with toys. The textures are equally well done, so much so that you can tell what material they represent just by looking at them. The differences between metal, wood and sponge, for example, are very noticeable.
Sound:
The sound effects are typical for the genre, nothing spectacular about them, but they do their job. The only voice in the game is that one of the tutorial videos and it also does a good job to guide your hand without being boring. It features plenty of colorful one liners and jokes to keep the mood jovial. The rest of the characters speak through text bubbles and gibberish sounds that brought fond memories of Rare’s Banjo-Kazooie. However, it would have been nice to have more voices and less text.
The music is the real star of the show. It is varied and in some cases addictive, exuding the same charm as the levels themselves. I still find myself humming the zombie wedding theme and I am sure other users have their favorite themes as well.
Controls:
The controls are very simple and easy to master. Users complain about the floaty physics that make it difficult to jump, but they fit in well with the concept of the game. Simply put, LittleBig Planet would not work with the rigid platforming physics of games like Mario or Sonic.
The best thing that can be said about the controls is that everything is a touch of a button away with very rare need to pause the game to access anything.
Replayability:
LittleBig Planet has tons of replay value. Not only are you encouraged to replay levels to get everything, but there are an infinite number of possibilities with the user created levels and the level editor. This is the type of game you will be playing for months and always finding something new to do.
The 411:
With an almost infinite number of levels, a complete toolset that allows your imagination to go wild and an avid online community, LittleBig Planet is a true experience. Something different and fresh among a sea of first-person shooters and fighting games. The hype was well placed: LittleBig Planet is a Game of the Year Candidate.
Graphics
9.0
Sackboys have great animations and exude charm, levels are colorful and varied, everything looks like toys.
Gameplay
9.5
Simple controls allow anyone to pick it up and have fun. Gameplay is addictive and challenging. The toolset is simple to use, yet hard to master and offers infinite possibilities.
Sound
8.0
The sound effects are generic and there is only one voice in the entire game. The music steals the show, it is varied and fits each world perfectly.
Lasting Appeal
9.5
With an avid online community and an almost infinite amount of levels, LittleBig Planet will last you for as long as there are creative minds out there creating levels.
Fun Factor
9.5
A true experience, be it in multiplayer or alone. LittleBig Planet is endless fun.
