Since the release of Metal Gear Solid 4, there has been little noise on the big name, big hype, Playstation 3 exclusive front. That is, until the world caught wind of the interestingly titled, and bizarrely detailed Little Big Planet (LBP). Announced in early March of 2007 this title has been an unstoppable boulder of hype and discussion until it was finally released October 21st, then delayed due to music controversy to be released a week later.

The basic premise is that you control ‘Sackboy’, a generic doll in a world of colourful art and creation that rivals Katamari’s world in craziness. You travel this new land exploring unique areas helping artistic creatures here and there with a final goal of collecting as many bubble points as possible as well as items you can use to customize your Sackboy or create worlds of your own.

This is why I was so disappointed when I lost interest in the game after a couple of days. You see, the best part, the most intriguing part of the game is the customization, creating your own ‘Sackboy’ (the basic avatar character you begin with) and making amazing levels from scratch are what this title is all about. The gripe I have is that a) the average person doesn’t have enough time to spend creating worlds or personalizing every aspect of the game, and b) in order to get the pieces to customize, you must go through the ‘story mode’ and find all these thousands of items, and the actual game play just isn’t that fun. Basically you walk from left to right collecting bubbles, pushing things, grabbing things and jumping. Every once in a while you place a special sticker you find somewhere onto an item and you usually get more bubbles points and items to collect. It loses interest, fast.

Don’t get me wrong, there is more to this game than the dull gameplay and customization. Collecting keys to unlock special mini-game levels and doing any level with friends or online is always something to break up the monotony. The big seller is being able to play other’s creations, whether it be a batman themed world or the first level of Super Mario Bros. or some magical concoction that grabs players 5 trophy achievements for doing nothing, we are able to see other peoples minds at work. Unfortunately, playing the actual levels are still not so fun.

The graphics of the game, while somewhat simple in terms of textures and what they actually are, are intensely detailed, the Sackboy looks like a real-life doll and the stickers and items you collect can range from realistic snapshots to abstract art pieces. The animation of each Sackboy goes as deep as customizing the expression they carry and positioning their arms, head, or torso any which way you like to express yourself to the fullest. The creepy artistic aspect of the non-playable characters are all very smooth and fluid as well, adding to their creepy-ratings, and with the upcoming haloween date, more and more spooky happenings seem to be popping up everywhere.

The level designs offered by developer Media Molecule are all based on real world experiences and designed to give players a glimpse at what’s possible with LBP. While these levels are excellently designed, they seem to lack the chaos a gamer who thinks they know what other games like can offer with their online creations which can range from masterpiece to frustratingly unplayable. The opening sequence for this title will have your eyes bugging out with the sheer amount of possibilities shown immediately.

With a game as deep and immersive as LBP, you would assume there to be a relatively steep learning curve. Luckily however, each time you encounter something new, you are given a voice over narrative, and sometimes even a video telling and showing you how to use this new tool (such as utilizing the Playstation Eye camera to bring pictures into your LBP world). The voices are calm, clear and concise, slow enough for the listener to comprehend, but not too fast that you miss the important details. The musical scores are also very well attended to, while they work perfectly with the game’s vibe, they seem to be underappreciated and most times not even noticeable when playing. Which I suppose is better than the alternative.

Controlling your very own Sackboy could not be easier, X to jump, R1 to grab and square brings up your in-game menu. You can also use your Six-Axis controller to change where your Sackboy is looking / thrusting their pelvis, and control their arms with the two analog sticks. Playing through the game, if you fall into spikes or gasses, get hit by a baddy, or get stuck and have to ‘pop’ yourself, you get sent back to the checkpoint, do this enough times and its game over, but move onto the next checkpoint and you reset your tries count. The only things you have to look out for are when you play online. Interesting choices in camera work, lag, and frustrating co-Sackboys messing up puzzle chain reactions can irritate avid gamers, but hey, it’s a learning experience so go easy on the little sack.

All in all, with this being Sony’s big title exclusive of the holiday, you can expect plenty of future downloadable content and with players constantly creating worlds, there really is no end to the game. Create, Play, Share; the slogan of this insanely cute imaginative game really rings true as you not only make worlds for yourself to enjoy but others around the world, and the effort is given back by other players tenfold. If you have the time to go around collecting pieces then even more time to create an interactive world, LBP will be used to its fullest potential, if however, you have a job, school, social life or other obligation, you might not be able to enjoy all aspects LBP has to offer. That being said, with player created content going mainstream at an unprecedented speed, maybe Little Big Planet is just the first in a massive leap towards the new gaming future?

Gameplay: 4.5/5
Graphics: 5.0/5
Sound: 5.0/5
Replay Value: 5.0/5






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