Little Big Planet, a game that is built mainly on the idea of community, is suppose to be the most highly anticipated title this year for the Playstation 3. The idea of what the title offered is what inspired me to pick-up a Playstation 3 system. A heart filled game that contains, platforming, puzzle solving, co-op, and an endless amount of free downloadable content provided by gamers and developers alike. Now that the title has dropped does it live up to the hype or will it join my list of possible Game of the Year (GOTY) that turned out to be disappointments?
Little Big Planet or LBP as referred to on many forums is a highly ambitious title developed by Media Molecule. Media Molecule is a small studio composed of former Lionhead Studios (Fable) employees. Their first game LBP was a platformer that would allow players not only to live in the world of LBP, but add to it. The players would have access to the same tools the developers have to compose basically anything they could imagine within the game’s universe.
The game mechanics amazingly runs off an excellent physics engine. You control a plush character known as a Sackboy/Sackgirl. With your character if you jump off a ledge onto a seesaw the object on the other end will be launched into the air as it would in real life. The way the objects react in the world is a true sight to behold. Imagine adding rockets to an orange. As it takes off you can see your Sackboy holding on for its life. Unfortunately the orange doesn’t splat like a real orange would when hitting an object at high speeds. Still you will have fun interacting with the objects and playing with the physics.
The initial stages created by the developers are well thought out. They take you around the world and the culture of each continent truly influences the style of the stages. If you’re connected to the Playstation Network (PSN) you can see an up to date scoring as you complete your stage and collect points. It is fun to see your high score, conquer it and see the next person on the rankings list. It is almost like an endless challenge trying to find all the items and obtain the number one score for each stage. All of the stages also include sub levels which work as mini-games. Some of them are as simple as tie jump (variation of jump rope) to obstacle courses. There is so much variety and the ability to play other’s creations, the game will take a while to get stale.
Sony may have found the one icon to represent their system brand. The Sackboy is an awesome character and LBP allows you to customize it looks. When they first announced the Kratos (God of War) and Nariko (Heavenly Sword) skin I realized the possibilities of the character. With Old Snake (Metal Gear Solid) and Sephiroth (Final Fantasy VII) Sony is going to make a killing off of DLC (downloadable content). I can’t wait to see the plush dolls and cartoon series. There is a lot potential in marketing LBP outside of video games for the game.
The game allows you to control the characters emotions with the D-pad. Each of the four directions offers three levels of the emotions. By holding the L2 and R2 you can use the right and left analogs to control the arms and the Sixaxis allows you to move the head. The coolest feature comes with online chat. The Sack characters will lip sync to any speech from the Bluetooth headset. Keeping that in mind you could possibly use LBP to re-enact any of your favorite movie scenes or create a new macinema of your own. With these type of possibilities LBP really starts to show it’s value.
The best feature of LBP comes in the form of it’s creativity. I have taken a look at other people’s creations and trust me there is more great content then bad creation. I have came across a “Ninja Warrior” stage (my favorite so far) is well made, that I can’t wait to see the future levels. People have also used their creativity to recreate music. People will have you ride a vehicle that will play the Metal Gear Solid theme or Final Fantasy: Advent Children song. It is so satisfying seeing the different types of content. It inspires me to try and create a level of such high quality that others will remember and talk about me. I am so psyched to see the what the future holds and whether the LBP community can outshine the developers.
The sad thing is that LBP is not a perfect game sadly. My main gripes with the game is the floaty jump mechanics. I know the game is based off of physics but it sometimes feels that the jumps don’t seem to connect every time I hit the X button. I find myself dying because the jumps seem not respond the way you feel they should.
My next gripe is with the online servers. The servers went to shit at launch and started to affect my single player campaign. Basically my game would lag to the point it took 5mins for a stage to load. To remedy this issue I had to log out of my PSN ID. The issue was so bad that they had to take down the servers. This meant that there was no online co-op, scores, created content, or updates. This was very frustrating seeing that a game based on creativity and community was killed at launch by technical issues. Luckily the issue has been resolved and I am really enjoying it.
In conclusion LBP is a must have title if you own a PS3. Is it worth buying a PS3 I really can’t say right now. The music for the game is amazing and I am enjoying every track. The customization of you Sack person and stage are truly great. The minor issues with jumping supposedly will be patched and even though people complain about the Z movement (moving from the background to the foreground) that too will be patched. The game is truly a diamond in the rough and even though it has a “kiddie” look the game can appeal to any gamer. This is definitely a game that belongs in any collection. If you own a PS3 BUY, don’t rent, Little Big Planet.
LBP gets a
A
Maj
