LittleBigPlanet
If you haven't heard of LittleBigPlanet, let me try my best to describe it for you. This is Sony and developer Media Molecules attempt at a Mario killer. A game for the PS3 appealing to both a younger and older demographic. Here's the deal. When we dream, our cutest most colourful most gay (you know, happy) dreams float up from our brains and eventually make their way to Little Big Planet. From here, you control a sackboy through various levels of god knows what. You collect points along with stickers through a world constructed from cardboard and other flimsy materials and that's about it. Doesn't sound like very much now does it? Well in this over saturated world of high octane shooters, LittleBigPlanet is a welcomed breath of fresh air. It's nice to put down the AK-47 every once in a while and just take a moment or two to smell the roses.
Little Big Planet rests its hat on its extensive creativity, customization and by just being fun. Without the extremely creative art and level design, this game would be a whole lot of fluff and might eventually end up in the bargain bin at your local Wal-Mart. It manages to avoid this video game shame by just wowing your senses with a world that truly stands out as such an imaginative achievement in the world of video games. With that being said, LittleBigPlanet is a platformer like no other. It has its own physics rules that are slightly beefed up a bit more then what we're accustomed with so it can definitely take some time to get used to. At times you'll find yourself running a bit further than you'd like or having a bit of difficulty timing that jump just right. Once you're in the groove though, you'll have a great time making your way through all of the thoughtfully crafted levels.
As far as any story is concerned, one is practically non-existent in LittleBigPlanet. You progress through the levels with minor assignments or objectives that are presented along the way. There really isn't much to speak of in regards to game play as well. You basically have two buttons at your disposal. X and R1. X will make you jump while R1 allows you to grab onto things. That's it. The rest is up to you to time your jumps just right and to use your noggin to figure out how to make it through the various levels. You get to flex your OCD by finding out how to make your way to a particular sticker object or fancy new garment or material. Gotta catch em all! At the end of each level your score is tallied up and is compared to an online archive of players that have already completed the level. It's a nice feature that enables you to see where you stack up compared to other players. You'll normally see me layin' in the cut around the 10,000 mark. There are tons of things to collect throughout this game which adds a lot of replay value. Some collectibles are unattainable at first and require that you find a certain sticker in another level and then return again before you can obtain it.
Where this game really stands above all others is in its extensive customization. You can literally place stickers anywhere you'd like during the story mode or when creating your very own uniquely created levels. You gather materials that allow you to customize your appearance with your very own style. Items range from all sorts of accessories to different materials for your sackboy to wear. You can really put together some very unique looking sackboys to strut around online with. I unfortunately am not much of an "arts and crafts" kind of guy so this specialized feature didn't really do it for me. If you are a big fan of stickers, then this game if for you. You can litter the entire world if you'd like. You start off in a Pod that allows you to select levels and player created content along with your "My Moon" and other gaming options. You can paste stickers along with decorations all over your Pod to give it the 13 year old girl’s school binder kind of look.
'My Moon' is where you go to create your own levels in Little Big Planet. The custom level creator is a powerful creative tool allowing you to build playable levels for yourself and for other players to check out as well. This is what will keep most people coming back for more. The single player game is only about 6 - 8 hours long depending if you feel like back tracking in order to collect all the stickers and materials in the game. Once the game ends, you can essentially play a perpetual amount of new, user created levels until people stop making them I guess. The level creator isn't exactly the most user friendly editor around (there are 30 tutorials to start off with showing you the ropes) but if you have the patience to learn the system, you'll be able to create levels just like the developers. That's a bit of a stretch seeing as how the story mode levels are pure genius, but if you have that desire, you can come pretty damn close.
Little Big Planets creativity and originality is unparalleled and is something that everyone deserves to give a try regardless of it's initial appearances. As a platformer the levels become increasingly more difficult and present a challenge especially in the later levels. You will more than likely never see anything like Little Big Planet so if this isn't your type of game, give the developers some props by at least renting it out so you can experience for yourself how unique and entertaining it is to play this
game.
