Nov

LittleBigPlanet is sublime.

It arrived through my door early Wednesday morning, and I’ve been hooked pretty much ever since. I preorderd mine from Gamestation, so I got a little little Sackboy figure with it. I initially thought it was going to be a little knitted plush, but apparently not. Seems they have them in the works though.

The game very much lives up to my expectations. From the very moment you first boot it up and watch the introduction video narrated by Stephen Fry, you know you’re in for a treat.

The single player story involves you traversing through a number of different areas of the world, which each contain 3 levels, with the exception of the final area, which has 4. At it’s very core, the game is just a simple side-scrolling platformer. But, the ability to grab, push, pull and swing from objects allows for a great number of physics based puzzles to help you get the end. The single player campaign is incredibly easy however (with the possible exception of “The Bunker”. That level’s a bitch), with most of the levels acting as a tutorial, each one allowing you to try out a new gameplay mechanic. There’s very little in terms of plot, however, the levels design more than makes up for that.

The crux of the gameplay is the built in level editor. You can create your own level from scratch, with a seemingly infinite number of objects and possibilities at your disposal. I’ve never seen something so in-depth on a console game before. You could probably spend close to two hours doing all the tutorials.

And once you have built a level, you can put it online for everyone else to play, and you can play levels created by others. The amount of dedication that some players have is staggering, with levels as complex and detailed as some of MM’s own offerings, noticeably “Azure Palace”.

Of course, the game isn’t without it’s flaws, as limited and petty as they may be. The main criticism is the controls, which can be annoying and fiddly at times, especially when moving back and forth between the foreground, middleground and background. Jumping isn’t always perfect either. However, these minor points do very little to bring down what is an incredibly brilliant game, easily one of, if not, the best game the PS3 has to offer. If you have a PS3, you need this game.