For almost a year, the PS3 has received much criticism for having too many violent games, and not enough casual, family friendly games. The lone excuse for a PS3 fanboy would be ’LittleBigPlanet’, a charming and easy side scrolling game with user generated content as its main front. Even Sackboy, the cute protagonist of the game, has become an icon in the eyes of the gaming media, and has become the unofficial mascot of the PS3. 

Now that LittleBigPlanet is out, can it win the hearts of young and old, casual and hardcore alike? 

 

There’s no real plot in LittleBigPlanet, but that isn’t to say there’s no reason to play it through. The game will gradually build up, starting at a few introduction levels to get the gist of the controls. There are 8 ’campaigns’ in total, each holding around 2-3 main missions each.  These campaigns will often remind you of places in the real world, including Medieval England, Mexico, Africa, New York, Japan, India and Russia but of course with their own little twist. Each campaign features a sort of plot in the game, told through a series of in-game cutscenes (a fancy camera angle and a bit of text spoken by a character), and while the plot was never meant to be an Oscar winning script, it’s just there to guide you through, to give purpose to your objectives. Initially the greatest concern of the gaming masses, the Story Mode (if you can call it that) boasts one of the finest level designs seen in this generation of gaming. You’ll lead Sackboy through castles, temples, deserts, cities and more. Most of the levels have a usual theme to it, with a puzzle solving section, a danger dodging section, finally crescendoing to an epic boss battle (albeit an easy one). It should give you 8-10 hours of gameplay, more if you want to find hidden areas with 3 other people (locally or online).  Scattered around each level are stickers, materials and objects to create and decorate your level with, costumes to outfit your Sackboy, and point bubbles to increase your rank on the world leaderboards. One or two keys are also hidden on main levels, which later unlock a handful of mini-games. The rewards are a very nice touch, which gives you reason to play through and find them all, but also serves to help you creating your own level. Story mode is not suppose to be the main aspect of the game. Instead, it serves as a stepping stone, preparing you for your creations online. 

 

LittleBigPlanet has set such a high standard for graphics on the PS3. While many have done it before, LittleBigPlanet has perfected the ’2.5D’ idea. This means that while the game is essentially 2D, where we look at it as a side scroller, the game manages to have 3 levels of depth. While this sounds good on paper, it looks even better in the game. The problem with the 3 layers, is that it’s hard to tell which layer you’re on. To dumb the system down for younger players to understand, they had to automate the feature. That is, if your on the second layer, and you jump up onto a block on the third layer, Sackboy will automatically shift layers. In some cases this works perfectly. In other cases it poses as a dilemma, getting you stuck or sometimes even killed.

 

The whole idea of LittleBigPlanet is to look almost like a child’s diorama, only on a much larger scale.

Material is very important in LittleBigPlanet, as Media Molecule were able to capture fine details in each and every one of them. Wood has indentations, Metal has scratches, Glass has a sheen, and Fabric has detailed knits. Every texture used in Materials was created to make them look lifelike. 

Sackboy himself is rendered beautifully. From the deeply textured knit, to the shine on his button eyes, to the realistic zipper on his torso. Textures breathe life into the the Sackboy, as Sackboy breathes life into LittleBigPlanet.