“Paradigm shift” is one those phrases thrown around far too often in the videogame industry. The next big thing (there’s another one) is always supposed to revolutionize the way we, as consumers, interact with our televisions and, hopefully, each other at the same time. Strides have been made in the way of community (Halo 3), interactivity (Wii Sports), and presentation (Metal Gear Solid 4, GTA IV), but few titles have found a way to simultaneously embrace all three and, in effect, shift the paradigm. LittleBigPlanet, Sony’s critically adored trade show darling of the past few years, is the latest title to ascend the paradigm pantheon and, surprise…this one actually delivers.
Play
LittleBigPlanet’s heart is not unlike a typical 2D platformer. A slight twist arrives via your ability to freely move through three planes of the foreground, but, generally, success is tied to properly timing and navigating the pits and platforms that lie ahead. Your only other ability is tied to the R1 button, which allows Sackboy to cling onto any grabbable material in the area. Usually this involves swinging on ropes or moving stuff around, but it’s also implemented in other contextually sensitive circumstances down the road. Lives are handles in a different than usual, albeit entirely functional, manner. Checkpoints are generously distributed throughout the level, each carrying a set number of lives with it. If you burn too many lives trying to reach the next checkpoint, it’s game over.
It’s worth noting that every level is completely open to four player cooperative play. While you’ll no doubt encounter your typical internet douchebags along the way, playing LittleBigPlanet with your real friends is a fun and rewarding experience. Rather than simply get to the end, the levels open up into a point based competition; point bubbles are scattered throughout and it’s usually a constant mad dash to see who can gather the most. At the same time, there are cooperative challenges peppered throughout the level, which require bursts of teamwork before the next batch of points appears on screen. A simultaneous co-op/competitive mix is relatively unexplored territory in platformers, but LittleBigPlanet pulls it off with remarkable finesse.
The rest of user interface lies in your “popit.” Basically an options menu/inventory, your popit is full of everything necessary to customize anything and everything related to your surroundings. You can modify your Sackboy’s appearance, option to text chat, or make him self destruct should find yourself in a tight situation. You can also open up your book of stickers to decorate everything in sight. Feel like placing giant smiley faces all over a level? Go for it. Want to cover yourself in red arrows? All you. Have the need to pin donkey tails and googlie eyes all over your buddy’s Sackboy? At your discretion, sire. Stickers, thankfully, also have a practical purpose. Occasionally you’ll see some blank spaces outlining a recognizable shape. Cover that space with the appropriate sticker and you’ll be rewarded with bubbles full of loot.
Yes, I said loot, but don’t fear! Though there is a metric ton of stuff to collect, LittleBigPlanet avoids the typical platformer “collectathon” paradigm. Each and every object found in the field has a practical purpose; every single item carries over as an object to customize either your Sackboy or your own level over in the creation mode. Some of the stuff is in broad daylight, where as others require some minor puzzle solving on foreground/background manipulation or the aforementioned sticker placement. Special objects are also rewarded for meeting certain conditions (such as not dying), but generally at least 70% of the goodies are easily acquired. Thankfully all of your loot is tracked in a portion of each level’s menu, which will be handy when you inevitably have to FAQ that one piece you can’t seem to locate.
Create
Though LittleBigPlanet’s focus revolves around community, the loosely connected premade levels offer plenty excitement. Themed areas, such as the wild west, an urban metropolis, or the amazon, offer three main levels and a handful of challenge-based mini levels under their reign. Though each group of levels is linked around a similar aesthetic, the gameplay within is widely divergent. You’ll be running from a screen encompassing skull-dozer, escorting a fluffy illuminated dog, bouncing on lowriders, hoping on trains, arranging a zombie marriage, flying airships, organizing a jail break, going through ninja training, and – do I really need to go on? I started making a list of “impressive stuff” as I made my way through the boxed experience, and, by the tenth level, I already had an entire page of single-lined entries. There’s literally a surprise around every corner; Media Molecule spared no expense when it came to level design.
Even more impressive, according to an interview in issue 192 of EDGE, is that each level was created with the same in-game tools available to the player. No corners were cut and Media Molecule never “cheated” to implement a mechanic or device otherwise unavailable to someone building their own level. It’s a disciplined approach, but only when you start building your own levels you begin to realize what an incredible amount of patience was required to make it possible. It’s impossible for a developer to not love their own game, but with LittleBigPlanet, especially after fiddling around with the level creator, one can finally gain a sense of perspective about what goes into creating a level.
Difficulty increases at a fairly consistent curve, but set of levels in the box can be knocked out in less than eight hours. However, perfecting everything and passing a level without dying, sometimes took me as long as an hour for each. But seriously who needs to count hours on a game like this? Creating one level was arguably more fun and sucked in just as much of my time as trotting through the main game. Sure the meat of the boxed levels is uncharacteristically brief for a hitter as heavy as LittleBigPlanet, but there are going to be somewhere in the area of a thousand other levels waiting for you online.
Yes, a vast array of user generated levels (leftover from the beta) are already waiting online. Initially I had my doubts in regard to the quality of user content, but they were easily cast aside after going five for five in my first session. “Death Wheel” involved navigating through a rotating circle filled with platforms and electric logs, the wonderfully designed “Heist” had us toppling AI “police” and pushing dice into slots to crack a safe. Almost as impressive as the original creations were some levels inspired by other games; Mario 1-1 came with a hilarious rendition of goombas, and Wipeout contained a vehicle that put our skateboard car to shame. Perhaps the most ambitious was a level based on Team Ico’s Shadow of the Colossus. The muted colors, fog, and organic set pieces set the mood perfectly – but finding (your horse) Agro, reliving a couple of the more memorable moments from the game, and then actually toppling a screen-filling colossus at the end was unbelievable.
Then there’s the really weird stuff. I’ve seen levels consisting of a giant pinball game (with Sackboy in a container as the ball), a music rhythm/action game, an ambitious remake of Space Invaders, and countless roller coasters and mind bending physics experiments. The best levels, and, in my opinion the absolute pinnacle of what LittleBigPlanet strives to accomplish, are those that don’t require goofy explanations, countless arrows for direction, and hackneyed design concepts. A simple look and react design approach, with nothing more than gamer DNA to guide you, is wonderfully fulfilling, and my thanks goes out to the talented PSN users who will no doubt keep making these levels happen.
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Upon completion, the level’s creators often reward you with an object found in their level. Amongst my spoils were the goomba from Mario, the AI cop from Heist, and the badass hovercraft from Wipeout. From there I had the option of saving these creations and using them as objects when I create levels. I’ll let that sink in for a minute, because the degree of interactive reflexivity in that situation is completely mind-blowing. Instantly I was trying the WipeOut car on my track, running at full speed into goombas, and laughing all the way.
What’s truly amazing is each of these levels were created with the bare minimum number of tools afforded by the beta version. At the time I had no idea we were dealing with such a meager selection of equipment, but the full selection of materials available in the full game is staggering. In the interest of length I’ll skip my experience with the level creator (and you can read it here in my beta impressions), but it’s safe to say the basic foundation is identical to that of the beta, only with far more bells, whistles, and polish.
Media Molecule dropped a seemingly infinite amount of prefabricated material into the level designer, but it’s still entirely possible to create almost anything you want with the given tools. Just sculpt it, texture it with stickers (or create your own textures via the EyeToy) and you’re ready to go with whatever you can imagine. Add some legs, give it a brain, strap on a few rockets, attach dynamite – it’s whatever you can think of (oddly enough, we found screwing around with Frankenstein-like experiments in rocketry and AI is just as fun as building actual levels). As with the beta, you’re still required to go through a somewhat cumbersome series of tutorials before you can use any of the tools, but, believe me, they’re all essential to discovering LittleBigPlanet’s seemingly unlimited potential.
While each level is meticulously crafted, it’s worth mentioning there are a few caveats along the way. Sackboy’s jump seems wonky at first and definitely takes some getting used to. And while the game has the most wildly ambitious physics engine in place, it’s not particularly adept at complimenting itself with Sackboy’s jump maneuver. There were countless times when a jump didn’t go the way I thought it would or, frankly, didn’t make any sense. While this is annoying, it’s assembling a 10,000 piece puzzle and then freaking out because one of the pieces is bent. In light of LittleBigPlanet’s other accomplishments, it’s really no big deal.
There are just so many different ways to enjoy the game. For some tinkering around with the level creator, regardless of the unplayable mess you’ve constructed, will yield just as much value as it does for someone obsessed with creating the perfect level. Others will probably never even touch the level designer and view LittleBigPlanet as a vehicle to embrace and appreciate only what others have created. Hell, some people might never even connect it to the internet and simply Wii Sports it up by playing it with friends and family. All are perfectly acceptable ways to approach the game.
Look, Feel, & Listen
LittleBigPlanet’s visual and audio presentation are usually overlooked in the shadow of its widely publicized customization options, but they’re every bit as top notch as the rest of the game. The visual style, borrowed slightly from the Rare school of cuteness, features a wealth of HDR imagery, instinctive takes on perspective, and thematic art design full of endearing motifs. The soundtrack is a blend of original compositions and a couple of licensed tracks. Included are some cuts from The Go! Team and Battles, two highly praised bands whom, if you didn’t know it, you’d swear were creating tracks specifically for the game. Licensed music is usually the kiss of artistic death for major releases, as with the rest of the game, it all fits together perfectly.
It doesn’t hurt that the mood of LittleBigPlanet is blessed with the leagues of charm afforded by its British development team. Over half of the controller is devoted to making your Sackboy or Sackgirl emote with genuine charisma. The D-pad is assigned to a wide range of facial expressions, L2 and R2 assign control of your arms to the analogue sticks, and the Sixaxis’ motion control is devoted to move Sackboy’s body around. Save slapping your pals around, these actions never impact the practical portions of the gameplay; their existence is hinged solely upon breathing life into LittleBigPlanet’s world. The emotive input is further complimented by minute traces of personality in assigned situations; Sackboy will gently press against a wall if he gets close enough or duck and let an object roll over him if it’s too high. All of these actions are relatively simple and could easily go unnoticed, but I can’t think of a single other game so widely devoted to such extraneous charm. I can definitely appreciate Media Molecule’s focus on a such a typically overlooked atmospheric quality.
