LittleBigPlanet
	Genre: Action (Platformer) Developer: Media Molecule
Publisher Region Released SCEA NA 10/27/2008 SCEE EU 11/05/2008 SCEI JP 10/30/2008 SCE Australia AU 11/07/2008

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Staff Review

Review by Jonathan Stark
December 30, 2008

There are games which we play for hours. There are games which we play for days. There are games we SAY will never get old, and then there are games that really never get old.

And then there’s Little Big Planet. Little Big Planet goes beyond a video game. It’s an art-form.

Actually, at first glance it’s a platformer. A platformer where you play as a little sack person. A little sack person that you can customize to look like anything from a pre-teen school girl to Solid Snake. Then you can watch Solid Snake be eaten by a giant two-dimensional crocodile right outside a strip club for naked mole rats.

Okay, so maybe “standard” wasn’t the best word to apply to this game. But really, outside of the kookiness of the style (think Paper Mario meets Katamari Damacy) and creativity of the levels, it does operate like a basic platformer.

The game plays out on a 2D plane and the challenge mostly consists of the classic things like timing your jumps over flame filled pits. There’s some 3D elements incorporated, as well, mostly in the ability to move closer or further away from the screen on the four different “layers” that each level has, meaning you can move behind objects, or interact with objects in the background.

But for the first hour or so of the game, you likely won’t care about any of this. My first hour was spent making my little sack person dance. I couldn’t stop. The insane smile on my sack boy’s face as he moved with my controller to rocking music while Stephen Fry narrated with his usual dry wit was utterly engrossing. Then I put a silly wig on him and made him do it again. When I finally did move on to the platforming, my response was “What?! There’s more?!”

That’s the real beauty of Little Big Planet. Like a child in a toy shop, the game never stops thrusting things in front of you for you to look at. There’s no chance to get bored. There’s always something new to do. And it’s all great.

It’s not all perfect, however. Hopping between the layers on the levels, while a good idea, can get confusing, as it’s visually difficult to tell which layer you’re on. It would’ve be better if the sack boy shrunk or grew more drastically as he hopped between the layers. Also, the game sometimes automatically changes your layers for you as you approach objects, which can be more annoying than helpful.

Then, too, the timing of jumps is a little strange. Sack boy has a tendency to float a bit during the apex of his jumps, so sometimes you’ll go soaring past an easy to reach ledge. Counter this too much by pulling back and you’ll end up way short, plummeting towards fire, spikes, or angry hippos (depending on the level).

This is all saved by the interesting quality of the visuals. Rather than throw your controller across the room at every death, you’re more likely to be scratching your head, saying “Did I just get eaten by a giant Mexican frog with wings?”

Maybe your friends are even there, laughing at your unique demise. Because Little Big Planet is also multiplayer in the truest sense of the word, offering simultaneous (often crazed) platforming.

Everything I’ve mentioned becomes irrelevant, though, once you find your way online and start looking through the community levels.

This is where things get exponentially more genius. Little Big Planet comes with a level editor.

Alright, so maybe that’s not the huge announcement it was back in the days of Doom. I want to remind everyone, though, that the reason most games don’t include their level editors is because you need a degree in computer science to use them. And the patience of a fourth grade teacher. Even then, you’re often times limited enough that no matter what you make, it’s blown out of the water by the company’s next release or spin off (think Half Life).

Not the case here. I’ve seen levels and designs that even the developers admit they wouldn’t know how to make. That’s because Little Big Planet lets you do damn near anything.

Don’t like the creatures the developers have created? Then make your own. I mean it. Make any shape you can think of. Put legs on it. Slap an eye on the abdomen. Give it six mouths. Have it sing Happy Birthday while croaking like a dying frog. And force the player to blow it up to proceed. Then have it turn into a flying blimp that they have to ride in to get to the next part of your level. In Little Big Planet, the ball never leaves your court.

I won’t lie, though. While the tools are intuitive, making your own levels is no cake walk. There’s simply so much you can do that you can become easily overwhelmed. It took me three hours just to make it through all the tutorials. Also, there’s a lot of trial and error involved. The process is just as fun as the rest of the game, though. And it’s narrated by Stephen Fry.

Of course, not all of us have the impetus or time to design our own levels. That’s okay, though. Because playing other people’s levels is a ball, too. I cannot emphasize enough the variety available here. In my first run at playing other levels I came across a Japanese themed kung fu level, a black and white Noir level with a Sin City-esque story, and a level where you’re a French robber.

And that’s basic stuff.

I also came across a level that was literally a giant piano that played Beethoven for you. A few minutes later I played a recreation of Ico, including everything from windmills to a cardboard cutout of Yorda that you have to drag through the stage. It even had the shadow monsters and the Ico music. Even cooler, when you beat the level, you get some of these designs for your own use.

A warm feeling started to spread through my heart as I realized that all this brilliance was being done by players like me. From scratch, too. It’s not like Yorda was made by the company and then someone made a level using it. No, it was just some dude who had the 60 bucks available to buy the game (and who may very well live in his parent’s basement).

Suddenly I felt hope. Hope for myself. Hope for humanity. Sony might’ve intended HOME to be their global glue for PS3 players, but the true community is right here, in Little Big Planet. Here players are openly sharing the very creativity that makes us all individuals. Their reason? To have fun and let others have fun. In Little Big Planet, life boils down to very simple principles. There’s no commercialism, no back stabbing, no grabs for power. It’s just people having fun.

With everything that’s wrong in the world these days, it’s good to once in a while be reminded that there’s a reason human beings are worth keeping around. Whether what’s wrong with your day is the global economy or the fact that your best friend’s getting married and you’re still a virgin, pop in Little Big Planet. It will make you feel better, I promise. Stephen Fry says so.

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