I Don’t Want to Grow Up

In Little Big Planet videogames have taken a significant leap towards becoming creative tools the likes of which cannot be rivaled, and yeah there’s a solid single player adventure in there for good measure. LBP tries to be everyone’s game, and though it falls short of being a universal joy, it is undeniably a design gem and an experience worth a PS3.

First off there is the story levels, which are both entertaining and inspiring. The inspiration comes into effect when you realize that everything crafted here was a product of the same tools you and the rest of the online community have at their disposal. The joy comes from the great level design, simple physics based gameplay, and incredible art design. The whole feel of the game is so joyful, entertaining and evocative of a Pixar film. Perhaps this is best captured in the customizable avatar, Sackboy, which you will control throughout your adventures and collect costumes to play dress up with. Ninja, zombie school girl, Mexican wrestler, you decide what character to roam as, or just swap every once in a while.

You start the game off doing simplistic and admittedly simple tasks, and the challenges and complexity of the levels ramps up nicely, involving intricate boss battles and ridiculous machines. You’ll learn to jump and grab on to things, and see some of the basic physics mechanics and puzzles you’ll be doing throughout the game. The fact that the game relies so prominently on real world physics based puzzles and levels allows the player to get an immediate feel for the level. Some of the later levels are so creative, inventive, and downright cool, that you’ll just need to pause for a moment and acknowledge the work that was put into them. On top of everything, the entire game can be played with up to four players, and there are even specifically marked bonus areas where many players are required. Playing through the single player story reminds me of the prime days of Mario when there was so much innovation in levels and every play session was filled with the wonder of what the designers thought of for the next level. The last third of the game also serves as an incredible inspiration as you realize that everything they did, you could, given enough time effort and imagination, do better.

After enjoying the story mode, one may be inclined to delve into the creation mode, and one may quickly jump back out as though he was thrown into a fire, but patience will reward the daring. In short, LBP features a logical but complex level creation system, and it does require some learning. Persistence is a virtue here however as once you know to work your way around the controls and mechanics of switches, triggers, and enemies, you can create some pretty amazing things. The feeling is akin to playing with Legos, except that these Legos can blow up, trigger elaborate rune goldberg machines, or many other things. In fact at first you should focus less on creating levels as much as singular challenges or objects. It took me a while to create a vehicle that had wheels on all four corners so that even if it flipped over it could keep going, but once I had made it, I felt amazing. It is this magic that nothing else in the known universe can offer … honestly. Making something truly worthwhile takes a real commitment, but it is fun nonetheless to create something from scratch, especially with friends. The social element of making something together is unique and rare in games and it works beautifully, even if you’re trying to sabotage one another’s Frankenstein’s.

Finally there is the online community. In short, this is the weakest link in the game, but it’s very inclusion still adds tons of value to the overall package. You and anyone else can upload a level for the world to enjoy. The game attempts to shoot for a Youtube like vibe with comments and ratings allowing the cream of the crop to float to the top, and they half succeed in doing so. Essentially the problem is that the UI for finding levels, though creative, is counterproductive. You find the levels on the globe as little buttons which unzip into portals into the level, looks cool, navigates badly. If you find three levels while looking around that look worthwhile, after playing one you have to remember where it was on the globe as opposed to where it was on a list. Furthermore, there isn’t a fantastic system for making the best levels get to the top in game, there are websites that assist in this, but it can’t be expected of everyone to make the effort to do so. It is fun however to poke around with other people’s creations, both to see what people can come up with and also to get ideas for your own madness. Best of all it seems like the game will enrich itself through DLC content packs that add little but significant changes, such as the MGS pack which adds a paint ball gun, allowing people to create little shoot em ups should they want to. If LBP is treated as a platform that is constantly improved upon, it has the potential to have extremely long legs.

Little Big Planet is many things, and one thing. It is a platformer, a toolkit, a community, and above all else, fun. There is nothing like it, and it is the most creative leap in videogames ever. With that said your millage will vary depending on whether you’re interesting in the creation aspects of the game, and whether you’ll be willing to play other peoples levels. Nevertheless it is an incredible experience that makes the PS3 a much more valuable piece of metal.