Tiny Diggers – An iPad Construction Truck Game for Kids Age 2-5

Sony had a huge booth at this year’s CES event in Las Vegas. It was enormous, rivaling the Microsoft booth in size and scope. However, the one thing that was lacking was a showing of games for the PS3. Here is this huge consumer event and Sony only had one games showing on the main floor. Good thing that the game was one of the most anticipated games for the PS3 this fall. The game is LittleBigPlanet and I have to say that this game will either be received open arms or kill gamers with frustrating controls.

First off, I do want to preface this by mentioning that I used a floor demo unit that was on its second day of use, so some of the control issues I had may be related to that, so I just wanted to put that up front, because it might of been an issue.

So without a rep standing nearby, I found out on my own that LittleBigPlanet looks to be a building game as well as a puzzle game. In the basic challenge mode, you are presented with a planet and a ton of little circles that represent levels on the planet that can be played by the player. Complete the levels and unlock more levels to play and gain rewards, textures and other items to be used in the level editor.

When I first got into the level, the amount of detail in the game was really astonishing. This was the first time I had really laid eyes on the game and it was a feast for the eyes. Desert levels, lush forestry and even a back alley in a major city are just some of the levels that you can edit and play in. Characters are also unique and full of all kinds of little details and quirks. I was using a character that looked like it was made out of a burlap sack, sort of a nicer looking Oogie Boogie.

I was playing a level based in a forest that had all kinds of little boxes stacked up and bridges and obstacles that needed to be passed. You then have to use these objects to get past obstacles and finish levels. Once I got past the look of the game, I started to get a little frustrated. The game looks like a side scrolling platformer, but it uses depth, so you can go into the level in a way. For instance, a ramp in the background can be accessed by jumping and pressing up, which will put you on the ramp in the background. Only problem is that the controller did not always recognize the background textures. I would try to jump on something in the background, but nothing would happen. Then it would finally happen and I would get on the ramp or ledge.

The physics of the levels is pretty cool and really uses the processing power of the PS3 to great effect. I had a stack of blocks that were stacked up high. Pushing the one at the bottom made the blocks spill all over the place. It was a lot of fun to watch how things would react to the environment as they would fall and drop all over the place.

Multiplayer uses the same concept, but you have to work with, as well as against your opponent to finish a level. Sometimes you will find a spot where an object needs to be moved, but it is too big for one person to move. You and the other player have to work together to move it. But you are also trying to get to the end of the level faster than the other person. So how and when you play nice with opponents will play into strategy. This mode was a lot of fun and I had a lot more fun with this mode, but controls were still a bit of a problem.

The LittleBigPlanet team put on a presentation at the show to let players know how to build levels and how they can be uploaded to PSN to be distributed to the world. This was the biggest part of the game in my opinion and really had me wondering if I should start looking for that 20GB PS3 on ebay that I have been talking about with Paul. Building levels was as simple as picking a background, and populating it with obstacles and objects. As the game is released and on the market, more objects will be made available via the LittleBigPlanet network. No pricing was made available at the show, but one has to think it will cost something. But after you build a cool level, it does not end there. You can upload the level to the LittleBigPlanet site and make it available to the world. You can download these levels and add them to your world map and others can do the same for yours. Levels get ranked by people, and the more popular the level, the higher it gets on the download charts. There was no mention of special prizes if you made it to the top of the list, but it would be a cool incentive for the developers to include something for getting to the level of top downloaded level.

So that was LittleBigPlanet in a big nutshell. The game was a lot of fun to play when the controls were working. Editing levels was super easy and levels could be made in under 15 minutes without any heavy duty work. PS3 owners will have a ton of fun with this title when it is released, and it will have loads of replay value with the downloadable and user created maps. Look for the game in Fall of 2008.