LittleBigPlanet owns my soul

By Stephen Munn | January 11, 2009

LittleBIGPlanet is one of those games that I really had no interest in before I played it. On a number of occasions I recall reading and hearing pieces of information about the game and not really understanding just what it was all about, and nothing I was hearing really caught my interest. Even seeing many of the people on my PS3 friend list playing the game wasn’t enough to make me want to give the game a spin, but when my wife read something online about the game which made her decide she wanted it more than Animal Crossing: City Folk, the decision to buy it was made. I’m going to be completely honest about this: if my wife expresses an interest in a video game, unless I know of a real problem with it, I go out of my way to make sure it shows up very quickly. She’s a gamer like me, and as someone who owns a number of games, it’s not in my best interest to deny her a game she wants.

I couldn’t be happier with the purchase. LittleBigPlanet is the most addictive game I’ve played this generation, beating out other awesome titles like Super Mario Galaxy, Super Smash Bros Brawl, and even many of the intensely absorbing games I’ve played on my Nintendo DS. Mind you, I don’t care for Metal Gear Solid or Grand Theft Auto, so your mileage may vary, but this game is sick.

So here’s my public service announcement. I’m going to explain the game in a way that would have sold me on the concept much earlier.

LittleBIGPlanet is a PS3 game where you create and customize a character known as a “sack person” who is basically a little fabric puppet. You can change the material it’s made out of, change the clothes, features, add on stickers and objects… you can do almost anything to make it your own. Then you run your little puppet through platforming stages which are intensely detailed both visually and physically. If there’s a chunk of wood on a ledge, it has insanely detailed wood grain, and when you push it off, it falls exactly like it should.

Creatures in the game look like they’ve been assembled. Birds, for example, look like two round pieces of wood with big feathers that flap for wings, and they’re suspended from elastic strings. Things that can be grabbed onto are often made of sponges. There’s lots of corrugated cardboard and other household objects. Creatures in the game have and a very homemade look, which combined with the sharp texture resolution makes everything feel very real.

There are a number of prebuilt worlds and stages in the game in which objects, costumes, and stickers are unlocked, but the real pleasure comes from the levels provided online for free by the game’s community, some of which are absolutely brilliant. Some of the more amazing ones I saw just recently involve a fully working giant piano that you can play by hopping on keys (or more impressively, you can hit a switch to make a series of wooden hammers drop onto the keyboard and play the first portion of Fur Elise), a simple looking calculator whose mechanical workings are staggering in scope and completely open to examination, and even a cart that you make your sack person drag through a stage to play the battle theme from Final Fantasy IV. While some of the levels online are intentional and obvious ripoffs of classic platformers like Super Mario Bros, there’s a lot of amazing work out there. The creation tools for the game are impossibly powerful and very easy to use, and as I said, many of the components you can use for building are earned by finding them in the prebuilt levels. Did I mention that the music in the game is fantastic? It’s been stuck in my head since the first time I started playing.

The online play in the game is crazy, too. While I wouldn’t want to play it with strangers, I’ve played it with my brothers and being able to run through the levels with them, laughing most of the way, is an experience I haven’t had in online play since Neverwinter Nights and I can’t recommend it more.

The game is not without its issues. It seems to have a lot of trouble staying connected to PSN, which is probably a result of heavy loads on the servers. The problem has been pretty much constant since I got the game, but I have had some very good days. Also, parts of the stages require two players to complete (and they’re clearly marked so) but once you’re done with your friend, I can’t figure out a way to get rid of them without turning off the PS3. As long as that second controller is activated, there has to be someone controlling it, running through the stages with you. This is probably something I’m overlooking, but I couldn’t find an explanation in the manual. UPDATE: James tells me you can turn off the second controller by holding the PS button on it, which makes the second player vanish. Thanks!

If you’ve got a PS3, LittleBIGPlanet is a brilliant and totally unique experience that you must try. If you don’t have a PS3, find someone who does so you can see this game. It’s really, really special.

Now I’ve got to crack my strategy guide, which came in the mail the other day. It’s like, what, four pounds? I’m still trying to get 100% of the prize bubbles on some of the earlier levels.