Review: LittleBigPlanet (Playstation 3)

If you follow videogames, you may have heard of this thing called LittleBigPlanet by Media Molecule. A game ostensibly about a small brown sack, it was destined to become Game 2.0; flowers would grow in its footsteps and children would merrily dance around them. A curious assertion, but LittleBigPlanet had a few things going for it.

1. It was supposed to be an entirely physics based platform game, where the entire game world would respond logically to the properties of every object. This was to enable the creation of innovative levels and play mechanics like nothing yet seen.
2. It would bring the powerful authoring tools common in the PC game world to consoles in full force. Everything in the game's default levels would be created with the tools the player was furnished with. In theory, nothing was beyond the player's ability to create.
3. Finally, player creations would populate their own "little big planet", uploaded to servers and selectable just like the default levels. In fact, players would be able to create contests in their levels, use leaderboards, and even create real in-game prizes for those who played their level to win and use in making their own stages.

So, okay, here it is. In the gaming world, it is very common for big projects to fall onto the rocky shoals of hyperbole and betray their promises. Gamers are very familiar with "betrayalton". The remarkable thing is that LittleBigPlanet is nearly everything it was promised to be, with few compromises, and though it might not quite be Game 2.0 just yet, for once it can truly be said there is nothing like it.

First, let us get the bad parts out of the way.

LittleBigPlanet is about simple platforming. Sackboy, the small canvas sack puppet who is the player avatar, is limited to running, jumping, and grabbing on to anything made of rope or canvas in the game world. The only meta game concept in use is a multiplying score system which rewards consecutive pick-up of score globes placed around a level. The real fun in LittleBigPlanet is supposed to come from the stages themselves; the physics engine supports a stunning array of possible gadgets, puzzles, and mechanics.

But the problem is that the platforming in LittleBigPlanet is, purely on its own merits, not so good.

There are three planes for Sackboy to move between in the two-dimensional space. This plane shifting is intended to make for more complex level designs without the confusion of full three-dee navigation. But Sackboy is mushy when switching planes. Sometimes, the game automatically tries to switch for you, predicting which plane you need to be on in order to finish a jump between platforms that are on different planes. This takes control away from the player at sometimes the worst moment. Sometimes the game doesn't make the right decision on which plane to switch to. Other times, Sackboy is mysteriously unable to switch planes even though visually, it seems there is no obstacle preventing this.

In addition, the problem raised by a platformer controlled purely by an automatic physics system is that in order to allow for the leeway to make various jumps between unpredictable objects that may be moving in ways that are never the same twice, the actual jumping of your character must be forgiving and floaty. This makes LittleBigPlanet seem a bit slow and imprecise much of the time.

So, here is the good part.

In any ordinary platform game, these problems would be the kiss of death. But, LittleBigPlanet's saving grace is that its physics based world is incredibly fun. The standard levels created by Media Molecule are a showcase for creativity, and arguably, among the elite game mechanic concepts in the history of two-dee platformers. It is difficult to describe how unique many things are - ropes, boxes, wheels, gears, pullies, and tilting platforms are all arranged in an intricate harmony of balance. The physics engine allows for remarkably simple ideas that result in complex nuance. For example, in one stage, the classic movie Ninja gimmick of running across an obstacle course of precariously balanced logs is replicated by simply standing up a closely spaced row of vertical boards attached at the base to the ground, but allowed to flex and wiggle slightly. The result is a clever toy the player must run across as the boards wobble and flip out from under Sackboy's feet the moment after he passes.

Despite the issues with control and plane shifting, LittleBigPlanet largely succeeds in creating an environment of pure fun. The standard campaign is decently long, comprising eight themed worlds with three main stages and multiple challenge levels in each. Playing the campaign should take the average person perhaps six hours, to reach the final boss. However, besides leaderboard scores, replayability is added by the fact that there are a very large number of prize balls to collect in each stage that unlock prefabricated objects for use in level creation. These are very desirable prizes, both to aid in construction, and because they teach important techniques in assembling gadgets. The sheer number of prefabs is staggering; and still more bonus objects are awarded for completing a stage with one hundred percent collection rate. Co-op play is also a big part of the game; combinations of local and online players can group in up to four Sack People parties to attack a stage. In the standard stages, many specific challenges are designed for two to four players to complete them and collect rare items.

LittleBigPlanet also looks and sounds amazing. This is very impressive considering that the game must contend with a large amount of physical calculations for every object and bulding block in it stages. The aesthetic of the game's art direction is that of hand crafts; things are made to look cut out of cardboard, sewn by hand from fabrics, molded out of clay, or carved out of wood. The game world of LBP is cohesive for all its apparent chaos, and from a purely technical standpoint, achieves much: obviously many shaders must be used to simulate the wood, fabric, and metal materials being simualted but there is also good use of lighting, great animation, and impressive (and unique) effects for fog, smoke, fire, and more. It all runs at a virtually rock solid thirty frames per-second.

Second only to this is the sound. The music in LittleBigPlanet is a genuinely eclectic mix of world music, salsa, electronic, and in-house melodies that are intended to evoke the Saturday morning childrens' cartoons of decades past, but with adult sophistication and sensibility. The music for each world fits the game perfectly, and is more than generic muzak that can be quickly forgotten; the songs stand on their own and are listenable outside the game, and there is not a weak selection in the entire soundtrack.

The last important piece to LittleBigPlanet is the authoring tools. Here, there is no way around the fact that great complexity will be a barrier to many people getting the most out of it. The fact that Media Molecule supplied the player with the same tools used to create the "professional" stages should say something. The level creation mode is as streamlined and user friendly as it probably can be, with intelligent decisions in how to edit objects and materials. A vast amount of flexibility is possible. But, being optimized for interaction with strictly a Playstation 3 game pad it is inevitable that the controls are hidden behind a dizzying array of shortcuts and context sensitive actions. This does slow down level creation compared to what would be possible with a more direct PC-centric keyboard-and-mouse interface, and considering the ease of plugging USB devices into the PS3, one must wonder if Media Molecule ever considered offering support for such devices if only to aid in level editing.

Past this hurdle however, the level creation is rewarding. It was a very wise decision to allow users to create their own score goals, races, and even prize globes for custom stages. If you create an object, you may offer it as a bounty to other players to collect. This creates quite an incentive for playing user-created stages.

To be honest, there is not much out there yet in the way of user levels that can compete with the best of the in-house Media Molecule stages. Making a great level in LBP requires the same experience and talent as working in professional game creation. But the potential for LittleBigPlanet to train grass roots user up to this level is immense. Already, many user created stages are showing sophistication in their design. A review metric system is set into place that tracks the number of votes a user stage has recieved as a favorite stage, and it is possible to assign tags to a stage as part of a review process. How well this system manages to separate the good stages from the crud remains to be seen.

It is kind of hard to encapsulate LittleBigPlanet. Despite its issues, it does so much that the gestalt becomes greater than its parts. There is nothing out there like it. If you come into it looking only for a standard, official campaign to play and then shelve, it may not have that much to offer. It is a community game first and formost; in a sense, nearly the world's first fully functional massively multiplayer platforming creation game. It could be called a system seller (something that the Playstation Three does just kind of need a few more of, as many people might be aware), but its odd quirks and surprisingly hardcore focus might sabotage that.

LittleBigPlanet is a game to recommend if you intend to get as much out of your gaming as you possibly can. It is a crime to not do everything you can with the game but then, it is so inviting that you might not be able to resist fiddling with everything it has to offer.