It was at GDC 2007 where we first got the announcement that there was a game in the works by Media Molecule exclusively for the Playstation 3. It has been an almost daily battle since then to curb my enthusiasm until I could have the game in my PS3 and play it at home as much, or as little, as I wished. That day arrived a few weeks ago. After playing LittleBigPlanet on three separate occasions prior to the review code arriving I knew I wanted the game, there was something magical about Sackboy and his surroundings but I had one or two concerns that I was unable to remove from the back of my mind, the full game helped, actually it removed them all together but in their place were new ones.

The introduction to LittleBigPlanet is obviously designed to inspire the imagination and create a spark of intrigue. The voice over is by Stephen Fry, he has a fantastic tone and sets the scene clearly and with a touch of humour. The only person that I think could have possibly done the role justice (other than Mr Fry) would have been David Attenborough. It is the perfect introduction to what is, for the most part, the perfect game.

In the game you control Sackboy, he has three main functions, move, jump and grab. Movement is controlled with the left analogue stick and can control speed from a slow shuffle to a graceful (for a creature made of stuffing) gallop. A firm, long push of X results in a high jump while a quick tap is more of a skip or a hop, for a platformer the jumping mechanics are floaty, you can change direction and speed mid air and this does sometimes affect the speed of the game creating a slower pace. I would say more thoughtful and controlled but I feel that it would be derogatory of platformers that require speed and precision. While the pace is different I don’t think the traditional platformer, or LittleBig, is more justified in it’s decision, they are just two different styles and both are valid. Grabbing is the third and final ability of Sackboy, he can cling onto certain materials, moving or stationary, as long as it is within reach he can hold on to it.

Presented in a 2D manner LittleBigPlanet exists on three planes, Sackboy can move between these planes at leisure using up or down on the thumbstick. The Z-Axis is the most difficult aspect of the game to grasp for someone not accustomed to playing video games on a regular basis; the game takes out some of the anxiety by changing to a safe plane automatically. The auto change can however be a little frustrating when there are multiple playable areas and it redirects you to one that you don’t want to be on, as an infrequent game player my Wife struggled with this portion of the game quite a bit.

The “LittleBigPlanet” comprises of main levels and side challenges, all created by the developers and strung together with a story that justifies their existence and little else. There is no pretence to a grandiose back-story or an emotionally charged plot, just various levels with different themes that let you see where the experience starts and what is possible in the user created levels (more on that later). The total time needed to play through alone is not as long I would have liked it to be, once finished I felt like it could have easily have lasted another 3-4 hours. That said the total game time from the built in levels will be significantly higher once the game releases and I can play through them again with some of the ButtonMasher forum users.

Each of the themes for the different regions of the LittleBigPlanet has a unique style and characters, aesthetics are modified by the developers using a variety of materials with unique physical properties along with skins for each material. The Japanese themed section used lanterns, lots of red, and the buildings all had a specific pagoda-esque design.

One of the stand out features of the single player experience was the music selection, the music plays a huge part of creating the atmosphere in these levels. For the majority it is quirky but some of the selected tracks are actually very epic, if you are playing through the game (which everyone should do) pay attention to the songs, in particular the tracks in the African/Savannah levels.

The presentation, while cute, is stunning! The range of lighting and the glorious textures look superb in high definition. The only time I noticed any flaws in the appearance or function of the game is while a Sackboy is spawning into a level, there is a small period of slowdown as the PS3 processes everything. Even when processing the physics of randomly created items the game seems to handle it surprisingly well, an almost unimaginable leap from earlier builds.

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Tags: Games, Sony

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