LittleBigPlanet

by Adam Byrne - 2007/11/20 3:59pm

In an age where originality is dying faster than good comedians, and where FPS’s rule the roost, it’s always nice to see a little bright spark shine through all the generic incongruity and produce something truly mesmerizing. Usually, once a year, we’re treated to this occurrence, and luckily for us, 2008’s offering seems to be the best yet.

LittleBigPlanet, for this day and age, is what the word ‘originality’ is based around, because it’s one of the first batch of games that can be totally customisable. The sentence; you make the game, has never held so much truth. Amazingly enough, every stone in LittleBigPlanet’s arsenal can be over-turned, exposed, and manipulated into anything your mind can conjure up.

From the demo, it’s soon evident that this isn’t just a game with a cute exterior, it’s one of the most in-depth games ever seen on a console. The sheer simplicity of it, can give off an impression of linearism and a sense of inanition, but it really couldn’t be the more opposite. It all begins with the your character creation, which we’ll have to reiterate as being absolutely huge. The overall feel and control is pitch perfect, with a practically infinite amount of options to choose between, from moustaches to even buoyancy aids - all done through the interface name “poppit” and we’re sure there will be more crazy clothes the form of downloadable content.

The comical feel even through the character creation process is great, with even your characters panting as they have to try on countless amounts of clothes. They’ll even rise a little smile if they like what they see, and show detest if your fashion sense is terrible, the cheeky buggers. The only backdrops within the Character creation we’ve seen so far are a shiny PS3 controller in front of a screen and some fencing with grass hanging out, gracefully swaying the wind - which by the way, seems like a bit of a bizarre place to be getting dressed.



Your new character is now dropped into a seemingly dull area (if you choose so), but to get into the mind set of what LittleBigPlanet’s all about, you’ve got to think bigger, it’s your playground, to do as you please, you can make it into basically anything you want, mind boggling right? First things first, the familiarisation of the controls which are incredibly simplistic, left to move and left, right to move right and such, but one nifty little feature is with a quick shake of the SixAxis it sends your character’s head into a frenzied bobble, which quite frankly is hilarious. The music and sound effects through out the demo was delightful, with the some truly brilliant music and the odd sigh or grunt coming from your character's as they charge through the level you’ve laid before them.

Next up is the customisation of your new playground, and again things couldn’t be easier, now being familiar with the character creation, you’ll find this process both thoroughly enjoyable and effortless. The interface is the same, and while we haven’t got an exact number for the amount of objects, we’ll just say that you won’t be getting bored this year, that’s for sure. One thing that’s vital is the physics, for a game of such magnitude - it’s essential for the objects to react accordingly and show even weight distribution, thankfully it all works propitiously, while they do react realistically, they still have that comical nature to them, which really brings this entire package together so well. Co-op mode (4 player build at TGS) is another fantastic addition into the already wide array of things to do, you can set multiple tasks for you and your buddies to tackle, and think of intricate ways to get past obstacles using the 4 characters you have as an advantage.



One of the main features, sighted as one of the most important, is the sheer scale of connectivity. Once you’ve created your masterpiece, you can simply upload online and watch as people download it, comment on it, rate it, and love it. It’ll all work vice versa, as you can download levels made by people as well. At the click of a button you’ve basically got an unprecedented and unlimited amount of levels. The developer, Media Molecule, has fully pledged that the downloadable content after the game has shipped will continue for some time after - not that we’d get bored quickly, but it’s a nice little fact to know that the developers really want the game to be truly next generation.

LittleBigPlanet is set for a release in Q1 of 2008 for both download and retail, it truly is one of the most original games we’ve ever seen, and it truly bears testament to what this next generation could hold. Let’s wait and see.