Little Big Planet Review PS3

Once in a blue moon, a game comes out that doesn’t quite revolutionize gaming, but makes an obscure genre popular. Little Big Planet is that game. Many games have allowed players to create their own content in the forms of levels and mods, such as Half Life 2 and Unreal Tournament, but none have done it well on the console until now. Little Big Planet is a single and multiplayer game that allows players to create their own levels and upload them to a server for other players to download and play. Prior to Little Big Planet, the only user generated content games with such versatility were RPG Maker for the Playstation/Playstation 2 and Unreal Tournament III for the Playstation 3. Unfortunately, those games failed to draw the sales that Little Big Planet has.

Graphic and sound:

Little Big Planet is a 2.5D world in which the player can move between a foreground, middle ground, and background (z-axis). The graphics for items are cartoonish with 3D rendered backgrounds. The environment can have lighting effects, fog, and some minor particle effects. Sound effects are a bit cheesy, especially the voices for NPCs, which are similar to the Sims grunting. The voiceover for the narrator is also cheesy, but delivers the instructions for creating levels well.

Gameplay and controls:

Gameplay is divided between the story mode and user generated content. The story mode is a campaign mode that allows the player to traverse the world with up to 3 other players online. Depending on network connections there may be substantial lag. The story makes absolutely no sense, but serves to inform the player about all the items available in the game and as examples of well developed levels. The player can customize the Sackboy character with numerous outfits that are interchangeable or download a plethora of outfits online from the Playstation Store.

The real gem about Little Big Planet is content creation. There are many tutorials available to the player in game that shows all of the tools available for level creation and how to utilize each one. It is highly recommended to watch all of the tutorials prior to moving on to level creation. User generated levels can be uploaded to a central server where other players can rate, download, and play the content. Up to four players can play online at a time together. Creating and playing user generated content is where Little Big Planet shines.

Controls for the game are menu based, but easy to navigate. Moving the character between foreground, middle ground, and background elements is sometimes unresponsive and frustrating though.

Overall thoughts:

Little Big Planet took a concept that has been around for quite some time and applied it to the console format in such a way that level design has become fun and easy to do as opposed to the tedium of other level editors out there. Little Big Planet is also one of a few games to have constant downloadable content online in the Playstation Store for purchase and is also releasing a PSP version this fall. As a result of the success of popularizing user generated content on a console, there are other upcoming games in the genre to look forward to such as Mod Nation Racers. I definitely recommend this game for anyone who enjoys creating their own levels or playing others’ levels.