Sunday, 25 January 2009
LittleBigPlanet Impressions
LittleBigPlanet is something completely different for the PS3. It's as cute and fun as it looks, but rather than try to drum up some florid prose, I'd rather just embed a video to give you the idea:
With that out of the way, there are three points that I would like to comment on here: the controls, the sound, and the appeal of LittleBigPlanet.
Whenever an exclusive-to-PS3 game comes out, message board trolls who are 360 fans will come out and try to lower the game's reputation by harping on some minor flaw until it seems as though it were a major flaw. With LittleBigPlanet, these internet troglodytes love to harp on the 'floaty' controls. All I can say is that if that is the best criticism you can come up with about LittleBigPlanet, there must not be much to complain about. The controls are great. (A precision-based level like the ninja training one would be no fun otherwise—whereas in fact it happens to be my favourite out of the single player game)
Another thing which one does not necessarily pick up on right away when reading about this game, is just how amazing the sound track is. LittleBigPlanet has one of the best video game soundtracks ever, and although that is not in itself a reason to buy the game, it does mean that the game is great on a level beyond what you can see at first glance.
Finally, I want to say a word about the impact LittleBigPlanet has had on our house. Up until now, my wife has never touched the Playstation 3 controller. Not only did LittleBigPlanet draw her in, though: now she won't put the thing down. From having LittleBigPlanet dreams to complaining that she can't get the music out of her head in the morning, she has LittleBigPlanet on the brain! Best of all for her as well as for me, we can play together, cooperatively at the same time. So early on, when she was still coming to grips with the controls, I was able to help her get through difficult levels she wouldn't have been able to do on her own (although I must admit that she now has more stickers collected than me!). It's a huge hit in our house. (For context, this is not the first time that a video game has captivated her to such an extent—but the only other time I ever saw it happen was with New Super Mario Bros., so it is in some very good company!)
It is no coincidence that when you beat the single-player game, the trophy you receive is a silver—not a gold—and that its name is "Just Beginning". Some of the user-created levels (hundreds of thousands of new levels that people create that you can play online for free) are amazing—some are as good if not better than the ones that come on the disk. Others are creative masterpieces that you can't believe someone actually made using LittleBigPlanet. At the end of the day, LittleBigPlanet is not just a game, it's a platform, and its possibilities are something we will be exploring for years to come.
