| Little Big Thrill; Big Little Disappointment. Without a doubt, I love the game. It's beautiful, sounds great, has absolute cuteness saturation while burning, shocking, slamming, and otherwise abusing your cute little burlap ragdoll. What's not to love? Ultimately the problems with the game are a significant nuisance, and frustrating enough to want to bean your little bean bag straight in the face with your Dual Shock 3, yet the moment you step away from the game, you'll want to pick it up again immediately, even if only to torture yourself some more. Between the innovative appearance and gameplay, the unlimited expandability through user created content, and the ingenious level editor which uses items you collect in single player to build levels while floating around the level itself to do so, it's money well spent. Any game that can make level design feel more like a minigame than an AutoDesk product deserves significant credit and while some areas of LBP are best taken in short bursts, it's a game that will be at the forefront of the shelf for a long time to come. Just mind your little beanie head, and watch for flying controllers!
UPDATED: January 2009 (New PSP Release)
With all of the classic cardboard sack charm, even more brilliant level designs, and the same tight gameplay, the PSP edition is only slightly slimmed down to accomodate the controls of the PSP. Little Big Planet is one of the the best titles on the PSP to date and stays exceptionally true to its original PS3 form. Fans of the original LBP will be thrilled with the handheld edition as a tight-knitted, complete expansion pack, while new entrants will be deligted with a great alternative pocket platformer to the infamous red-suited plumber. The level editor takes a serious blow, but it remains workable enough to be forgiven. Though similarly short in play time to the original, it also offers the endless replay of locating all the hidden goodies. No PSP owner, platform fan, or sock puppet lover should be without Little Big Planet in their PSP collection.
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| Graphics
- Sound - Gameplay - Depth
- Multiplayer | Reviewed
by John Del Percio |
GRAPHICS
98 % |
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These are some of the best graphics we've seen to date on the PS3, proving first and second party developers are truly beginning to get the knack of coding for the platform. It's one of the first games to use high resolution photo-realistic textures, and features some excellent lighting effects and great animations.
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SOUND
98 % |
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It really rocks the llama's sack! The music in LBP is phenomenal, ranging from licensed tracks from various recording artists to some great mood-fitting in-house music, it's hard to get enough of the LBP soundtrack. I'm keeping my eyes peeled for an official soundtrack. The sound effects in game are great, with only two points deducted for the sometimes annoying "unintelligible babble" muttered by the story triggering characters in the game, though, honestly, I've begun to grow quite attached to them the more I play.
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GAMEPLAY
91 % |
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It's hard to fault the gameplay too much. It's something old and something new. We all know and love platformers, but with the physics model and cardboard cutout themed environments, it's hard not to be addicted. Some points removed, maybe fewer than deserved, for the frustrating elements in the game. I'll assume that some of these, especially the physics elements will be worked out as the patches progress.
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DEPTH
0 % |
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N/A. It's a platformer, so the amount of depth is difficult to gauge. The editing tools and online features would yield a good score regardless.
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MULTIPLAYER
80 % |
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The score is high and low at the same time for the multiplayer capabilities of the game. In some ways it's the ideal multiplayer game, and certainly is great fun. On the other hand, the game becomes infinitely more difficult with multiple players.
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This was a game I had very high hopes for, and fortunately it didn't disappoint too deeply. Yes, I was a bit dismayed by some of the level, physics, and multiplayer issues, but generally speaking, there wasn't much to disappoint in. The game is as fun, cute, and free-flowing as imagined, yet surprisingly has strong appeal to hard-core gamers and retro/classic console gamers. In addition this commemorates GameVisions' first console review to date. It's certainly a fitting game with which to do so!
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