There are many words one could use to describe Little Big Planet, but we feel the word “personality” is the most descriptive of the lot. LBP is Sony’s first exclusive title release since Metal Gear Solid 4, so encouraging people to buy consoles is LBP’s main objective.
Customisation is what the entire game is about. Throughout the game you are encouraged to customise the infectiously cute ‘Sackboy’; your generic avatar and the game’s main protagonist. You achieve greater degrees of customisation by traversing eight immensely detailed worlds and building up a stock of objects, stickers, points and creation tools along the way.
LBP plays like a platform game in which you can jump and grab objects, but that’s it. Sackboy doesn’t get any faster or stronger with every level completed; he simply takes on whatever appearance you would like him to. You even control his facial expressions, his arm movements and general posture via the d-pad, right analogue stick and six-axis controls respectively. This may leave the impression that the game is dull, but it isn’t. The game is a testament to purposeful design; it appears incredibly simple and yet great depth can be found in each corner of each world.
The game’s level creator tools and multiplayer modes are its greatest assets. The level creator is an astounding set of fairly complex tools which theoretically allow you to create anything you have seen in the story mode, and much more besides, and then share it online. This is rather time consuming, however, which means you’ll have to save it for the holidays if you’ve got a day job.
More so than any other game this year LBP embodies creativity and imagination. This is not just some niche title, but rather a game that can be enjoyed by anyone who seeks a interactive creative experience in their own living room.