It's almost been a month since Media Molecule's LittleBigPlanet hit the shelves. We didn't have much time to tell you what we think about the game at the time, so we hope that this "better late than never article" will have you pleased. Now join me inside for a little big ride.
Unfortunately everything is not as wonderful in gameplay land. Even if the controls react rather well and the physics engine is fun, many will regret the over-exaggerated inertia of our sackboys & girls. Of course, some will say it’s part of the subtleties of the gameplay and you just have to deal with it, but you could also consider this lack of accuracy as being just a very irritating problem. Likewise, the way you move from the front to the back of the screen is neither intuitive nor smooth. This sometimes triggers undesired moves which can have a heavy impact when playing in time-attack stages for example.
LittleBigPlanet having never hidden its ambition to be mostly a community game, let’s now talk about the most important part: multiplayer. When played offline, no problem, everything runs fine, and, apart from the mess coming from 3 or 4-player-games, it is a great game and it is a lot of fun. Some people might complain about the camera which doesn’t zoom out when one of the players is left behind but the game asks players to stick together in order to progress through the levels anyway. In every level, catching some collectible stickers - you’ll need them in the level editor - requires several players, a good idea if you ask me.
Unfortunately, it’s not as enjoyable when played online because of the more or less constant lag when there are more than 2 players. We sometimes managed to play a normal game when BlimBlim, Eloniss and I tried to play together, but most of the time it was completely unplayable. I hope things will get better with time, I don’t think it’s being elitist to ask for a fluid online 4-player game nowadays.
The good side of the online mode is the possibility to submit your own creations to the community and obviously try those of the other players. The length of the game is definitely extended thanks to such a feature, provided that talented players keep posting new creations that is. I have to say I haven’t had much time to spend on the level editor but the possibility to create complex and original levels is by itself very stimulating. Let’s hope this will keep creating some emulation between players and result in the most inspired levels.
In the end LittleBigPlanet will leave nobody indifferent and is for sure a game to try for those who claim to love video games. At the Leipzig convention last summer, the game had made quite an impression on us and it’s actually turned out to be the refreshing title we saw at the time. Even though it’s far from being perfect, it deserves all the attention of players looking for original platformers. Come on, give it a try.
All comments (20)
Also blame him if anything sounds weird - though it should not he's top-notch. ;)
When I got the game I was blown away and reminded why I've kept my PS3, despite the lack of AA games.
None the less, a bit like what happened with me and my Wii, the 'magic' wore off after a couple of weeks and the game went back to my shelf to collect dust.
Don't get me wrong though, this is probably one of the top 3 games on PS3, but this sort of shows that innovation doesn't equal the best game ever...
When I got the game I was blown away and reminded why I've kept my PS3, despite the lack of AA games.
None the less, a bit like what happened with me and my Wii, the 'magic' wore off after a couple of weeks and the game went back to my shelf to collect dust.
Don't get me wrong though, this is probably one of the top 3 games on PS3, but this sort of shows that innovation doesn't equal the best game ever...
Not my kind of game though, looks incredibly boring. But, like I said...not my thing.
I've played many games with another 3 players from my friends list and random people and I had no lag at all.
Make sure you have NAT2 (i.e: open ports), I heard it helps :)
Great write-up, hope to see more from Gamersyde...Not JUST a media site anymore I guess which is good to see :)
What happened to the diaries by the way?
The Diaries are long gone, Snoopers is now working for Canal + on a videogame TV show.
Thanks for your nice words. :)
Still, anything that is not yet another flipping FPS deserves some kudos...
Sacboys feel very "floaty", when swinging on ropes it does not "swing" realistically at all and is also very "floaty", when on rocket cars or anything and you nail something on the ground or hit an angled surface, most of the time the reaction is nowhere NEAR being what you would expect, and the sacboys "weight" seem to have hardly any effect on how things move either.
Top that off with the online lag, the way "lives" work in the game, Sony removing content whenever and whyever they want to ... this game is not nearly what i was hoping it would be, and I think it's not going to sell nearly as much as sony anticipated either.
It sucks too cause the game was such a great concept just pretty poorly executed.
How this could be a rental is beyond me, considering that you can create your own levels (which takes a while, especially if you want to make a GOOD level). This game is guaranteed to consistently have a steady flow of fun levels being released all of the time thanks to the community. The game isn't that old and there are already a LOT of really good levels to play.
The nearly 60 levels on the disc in the story mode are really great too and can teach you a lot on how to make a good level.