LittleBigPlanet Review

Play. Create. Share. That's what game narrator Stephen Fry tells you when you first boot up this game. You have full control from the first moment the game loads, as you control your new best friend, Sackboy, as you run along a flat plane with the games opening credits playing behind you. From here, it's time to play.

To play this game as a single player title, you get a solid platformer, using a fantastic physics engine which it bases its puzzles on, for example, in order to reach a seemingly unreachable platform, you will have your Sackboy drag a block along, then a smaller one, and use them as stepping stones to reach your objective. This is a very basic example of the type of inventiveness the game offers up.

As you play through the game, you collect prize bubbles, which as well as boosting your overall score, give you extra items such as costume pieces, items for creating levels and stickers which can be used anywhere in the game. Some of these bubbles require two or sometimes three players, so these are only accessible online or locally with a friend, however I'll get to the online feaures later on.

It's a simple setup, each level consistof three planes, a back, middle and front plane. Everything in the game is based on one of these three planes, making it very simple to a newcomer, however the game can get truly challenging in its later stages, using some very complex machinery built with the games own editing tools.

The create part of the game is where most players will spend most of their time, be it creating new custom costumes for their Sackboy, simple or complex machinery or even whole new levels, this is where the imagination gets let loose. I found myself spending upwards of 4 hours altogether making a truly terrible level (my first attempt), and it was very simple. However, the fact I'm willing to spend those 4 hours creating something so simple (the level only consisted of a few home made objects) is testament to it's addictive nature. Once you've created your own personal masterpiece you can upload it to the LBP servers and let the world try your creation. It will then get rated, tagged (people using one word tags to describe your level), hearted and seen by thousands of other LBP players.

The creation process in the game is deceptively simple. It can overwhelm you the first time you load up an empty level, seeing all the tools and objects available to you, but each individual tool has a tutorial level narrated again, excellently by Stephen Fry. These will help you understand the function of each and every tool at your disposal, making creating as simple as letting your imagination go. After a few attempts, you'll be making yourself ziplines and complicated traps ready to unleash them on the world.

Once your done playing solo, creating levels of epic design and sharing them with the world, you'll want to get yourself online (note if you only play this game solo, you're missing about 70% of the experience). There are some truly laugh out loud moments had when playing with friends, stemming sometimes from something as simple as slapping them off the edge of a ledge or sticking an enormous springy eye on their backs. It is very possibleto play a level with friends that should last about ten minutes, and find yourself spending upwards of an hour just messing around before you complete the level.

As mentioned earlier on, some of the games prize bubbles require more than one player, and these moments require teamwork in every sense of the word. You will come across situations where one player must sit in a small box controlling it's up/down movement, while another player safe on the sidelines controls the boxes left/right movement. The two players will then have to navigate through a room filled with fire covered walls and floors. There are some truly tricky places to visit, but there's always a strong sense of achievement when you and a friend make it through these parts.

The real fun of online play of course, comes not from playing the story mode with a friend, but playing the user created levels with a friend. There are some truly creative minds out there and the levels they have created give hours of fun for players who simply want to play the game and stay away from creating their own levels. One downside to this however, is that Sony and Media Molecule regularly close the servers to check for copyrighted content, e.g. a lot of people have been making levels mirroring (excuse the pun) Mirror's Edge. These levels usually get taken down, which is a shame as they usually have a lot of effort put into them, and are a great deal of fun to play through.

As long as the players keep creating though, this game will not get boring, as there's always something new for players to try out, be it a new level or some objects that players have made and are giving away to others as thanks for playing their levels. The game also gets constant support, being updated all the time with new costume packs, level packs (Metal Gear Solid level pack, and soon FF7 pack) and patches to keep things running, for the most part, smoothly. Most of this additional content has to be paid for, but clearly the public has no problem paying for it, as it's not a strange occurrence to see a Ryu Sackboy, a man eating plant Sackboy, a Sackboy with a TV on it’s head and Meryl, all teaming up to take out Metal Gear Rex. It truly is a wonderful surprise of a game, as due to its cutesy overall look a lot of people gave it up as a kids platform game.

Anyone who owns a Playstation 3 should give this game a chance, even if buying it for the kids is used as an excuse. The game has superb graphics, fantastic online play and a great community, it is one of the games this year that truly deserves its praise.