Review: LittleBigPlanet - I just don't get it

Mike Bantick
Monday, 22 December 2008 08:04

Opinion and Analysis

What possible attraction can an old-school 2D platformer have in today’s  gaming world of 3D wiz-bangery?  And surely the focus of collecting items and reliance on an open online community will be the downfall of LittleBigPlanet?

I like my creative tools to be pretty basic.  For example I prefer  my building blocks to come in a big box of random bricks rather than themed projects to build Death Stars or whatever.

LittleBigPlanet
	Developer	Media Molecule
	Publisher	Sony
	Rating	G
PS3

I prefer to paint rather than stencil.

Which leads me to video games (!) You know the type; those collect-things sub missions that make up a portion of just about every game on the market.  Even games as far removed from Mario coin retrieval as Gears of War 2 have pointless collectibles scattered less than liberally around the maps.

Usually collecting things will lead to in game ego petting trophies or achievements, sometimes collecting enough things will unlock further features or extra content, but by and large that is the extent of reward for all your hard foraging. 

But then there are games where collecting things are the game, and your initial foray onto the LittleBigPlanet will find you finding things in increasing desperation.

Stepping back a few paces, LittleBigPlanet needs to be put onto its videogame contextual pedestal.

LittleBigPlanet is an important exclusive for Sony on their PlayStation 3, so important in fact that when even a sniff of controversy is about to hit this G rated game, Sony are quick to react, as they did when excerpts of the Qur’an were linked with the background music in the game.