In an industry where a "release first, patch later"
attitude prevails, games often hit stores before they're really finished. LittleBigPlanet might be
the most audaciously incomplete A-list title yet, except this time, that
half-baked quality is an asset. When its brief, brilliant story leaves you
wanting more, LittleBigPlanet dares you to fill in the blanks yourself. At your
disposal: a fantastically deep set of level-design tools, a crafty character
named Sackboy, and stickers. Lots of stickers.
Level editors are common on the PC, and they
aren't new to consoles, either. (Remember Excitebike?) But no game has ever
embraced player creativity like LittleBigPlanet. Once you've gotten the
hang of running and jumping with Sackboy through the usual 2D platformer
mischief, the game reveals a barren moon that serves as the playground for your
inner Shigeru Miyamoto. There, you experiment
with gizmos and building blocks collected from "prize bubbles" in the main
story.
LittleBigPlanet aims to inspire, so your
canvas is blank, but not bland. The overall look—Wallace
& Gromit meets
The Nightmare Before Christmas—bursts with personality, and everything you
see and hear is up for grabs. If you like the bouncing mole rats in the
underground level, rest assured that they'll appear in a prize bubble so you
can construct your own whack-a-mole mayhem. It's exciting to play through the
game's lush, polished landscapes knowing that you'll get the tools to build a
world that's just as stunning.
In fact, LittleBigPlanet is banking on the hope
that a new generation of auteurs will expand Sackboy's horizons by sharing new
levels via the PlayStation Network. Like an MMO, the success of this massively
multi-creator game depends on a large base of passionate players—and on
the crowd's ability to find side-scrolling masterpieces amid the inevitable
chaff. It remains to be seen whether LittleBigPlanet will fulfill its promise,
but the sandbox is so much fun, it's hard to imagine that the kids won't come
out and play.
Beyond the game: You can create objects
from photographs taken with the PlayStation Eye, breathing new life into the
camera accessory that—Eye Of Judgment fanatics aside—has
gathered dust since its introduction last year.
Worth playing for: When Sackboy drifts into
freefall while skateboarding down a steep incline, that sinking feeling in your
gut means that the game's exquisitely tuned physics are working.
Frustration sets in when: Not even narration by
Stephen Fry can make the tutorial stages any less of a slog, but at least you
get a bunch of new toys every time you finish a lesson.
Final judgment: Little game, big
potential.