Review: LittleBigPlanet 2

LittleBigPlanet 2 is a level creator game with a focus on 2D platforming for the PlayStation 3. It was developed by Media Molecule.

A Sackboy playing around in a user-created dinosaur level.

Gameplay centers around the Sackboy, a small customizable person made of a stitched material. Levels are 2D, but Sackboy can move on three planes, one close to the screen, one in the middle, and one far from the screen. All Sackboy can do on his own is jump and grab certain materials. He can also pick up a gun to shoot things, use a grappling hook, and wear gloves to carry and throw objects. The jump could go higher and farther, and the grappling hook does not swing Sackboy quickly or far enough.

The main draw of LittleBigPlanet 2 is the extensive level creation kit. It would take too long to describe every little tool and gadget in LittleBigPlanet, so I will stick to general gameplay elements.

You start with creating and setting up objects as the level’s basic platforms, obstacles, and decorations. There are dozens of different materials you make shapes out of, which you can make any size and shape, and rotate in any direction. All materials weigh differently, which can affect what Sackboy can walk on and jump off of. You can glue multiple objects together, or connect them with string moving bolts, or set them on fire to create more elaborate obstacles.

Then you can add gadgets, things that Sackboy can interact with. Again, there are too many things to list, but some highlights include: moving platforms you can control with switches, guns that shoot anything you want as many times as you want, enemies that follow set paths that you program, cutscenes, giant vehicles that fly bolts and elastic to string objects together, and friendly NPCs that can follow you around.

Most of them are fun, and easy to set up and control. I had trouble though with some of the gadgets that make objects move on their own, especially ones that defy gravity or are affected by Sackboy’s presence. They did not work the way I programmed them to half the time.

Most items in LittleBigPlanet are easy to learn how to use. There is a lot to learn though, the tutorial has sixty-one parts. But the tutorials are simple as well, and you can eventually learn how to use everything with enough patience and a good memory.

There are also hundreds of props and stickers to put in your levels; fruit, building parts, signs, body parts, things to give your levels an identity and theme and make it more than just an obstacle course.

You can create all of this. The walking monster, that tube placement, those things shooting lighting, the sponges the Sackboy's are hanging onto, all of it.

Anyone can upload levels they make online so everyone else can see them, play through them, and review them. There are millions of homemade levels online. Most of them are poorly planned, boring, in need of more playtesting, half-finished, or flawed in some other way. But playing through the levels to complete them is missing the point, the point is to see what any average person can come up with, and marvel at the creativity of some of them. It is a good thing you can find the levels with the best ratings and play only those if you want though.

All levels can be played with multiple people. The problem with this is that multiplayer games are based on one person running the game, and everyone following that person. If for example you want to play a level with other people, you have to join someone else’s game. So if you enter that person’s game and they quit that level, you have to follow them. Also, the camera follows that person on the level it can be easy to be left behind if that person does not care about anyone else.

It can be hard to coordinate with several people playing.

There is a story campaign, but it mostly serves to show you what you can make in LittleBigPlanet. Unfortunately, most of the materials, objects and stickers you want to make your levels with are found in the story, and you have to collect them to use them, and you have to play through the levels multiple times to find all of them. I did not want to go through the levels multiple times; I just wanted to make levels with as many things as I can. Because, honestly, levels made in LittleBigPlanet are not that interesting, even the ones made by Media Molecule. They are like amusement park rides, you go through them once or twice to see what they are like, but do not go over and over again because you see the same thing and there is not that much to actually do.

The amount of fun you have in LittleBigPlanet 2 is directly proportional to how creative you are feeling. If you are looking for an actual game with a challenge you will be disappointed, but if you have a lot of ideas for levels or stories you want to tell through video game levels, the amount of time you can spend on LittleBigPlanet 2 is virtually limitless.