LittleBigPlanet
Quite how this indie-looking platform game from an unproven developer has come to represent the PlayStation 3’s greatest mainstream hope this autumn is difficult to fathom. The on-trend, vibrant visuals certainly make the average videogame look like a pudgy uncle trying to throw down with the kids at a wedding disco. But can a platform game creation toolset really expand the PlayStation 3 audience and replicate the success of content-creation and sharing websites such as Youtube and Flickr?
LittleBigPlanet’s vision is no less ambitious, even if its core idea is curiously straightforward. You play as Sackboy, a woven-textured stuffed toy, two parts cute, one part shabby-chic, and use Popit, a menu system/mouse pointer to create physical objects and build 2.5D playgrounds. These are then uploaded for anyone else with a copy of the game to try out. The hope is that users from around the world will use the level creation tool set to make a gigantic library of compelling challenges and levels, changing the very face of gaming as they do so.
If that all sounds a bit grand and abstract, our first touch of LittleBigPlanet, trying out those levels developer Media Molecule is packaging in with the game, is effortlessly reassuring. In the level we tried out we had to move from left to right through an expansive 2D level, solving simple physical puzzles to progress, crossing chasms and avoiding fire-pits as we did so. While the graphics make LittleBigPlanet look as though it was designed tomorrow, the core mechanics are tried, tested and familiar.
The control scheme is delightfully simple, accessible and responsive to the touch. You’ve one button to jump (the longer you hold it the higher and farther you travel) and one button to ‘grab’ onto objects in the environment. Viewed sideways on, in the style of a 2D platformer, there are also two or three different planes to the environment. Can’t get past a wall in the foreground? Simply push up on the controller and your character will hop into the background, allowing you to pass around the side.
All of the levels Media Molecule has bundled in with the game have been created with the same toolset we players are getting: a brave decision that demonstrates just how powerful (but accessible) the game really is. With Eyetoy compatibility it’s possible to take photographs or any object in your possession and turn it into a 3D game object. From small change in your pockets through to beloved pets and relatives, the scope for digitising your life and making a PlayStation 3 game out of it is staggering. But as the game enters its final few weeks of polishing, whether LittleBigPlanet is to become the worldwide phenomenon Sony is banking on, very much remains to be seen.
