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| Source // Media Molecule |
Some games are aimed at kids. Many more are aimed at adults. A few of them are aimed at big kids, and little kids, and weird kids, and creative kids, and LittleBigPlanet is one of those few. A platformer and a platform for, it gave the world the seemingly infinitely customizable Sackboy, a delightful avatar for all kinds of hand-crafted physics-based entertainment.
Surely I was too old for a game like this in 2008, right? Never.
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| Source // Media Molecule |
Fun Times
When humans dream, which they very often do, according to the voice-over provided by Stephen Fry, those thoughts float into the sky to form the world of LittleBigPlanet, a cutesy platformer that dreams very big indeed.
You start in a humble cardboard spaceship floating about the planet with little to do but a few story levels that take you through the controls. Sackboy can run and jump through these 2.5D levels, as well as grab onto spongy things and manipulate his environment through physics or stickers.
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| Source // Media Molecule |
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| Source // Media Molecule |
Each level is full of points to score, stickers to snag, and puzzles to platform your way through, all made with a kind of homemade janky polish that often amazes with its creativity.
Stages will see Sackboy travel on one of three main planes, hopping and bouncing into and out of the screen just a little when appropriate, usually automatically as and when the game tries to interpret what you're doing, but with simple controls otherwise.
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| Source // Media Molecule |
Simple on the surface, at least. When you're not running and jumping and grabbing and pushing, you can stop in place and open up a window that allows you to slap stickers on basically anything, including your co-op buddies, or change your clothing and appearance with something you've just unlocked by jumping into a prize bubble, perhaps hidden away in an area of the stage that requires some thought to get to, or two players to work together.
Stickers and cloth patterns aren't emotive enough, though, so the D-pad is drafted in to pull off some exaggerated facial animations, from extreme joy to sadness and worry. The shoulder buttons that aren't used to grab are used to point your arms, along with the right analogue stick. Even the motion controls of the Sixaxis controller are used to change the way Sackboy's head is wobbling.
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| Source // Media Molecule |
There's a game in LittleBigPlanet, a story to follow through varied worlds, either alone or with friends, but the game almost isn't the point. It's just something to do while you're having fun with friends.
Maybe you're working together to hunt down every secret. Maybe you're sabotaging each other by grabbing them in midair or slapping them in the face with a well-timed jab of a stick and press of a button - and then refusing to progress through the level as you tilt your head down and press the D-pad until Sackboy starts crying.
That sounds a certain kind of horrible, but it's also a strange kind of beautiful. It doesn't need to be in there, it has no gameplay benefit, but it makes LittleBigPlanet an incredible creation and storytelling tool, the likes of which hadn't really been seen on consoles, not to this extent at least.
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| Source // Media Molecule |
Frustrations
Those tools - the same ones used by the developers to create the fantastic worlds you play through in the story - are freely available to use in-game to make your own levels. Not just levels, if you're smart enough, but new game modes entirely, immediately sharable on the Internet for everyone to play, rate, and share.
Made a cool enemy? You can bubble it up and share it with other players for them to use in their own levels. Want to exploit the trophy system to get a hard trophy in seconds? Someone has probably already made that level for you.
In all those cases, though, someone has gone to the effort that you didn't. LittleBigPlanet is an incredible tool in the same way that Garry's Mod is - the vast majority of players will look at it for a few minutes and get scared away, choosing instead to wait for the pros to come along and create something for them.
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| Source // Media Molecule |
I played LittleBigPlanet at launch, made my way through the story collecting what I could, customizing Sackboy and his ship a little, but not every five minutes, and watched a video tutorial or two in the level creator before noping out and never returning.
I played some user-created stuff for sure but didn't spend my days scouring the levels for hidden gems, because for the most part, you knew that 99% of them would be rubbish, especially compared to the levels created by the developers.
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| Source // Media Molecule |
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| Source // Media Molecule |
Firing it up these days, I find that I've got no save data and have to make progress through the story mode before LittleBigPlanet even opens up, and those first tutorial stages are an absolute necessity because the controls are a little annoying sometimes.
Failure generally doesn't lead to bad times. Checkpoints are all over the place, lives are limited but not drastically so, and while the later levels get trickier, as you'd expect, they don't get ridiculously difficult to the point of shutting anybody out of the game. However, those failures can be anything from the game thinking you want to jump somewhere you didn't, or grabbing something awkwardly with no way of saving your situation, or just not jumping consistently.
Sackboy is a goofy looking character that, at times, acts and feels like a goofy looking character. He's not a mess, but he's not polished. He's very much a product of his environment, which is a home-made physics sandbox of joy.
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| Source // Metal Gear Wiki |
Further Fun Times
I didn't want to play LittleBigPlanet for too long because it felt too much like a chore, but when you're playing it with the expectation that you're going to have a good time, and you've downloaded some MGS4 themed DLC which comes with Snakeboy, or Old Sack, or whatever he's called, you can't help but smile.
This particular DLC came with a paint gun, and suddenly LittleBigPlanet becomes a platformer capable of giving players enemies they can shoot, instead of having to land on their heads with precision. How would the players use this new tool in their own creations? I wouldn't know - I was having too much of a good time in the properly designed levels.
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| Source // Media Molecule |
Final Word
LittleBigPlanet is a game of possibilities. If you put your mind to it and really dig into the tools available, you can achieve all kinds of platform wonderment that can delight and amaze fans across the world.
Of course, all that hard work may just end up lost in the shuffle, as countless awful levels spam their way into every search tag. I suppose you won't know until you find out, right?
I never found out. Creative though I think I am, I am not creative in the way LittleBigPlanet wants me to be. I'll pull off a few faces, slap a few stickers, put on a new hat, but I won't dive into every single aspect of the game to get the absolute most out of it.
No, instead, I'll be entertained by what I do get up to, go away with some memories, good and bad, and accept that it is a game for others to enjoy, and enjoy it they will. No matter what your background, grab a friend or two and play LittleBigPlanet. Seriously, stupidly, with a goal in mind or not, grab a Sackboy and see what happens. You're almost certain to crack a smile.
Later games would add new tools and carry forward all the user-generated stuff from the games before, so it's probably far better to jump into the later games these days.
I say probably because I bought LittleBigPlanet 3 intending to show it to/play it with P2. It was old at the time, but it was still a proven winner for an entertaining evening. I haven't ever put the disc into my PS3, and years have gone by. I don't even know where it is anymore. I bought into the idea of a good time, but then didn't even make sure to have one.
I'm just going to waddle over here for a minute, dip my head, press the D-pad just once... and then I'm going to look up and smile.
It's janky, it's awkward, but you can't get mad with it. Go enjoy LittleBigPlanet in some form, will you?
Fun Facts
Sackboy used to be called Mr Yellowhead because the first iteration of the game involved a main character with a yellow head, obviously.
LittleBigPlanet, developed by Media Molecule, first released in 2008.
Version played: PlayStation 3, 2008.