LittleBigPlanet is a platformer created by British developer Media Molecule that received a boat load of hype and wide critical acclaim due to its unique level creation system, but was it worth all the hype? And does it deserve all of the praise?

First, let’s start with the beloved level creator. Truth be told it really is great, the possibilities are seemingly endless. You can add all kinds of whosits and whatsits galore. Then you can shape, cut, expand, shrink, paint, and animate it in almost anyway you can think of. I created one such level which a pro wrestling tag team (which resembled strange, wooden stick figures) asks for your help in winning “the tag titles” by disposing of the other tag teams (by blowing them up mostly).

The levels you are capable of creating can be great (though mine may be considered unfinished…I still have a few kinks to work out) but, as it seems to be the case in all of these “make your own game” games, it can be very, very time consuming. So time consuming that often times the novelty of it all begins to wear out. So you may find yourself just wanting to go play the story mode or downloading someone else’s level off of the Playstation Network.

Speaking of the created levels, the quality of  the downloadable, player created levels can range from “wow! This guy really knew what he was doing!” to “Gee how juvinille and unimaginative can one person get?” Unfortunately, given that the majority of gamers these days are lacking in the departments of creativity and wit but have an overabundance of immaturity the latter will be much more frequent.

And now for the gameplay. I would like to say the gameplay could live up to the level editor, but I would be a big, fat liar if I were to say that. Truth be told, it’s actually kind of boring.

You control a (somewhat customizable) little ragdoll known as a Sack Person who is equipped with only the most basic of platforming mechanics: running and jumping. Now don’t think I’m mocking these classic platforming actions, but there are two things about it that just don’t seem right.

Number one: It seems like most platformers try to add a little something in the gameplay department, Sonic’s speed and Spin Dash, Donkey and Diddy’s whole tag team thing, stuff like that. But for a game that takes so much pride in the depth of some of its aspects, it seems like it didn’t even bother to add any depth to its gameplay. There aren’t any power ups (well I do remember maybe one or two instances with a jetpack, but even then its range was limited), there are no special jumps of any kind just a regular, nothing out of the ordinary jump.

And B: The jumping seems pretty clunky. There were several instances where I pressed the jump button to jump over a pit (which was no bigger than most other pits that required jumpings over) and the darned little sack person just couldn’t make it across. It’s like LittleBigPlanet purposefully removed the whole “depending on how hard you press the button determines how far you jump” function that has been so prominent in platformers ever since Super Mario Bros.

And as for the story mode itself. Well, I’ve always said a game, unlike books or movies, doesn’t need a good story to be great (Tetris has no story whatsoever), but I just have to say is there supposed to be any kind of coherent story in LittleBigPlanet’s “story mode?” I’m sorry but the “story” just doesn’t make any kind of sense, on the first chapter your helping some kingly figure, later you have to stop some car thief in Mexico, then you go to some skeleton’s wedding and somehow later on you wind up in India. Look, I’m the biggest fan of surreal storylines and imaginative scenarios, but it just doesn’t come together in any way.

And on a side note I just have to comment on the sack persons’ (sack peoples’?) design. I think they are supposed to come off as cute, but quite frankly, I think they look kind of creepy…I know that doesn’t have any reflection of my opinion of the game but I felt I should say it.

So in closing, if I could best describe LittleBigPlanet, I would say it is a deep creation tool, but a shallow game. It, like Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, suffers from what I shall now dub…Spore syndrome. That is to say the ambition it has with its creation tool just takes far too much priority over the gameplay. The “create you own game” style had better learn a way around this if it wants to be fun, but I guess it doesn’t matter, LittleBigPlanet has proven that they can undeservingly steal awards and acclaim from other games despite the lack of a fun factor. But I would be a fool to deny that LittleBigPlanet’s level editor is indeed something great, and it keeps me from being too hard on the game. But the thing is, sure people can make wonderful and heavily detailed levels, but if I can’t have any actual fun when I play them, then why should I care?

Now make that a sticker and stamp it!

(1 votes, average: 7.00 out of 10, rated)

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