OXCGN’s Steal It For 360:

LittleBigPlanet 2 (PS3)

The Mario of Our Times

by exterminat

©2011 Nicholas Laborde

Run to a platform. Jump across a chasm. Jump across another chasm, but swing across by leaping and grabbing a movable piece of geometry.

These are actions instilled in to us since the beginning of time (by beginning of time, I mean the 80s) and have been a fundamental part of every single platforming game since the conception of the genre.

In 2008, a small company called Media Molecule dared to change this formula and rejuvenate the slowly-dying genre by introducing their first title, LittleBigPlanet. It featured a curious motto. “Play. Create. Share.”

On the surface, the game was your average platformer, with a cute mascot and a lovable narrator. But that was simply the superficial aspect of  LittleBigPlanet.

It featured a robust and highly versatile level creation system that allowed players to make anything their hearts desired. Once their dream levels were made, the press of a button would publish these levels for the rest of the world to play and leave feedback on.

A simple idea with huge potential, LittleBigPlanet instantly became a classic and garnered a huge following. Media Molecule released hundreds of costume packs and dozens of level packs, but that paled in comparison to the sheer amount of things that the community did.

A few months ago, LittleBigPlanet reached 2 million community-made levels (as of the time of writing, LBP and LBP2 combined have around 3.5 million). Not only that, but as per the norm when developers release mod tools/etc, players broke the boundaries of what MM thought was possible, and were duly impressed with the devotion people had for the game.

Zoom forward to 2011, and we’re finally playing LittleBigPlanet 2 exclusive on the PS3. The original game was marketed simply as a platforming game.

This time, however, it’s marketed as a platform for games.

Not only does it succeed the original in every single way, it makes the original look bland and unattractive.

But is it a game that would have been great on the 360 too?

One Sack To Rule Them All

The very first thing players will notice upon first boot of LittleBigPlanet 2 is that the game actually has a narrative this time around (albeit a loose one).

Gone are the days of “OH I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE” humor in boring text bubbles. Most “worlds” feature some type of cinematic at the beginning and end of their main levels, with full voice acting and an appropriate amount of witty writing.

This second journey into the strange world yet again features the infamous Sackboy, out to save the world again without ever speaking a word.

Now, I’m not exactly the manliest of the men; I go to the gym a few times a week and try not to look stupid. That being said, I can’t deny that Sackboy is still the cutest gaming character I’ve ever seen. The best part about him is that YOU are Sackboy (much like the Half-Life series where YOU are Gordon Freeman) and the adventure is what YOU make of it.

The adventure once again starts out happily with an eccentric opening level detailing the entire workforce at Media Molecule. After seeing all of their lovely faces, you’re happily trotting along when out of nowhere appears the Negativitron, a nasty abomination culminating in all things evil, with his mind set on ruining your promenade.

He begins to suck up and destroy everything in sight, and it appears to be the end of our dear Sackboy! Then, all of a sudden, something grabs you and pulls you down, eventually to safety. You’re greeted by an old man whose beard would make a man from the 1800s cry in shame.

Sackboy learns that this man’s name is Larry da Vinci, and he was once a Creator. One of the best in the land, in fact! He saved your sack-skin out there, but now it’s up to you to stop the Negativitron.

What follows is one of the most humorous, engaging and all-around entertaining stories I’ve ever had the pleasure of experiencing. The writing is sharp and will evoke many a chuckle; in the beginning, you receive a modified version of the new Creatinator tool and it fires cakes. The lady who bestows it upon you describes it as the “best sniper trifle” she’s ever created.

Not only is the story entertaining, but the cast of characters is even better. My personal favorite character is named Avalon; he wears a spiffy outfit with futuristic light-up glasses, and always has a headset on. Whenever he speaks, no matter where he is, invisible speakers amplify his voice in an epic movie announcer tone.

Quality and Quantity in Equilibrium

The original LittleBigPlanet had many great things about it, but we can all agree that it was a bit stale from a gameplay perspective.

LittleBigPlanet 2 changes that by introducing a few new gameplay-altering items, the first and most prominent of which is the Creatinator.

The Creatinator does not have as big an influence in the story mode as the other tools, but it primarily comes into play in community made levels. It’s the spiritual successor to the Paintinator from the original game, but differentiated in that it can fire ANYTHING that the creator sets it to. And by anything, I mean ANYTHING; from plasma to cows. Yes, you read that correctly.

It adds a fresh and entertaining perspective to the traditional platformer.

Another new item at your disposal is the Grabinator, which allows you to pick up otherwise-heavy items and throw them significant distances. Typically, you use this to throw back explosives, break a light wall, or hit a hard-to-reach prize bubble.

Lastly, we have the Grappling Hook. It’s very self-explanatory, but it also contains one of my biggest problems with the game. No game is 100% bug-free upon launch, but LittleBigPlanet 2 has a significant amount of them. My biggest beef with this game has to be the Grappling Hook’s functionality.

Sometimes, it simply won’t grab on to things. Others, it won’t raise or lower like it’s supposed to, leading to death and bringing you that much closer to failing that difficult level.

It has made me more than once become more than infuriated at the game.

And this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to bugs and problems with LittleBigPlanet 2.

I truly don’t understand how this game can be geared toward a younger audience, because the difficulty at times is completely ridiculous. The final boss made me want to throw my controller and stop playing.

As of the time of writing, online functionality with other players is completely broken. After playing for maybe a few minutes, other players will indefinitely load. When this occurs, the only thing you can do is completely exit the game by going back to the XMB.

Not only that, but another big nasty occurred that almost made me delete all my data in an attempt to purge it.

To those familiar with the game, LBP uses a menu system of planets in a small solar system to navigate campaign levels, multiplayer levels, and all the ones you’ve created.

There’s a fairly common bug where you’ll appear in your pod and a planet will have glitched into it, and you can’t do anything about it. The menus are inaccessible as a result, and I had to completely restart my PS3 in order to fix this.

It’s been several days and MM hasn’t provided any type of hotfix for these errors, and it’s causing the most widely played aspect of the game to be rendered unplayable. It needs to be addressed and I’m disappointed that they haven’t acted quicker.

The Beginning of Something More

Story mode features some absolute high points, and many of those include the game’s foray into other genres, such as arcade shooters.

Upon completion of the story mode, you of course have your traditional extra challenge levels, along with special multiplayer levels called Versus levels, which pit you against your friends.

The real fun comes from playing community-made levels, and let me tell you: the things you see will blow your mind.

Oh, we’ve had the traditional platforming levels, but you haven’t seen anything yet. There was a full recreation of a level from Wolfenstein 3D and even a Vietnam-themed FPS (along the lines of a rail shooter).

These carried over from the few months of beta time the game had, and we should start to really see what is possible in a month or so.

LittleBigPlanet 2 is a platform for games, and it’s the first to have multiple genres inside of one genre.

It all goes back to the huge range of creation tools players now have at their disposal, and is even more enhanced by the fact that all your content from the original title (including DLC and even your pod) carry over into LBP2!

The game of course still features 4-player co-op if level creation and playing awesome community levels isn’t your fancy, and tons of co-op challenges to get specific prize bubbles.

As with the original game, LittleBigPlanet 2 features a wide array of wacky licensed music. The game gets a special respect point from me for using the theme from the sci-fi epic 2001: A Space Odyssey. You’ll often ask yourself what you’re listening to, but it always surprisingly fits.

LittleBigPlanet 2 is not your typical sequel. Yes, it’s essentially the same as the first game, but all sequels should push original ideas further, and this one does.

LBP2 provides a well-executed injection of entertainment into an industry that is otherwise declining. It not only breaks the boundaries of what you thought was possible in a platformer, but it redefines fun and is an absolute must-buy for anyone who owns a PS3.

This Is Madness!

I praise this game and would give it a 9.5/10 score, even bestowing upon it the highest of kudos, but you may be wondering why I would not steal this for the 360.

Time and time again, Microsoft has shown their true colors by denying many an indie/small developer at the near-final stages of submission of their products.

Media Molecule would most likely have been subjected to this same routine and (possibly aware of this) as a result chose to go with Sony.

Apart from that, Xbox Live‘s rules on user-generated content are much stricter than that of PSN, and LittleBigPlanet could not exist in the way that it does now. Creative freedoms would be limited, and that would not go along with what LittleBigPlanet is about: fun.

Therefore,  LittleBigPlanet should exist only in the way we have come to know it: on that disgusting other console, despite the fact that many Xbox 360 players would have loved it.

Steal It? Unfortunately, No!

Other Steal It for 360? reviews HERE.

©2011 Nicholas Laborde

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Filed under: Xbox 360 Tagged: | 360, Game, gordon freeman, Joystiq, LittleBigPlanet, LittleBigPlanet 2, Media Molecule, Platform game, Playstation 3, Video game, Xbox, Xbox 360