Dissenting Opinion: LittleBigPlanet

Forget what was promised; explore the beauty of what was delivered.
10/30/2008 6:54 PM | 6 Comments | Page 2 of 3

That's enough. It's not a drive that has dissipated, either. You think I've spent much effort on the core story in Fallout 3 so far? Just like Oblivion, which I played for 40 hours before closing a single Oblivion Gate, I'm playing Fallout 3 to See What Happens Next.

So it goes for LittleBigPlanet. In fact, LBP is emblematic of that drive. The introductory level makes that very clear; you've never seen game credits like the ones scrolling through the background of your introduction to Sackboy. I kept running through that level not because I had no other choice, but because I wanted to see what else they'd come up with. That held true throughout the game. Level after level was packed with inventive new surprises: some cute and precious, others diabolical, and some of the sort that give budding engineers wet dreams, even if they're in their 30s.

I'll take a story if one is offered, but I really don't need a Princess to rescue. I don't need a narrative at all. I just want to See What Happens Next, and there are few games able to be as unpredictable and satisfying on that front as LittleBigPlanet.

Perhaps that's why I was never frustrated with the game. While every level has incentives for achievements -- cute little sticker and object awards -- I never felt the pressure to earn them on the first playthrough. My first exposure to each level was always a wide-eyed traipse through another bit of Sackboy headspace. The areas I really liked would be mined for hidden stuff, but that was a secondary concern.

Several of us here at Crispy talked about the level creator during the most recent podcast, and like many of the other guys I don't expect to use it much. Right now I just don't have the time. But in February, when the industry is slow as a Romero zombie? Then it might be time to break out the graph paper once again. (I've already done that for the demo, when I first played with the editor. Graph paper was always essential when I made Lode Runner levels 20-plus years ago ... ouch. Age sucks.)

But even if 1 percent of the sales base uses the editor, and 1 percent of those people create levels worth playing, that's enough. Sell a hundred thousand copies and that's 10 playable extra levels, which is a lot more free DLC than most games ever get. I don't believe it's unreasonable to expect that the final tally will be a lot higher than that. Within six months, I'd be shocked if there isn't at least enough compelling content to rival what Media Molecule packed into the retail box. There is already evidence that people will use the content tools to build stuff that breaks the platformer mold, too -- just check out the calculator level that popped up within days of the demo's debut.

So I can appreciate the usability of LBP's functions. More to the point, I can see them catching on in a way that I don't expect from the music studio in Guitar Hero World Tour. It takes as much skill and effort to make a cracking level here as making a song to shred in Guitar Hero. But while no one wants to hear lame guitar noodling created by an untalented hack, there's entertainment value in a LittleBigPlanet level that is the in-game equivalent of an Internet meme. (If you were in the beta, try to tell me you didn't play the Red Ring of Death "level." I won't believe you.)