January 7, 2016

LittleBigPlanet 2


LittleBigPlanet was the first game I played and beat for the PS3 some five years ago or more, and I liked it enough to eventually buy this sequel. The good news is that I think I liked the sequel even better. The bad news is that so much of the appeal of these games comes from the community aspect of creating, sharing, and exploring with complete Internet strangers - and that ship sailed a long, long time ago for this 2011 title.

I'd have loved to play LittleBigPlanet 2 with friends in a four-way cooperative frenzy, but it just never caught on. B-Town played it at some point - and, being his PlayStation Network friend, I was constantly shown his high scores and achievements on the levels I played - but I don't think any of the rest of you guys got into this franchise. And I can't blame you! Sackboy is adorable and the games are cute and delightful, but they're slight. With so much emphasis on building and creating levels and challenges and such, there's very little in the way of a lasting and memorable campaign mode. I don't think I could describe for you, with one hundred percent certainty, a single level from the first game - and I'm sure this one will fall by the wayside in short manner as well.

One last thing worth noting, though. It really is impressive how varied and interesting the gameplay can get here given such a simple set of controls. You can move around and jump and use one all-purpose "action" button - yet in the story mode alone I found myself playing a racing game, a third-person shooter, a rail shooter, a puzzle game, pinball, soccer, and of course a good old-fashioned side-scrolling platform game.

Solid game! I just think I missed its window.

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