Review: Little Big Planet (PS3)

Little Big Planet has to be one of the most creative games ever made.  Who would've thought that little childish looking "sackboys" and "sackgirls" could be so much fun?  In this game, you start out as a plain little brown sackboy.  As you traverse little big planet, you find lots of items that help you not only customize your sackboy, but also your little box that you start in and levels for you to create.  The game is a traditional platformer at heart.  You run around and jump over gaps in the ground, yadda-yadda-yadda.  But other than that, there are tons of puzzles and races for you to do as well.  The game play is simple and fun and when you add players it only gets better.  I have to say though, if you play with 4 people, make sure you all have a cohesive attitude and can move together because if not, it can turn into a real mess.  The camera isn't too forgiving for those who get ahead or fall behind.  While the initial loading of a level is slowed down a bit by having more players, the frame rate is spot on.
Everything in Little Big Planet is customizable.  Let's start with your sack boy.  Everything on your sackboy is customizable throughout the game.  You get new clothes, hair, facial hair, eyes, ears, noses, tails, colors (skins if you will), teeth, and even your sackboy's gender can be altered!  There are tons of costumes in the game that you can mix and match together and Sony has already released some free DLC on the PSN for two more costumes (one is an astronaut and one is a jack-o-lantern.  If that isn't enough, even your sackboy's emotions are customizable.  If you press a certain direction on the d-pad, it changes your sackboy's mood.  Left is scared, down is sad, up is happy and right is angry.  There are three "degrees" to each emotion and there is also the default emotion.  Want more, oh, there's more!  If you press L2 or R2, the sackboy's respective arms will move where ever you point the thumb sticks.  This is useless for the most parts as far as getting through the game is concerned but it's a lot of fun, especially when you aren't playing by yourself.  If you are playing with another person, when you are close to them and you flick the thumb stick hard enough your sackboy will smack the other sackboy.  You emotions also play a part in the are movement as there are different gestures that follow each emotion.  Default is pointing with the index finger, happy is peace signs, sad is thumbs down, angry makes a fist, and scared has open palms.  There is one last thing that you can do with your sack boy and that is make him move.  I don't mean left and right on the screen, I mean part of his body.  If you turn your controller in certain directions, your p.o.s. er, i mean, uh, sixaxis will move either your sackboy's head or pelvis in that direction.  If you press down on the left thumb stick, it will change which is being moved.
So, other than making your sackboy unique and playing platforming levels, what can you do?  Well you can make your own levels!  I must admit, when you first start doing this you will get frustrated.  There is a large number of tutorials that you are forced to go through before making specific things in your level.  My suggestion is to keep clicking the "next tutorial" button until you go through them all before you start.  Once you've done all of this, you can make tons of levels any way you want them.  The further you progress through the story levels in the game, the more objects and materials you will have to play with in your levels.  To the game's credit, you get a massive chunk of land to put your level on and the possibilities are literally endless.  There is a level that I played online that was made out exactly as the first dungeon from the Legend of Zelda (the 1st one on NES).  It was remarkable and I wish I knew how he built it, because you played as link, not as sackboy.  Well, if you want to know more just ask because this isn't a review of that kid's level.  Anyway, when you finish your level you can save it to your console and you can post it online for others to play if you like.  A note to anyone who posts their own level: Please play through it first and make sure that the obstacles you've made are physically possible and that there aren't any places to get stuck.  
Now, when you play online there are two things you have to deal with.  1) Whoever you're playing with and 2) the PSN and its tendency to sign you out for no reason at all.  Other than that, lag is at a minimum until you have 4 players from 4 different consoles.  Then it can get a little jumpy but nothing to write home about.  Online levels... You need to keep in mind that your average person is not very creative.  Most of the levels you will find aren't very good, but there are good ones out there (like the zelda one I mentioned before).  You can leave feedback on people's levels as well so when they suck, don't just say YOU SUCK!  Tell them what they could do to make the level better because otherwise they'll just ignore you.

Anyways, in the end, this is a MUST HAVE title for the Playstation 3.  It may look stupid and childish but it's really a lot of fun.   Endless hours of fun await in this game and when you get bored with it, make your own levels or play other people levels.  Then when that gets boring, bring other people over to play with you and I guarantee you the fun will be back.  Oh, and this game does have trophies as well (48 to be exact).  I give this game a 9 out of 10 for its awesomeness.

9/10

-CA