Most people, when asked what they’d do if their opportunities were limitless, would have some pretty noble goals. Some would want to end world hunger. Some would want to be astronauts. Me? I’d want to be in the LittleBigPlanet beta. Now I am. My impressions after the jump.

Play

The basic elements of gameplay are exactly what you’d expect from the videos that have hit the net over the past year. LittleBigPlanet, when boiled down, is little more than a 2D platformer with a heavy physics element and some simple puzzling thrown in. Running, jumping and grabbing things make up the majority of gameplay, and they all work fairly well. While the gameplay is essentially nothing more than 2D, much of the world exists in more than two dimensions. Platforms hide behind platforms, hills are in front of one another, and so on. The game attempts to automatically adjust your position to sort things out, but it doesn’t always go to plan. Still — a second attempt almost always gets you exactly where you want to be as far as field of depth goes.

As you play through the stages one of your larger secondary goals is collecting costumes, stickers and objects. Costumes can be put on your sackboy immediately, and the numerous combinations of costume changes really do ensure your sackboy will have his own identity. After playing online for a while, I’ve yet to see two sackboys that looked exactly alike. Stickers can be used immediately as well. It’s kind of like sackboy graffiti, and it becomes a really cool component of the game when playing with others. You can even make your own stickers. While not officially on the books as the form of communication in LBP, I’ve found that everybody is resorting to them to get their feelings across. I still think my favorite moment had to be some dude using his homemade red ring of death sticker to express his frustration with the lag. Objects are used in the “create” portion of the game — something we’ll talk more about later.

LittleBigPlanet has a very distinct vibe, and much of that vibe comes from the amazing and frequent narration of Stephen Fry. As a parent it’s hard not to think of Fry’s narration work in Pocoyo. Nothing has changed much in his presentation or delivery, and considering he’s the highlight of that series it should really come as no surpise that they wanted to get him involved in LBP.

One of the few real disappointments in the beta was the online multiplayer. Many would feel it’s one of the primary draws of LittleBigPlanet, and as it stands now it’s severely broken. I wouldn’t worry too much about it being indicative of the final product (this is a beta after all, not a demo) but it’s a bug that certainly needs to be worked out. On the bright side I’ve never had a problem finding other people to play with or getting into a game. The lag though means I might as well be playing it by mail.

Share
User generated levels created by others are the real crown jewel of the beta and will likely be the real crown jewel of the game. The sheer amount of variety, even this early on, is astounding. Some levels are straight 2D platforming goodness. Others offer races or mazes. Some are just cute jokes that any gamer can appreciate. I’ve even seen a level where all you do is turn on a 360 by stepping on a big button causing giant red rings to fall from the sky. No two levels I’ve played are alike, and they all ooze with their own individual personalities.

One of the coolest parts of playing the shared stages is the shared content that a successful playthrough generates. If I’ve created an original object, be it a giant monkey man or a rocket powered skateboard, finishing my level could award you with a specific user-created item. It then gets added to your library and you can use it when creating your own levels.

My only complaint is with the level selection screen. While it oozes personality, selecting buttons on a planet doesn’t really make sorting or searching as easy as it should be. Sure you can sort by tags, but since all the tags are predetermined by MediaMolecule it’s not like you can really search how you’d like. Clicking on “short” will likely give you short levels, but what if you want to track down that Portal-inspired level you’d heard so much about? (It doesn’t exist yet, but come on. You know it’s gonna happen.)

Create
Now that I’ve gotten my hands on it, the create portion of LBP is probably what concerns me the most about the final product. It’s not that it’s lacking in any way — far from it. But there’s so much that you’re able to do and so much that you’ll need to learn that it’s not going to be nearly as accessible as people are hoping.

Can anyone create a level after a few tutorials? Absolutely. But to create something worthwhile is going to take a lot of time and a lot of effort — a lot more than I think people realize. I’m about 8 hours into my project and I haven’t even made a dint. So much of what I’m trying to accomplish requires more than just planning — it requires trial and error. So much of my time is spent figuring out what will work and what won’t makes it feel more like a science experiment than a level creator. What’s offered is beyond brilliant, but it’s going to take some brilliance on your end to really make it worth your while.

Overall Impression

Going into the beta, LittleBigPlanet was my most anticipated title this fall. I’m pleased to say that this hasn’t changed, but considering a few of the things noted above I’m a little nervous to see how it all pans out. MediaMolecule is trying something genuinely original here, and it’s hard to do that without taking a few risks. We’ll find out if it pays off when the final version ships October 21st.