Planet Earth.
Or, as the rest of the omniverse calls it, the orb of dreams.
The occupants of which spend so much time asleep and dreaming.
Their vast imaginations humming away, charged with creative energy.
Where does it all go?
Up through a cerebral umbilical cord
Where it collects and melds with all the other dreamer’s energy.
And something wonderful happens –
it forms a world.
An ethereal dreamscape of adventure and possibilities.
An abstract plane of beautiful wonderment
just waiting to be explored
And you can go there now.

Ryan: Rather than an introduction to what our team has so lovingly-crafted, the first paragraph of this review is the introductory narration for LittleBigPlanet. Watching it again, after having fully immersed myself in the game for several hours, I had a revelation: they’re actually not kidding. LittleBigPlanet really, really is an ethereal dreamscape of adventure and possibilities, perpetually refreshed through a unique and massive game-building and -sharing framework. It is a wildly ambitious project for a small outfit like Media Molecule, and is probably Sony’s most daring creative effort as a publisher. As near as I can tell, they’ve succeeded in every way.

At its most basic, LittleBigPlanet left-to-right platformer. This is the stepping stone; in a way, you could call it a generational game, since it uses this Mario archetype to build upon, quite literally. Even the most casual players are familiar with the language of the platform game. You can jump, and you can grab. Where LittleBigPlanet breaks away from other titles is in the aesthetic presentation, the physical nature of it, and the build-and-share aspects. All of these facets are carefully intertwined.

Visually speaking, the design is extremely clever on a number of levels. The Sackboy (or Sackgirl) is an instantly charming character which seldom fails to elicit smiles, particularly when controlled by a skilled puppeteer – I chose that word carefully because that is exactly what it feels like. Sackboy’s facial expressions can be changed, and his arms and head can be manipulated as well, for some strikingly nuanced performance. This is all purely for show, but that’s exactly the point, as it makes the 4-player games that much funnier. Of course you can grab and smack other Sackfolk as well, practically a minigame unto itself. (It’s also extra-hilarious to watch the dynamic lip sync of the Sackpeople when playing online, as those with microphones will appear to be speaking directly through the characters.)

The “levels” of LittleBigPlanet, at least the fifty or so included with the game, adhere to the standard platforming layouts in the beginning, and become progressively more varied as you move through the game. Everything object and set-piece in the game is represented as home-made play sets – common household items and materials, patio stones, shot through a low camera angle. The assemblages are all crazy and fantastical, but the cobbled-together aesthetic works amazingly well. In addition, having a surrealistically photographic quality to the textures and geometry underpins the fact that this is a physics-based platform game, through and through. Absolutely everything in LittleBigPlanet relies on fairly realistic physical interactions. The Sackpeople themselves are the only “animated” characters; even other characters that you encounter in your travels are really just assembled cutout bits of… whatever, suspended on strings or chains or planks. Level design relies on things like levers, trap doors, bombs, rockets, catapults, spikes, cloth cubes, felt trees…. you get the idea. Additionally, materials can have various properties assigned like grippiness, or can be infused with electricity or fire for hazards. The chaotic, craft-time visual style works with the build function in perfect tandem – it’s actually hard to create something really ugly in LittleBigPlanet, because everything is supposed to look thrown-together with thumbtacks and popsicle sticks. Even the visual focus of the game camera adds a vignette blur to the edges of the screen, further enhancing the idea that you are watching all of this unfold in miniature.

LittleBigPlanet makes great effort to take the player by the hand and tug them slowly into the deeper waters of level creation. To this end, Media Molecule has made the building materials themselves the prizes for playing through these levels. This feels almost like Mega Man boss mechanics, except with physical parts. An example: once you traverse a series of pegged water-wheels, you have an opportunity to grab the water-wheel prize bubble, which is added to your build inventory, called a PopIt.

The PopIt menu, ever-present on the square button, is another innovation. By always having your level manipulation tools nearby, the comfort level increases. Initially the game will have you assigning stickers to props to complete a goal, which acclimatizes the player to manipulating the environment and generally futzing with things. The idea is that you gradually start spending some of your time building rather than just playing. Level creation on a large scale is indeed a daunting, time-consuming activity, but I fail to see how this is a bad feature in a videogame. Editing anything with any detail takes time.

As if all that weren’t enough – this entire wonderful ball of physics and adorable sackpeople is thoroughly connected to the PlayStation Network. You can play offline of course with up to four others, but the online section is where the real fun starts. There are hundreds and hundreds of custom levels already made, many of which are inane, but some which are inspired. Each of these has a constant flow of players jumping in and out of them that you can join up with. The power of the physics engine demonstrated in this game is truly remarkable, as some levels can attest. Entire machines can be assembled. And shared apiece. And linked together, and rated, and commented-on, and remixed. Forever. We will be playing LittleBigPlanet content for years to come, as the ethereal dreamscape of adventure and possibilities already seems infinite. No one is going to see all of them. Think about that. This game has more levels than you can possibly play already.

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