LittleBigPlanet 2
Preview
Little Disk, Big World
by Ryan Cope
previewed on PS3
A Big Legacy to Follow
If you thought that LittleBigPlanet had a huge world to explore with countless opportunities and chances for customisation, then you must not have caught wind of its highly anticipated sequel. Yes, that’s right, the little planet that was oh so big before, has now got even bigger! The first game put you in control of your very own “Sackboy,” or Sackperson, and allowed you a wide range of customisation to make it into any type of heavily accessorised voodoo doll look-alike. You were then thrown off into a crazy land of sponge blocks and a ludicrous assortment of things, in order to save the Little Big Planet from a nasty fiend.
LittleBigPlanet not only offered a huge range of costume, texture and ornament changes for your Sackperson, but it also gave players the ability to use the same tools that the game’s designers controlled, and create your very own levels for you and/or friends to traverse. Making it even more exciting was the option to then upload your created levels online so that the whole world could enjoy your mad and wild fabrications. In fact, over 2 million player created levels were uploaded to the net from LittleBigPlanet. If that’s the case and LittleBigPlanet 2 is even bigger, then what is being offered on the plate this time! Time to tell.
Journey of a Sackboy
LittleBigPlanet 2 picks up where the last left off and continues the story of your very own Sackperson. When an inter-dimensional vacuum cleaner known as “The Sucker” mysteriously appears in the skies of Little Big Planet things go awry for our hero. The evil vacuum cleaner begins to suck up everything on the planet and in the process captures our little Sackperson. In order to escape and save Little Big Planet, Sackboy must team up with a resistance, known as “The Alliance,” against The Sucker in order to stop the destruction of his/her home.
This time round you won’t just have the ability to create levels, but you’ll be given the power to create entire games! That’s right folks, your eyes aren’t deceiving you, LittleBigPlanet 2’s creation tools just got a hell of a lot bigger! You will now have a higher level of gameplay control available to use at your whim. You change the rules of any level and re-imagine the game. No longer does it have to be a 2.5D platform game, you can now create racing, flying or shooting games. You will have access to resetting the control buttons meaning that you can connect them to any object that you like. And with the ability to link levels together, you can finish one and then go straight into the next, making it truly feel like your own game.
All Those Little Things Just Got a Hell of a Lot Bigger!
You can also use an improved creation tool to invent new “Sackbots,” the equivalent of Little Big Planet’s enemies. They are NPCs (Non-Playable Characters) and are controlled by a new and advanced AI system. However, when creating them you can programme almost anything into them, such as weak points, AI routines or patrols. They can also be customised in the same way as your Sackperson, with the option to choose their material, colour and accessories.
There are also new multiplayer abilities that have been included, allowing you to add scoring, life meters and game types, such as action/adventure, puzzles, sports etc, that help to make the game more social and competitive when playing with your friends. And to make the game even more interesting is the inclusion of a movie cut-scene maker that allows you to not only create your own stories but also share them online with the improved SHARE component (this allows you to search, watch and show off countless player created levels online with people across the world).
Players of the first LittleBigPlanet will be happy to know that LittleBigPlanet 2 will be backwards compatible. This means that you will be able to import or access all the levels that you created in the first game into the second. So if you owned the first LittleBigPlanet and invented a level that you though was really the best thing even made, then you can still play it in the a new and improved game of your own.
Little Disk, Big World
So as if LittleBigPlanet didn’t do a good enough job in giving players the ability and option to be as creatively free as they want, Sony have now seemed to have outdone themselves and taken it a step further. Well, not really a step further, more like one giant leap further! If you loved the first game, then there is no doubt that you will want to buy this one. And if you haven’t played the first… then why not? Don’t you like being creative? Don’t you like being in control? Well if you don’t you can still play the levels already designed by the developers. All in all, LittleBigPlanet 2 looks to be the paradise of all you imaginative and artistic people out there!
