Getting Started with Little Big Planet

I finally picked up a copy of Little Big Planet a few weeks ago but have been so busy with the holidays and playing Gran Turismo 5 that I haven't had much of a chance to dig into it yet. I pre-ordered LBP2 last month and felt that I ought to explore the first title before the second, so I have spent some time playing this weekend. The game's idea is simple, clever and adorable. The cutesy arts and crafts visual style fits perfectly with the concept of a limitless dream world and I can see exactly why the game was such an enormous hit. It's absolutely brilliant in theory, but it's quite frustrating in practice.

Because the game is so open ended, it's often difficult to tell how to proceed within a level. But the real trouble is with the controls - there are so many possible actions for each sack person and with each object that I find myself often unclear on how to proceed. This results in a lot of trial and error, lots of laughing, and lots of cursing at the television. But mostly, I spend a lot of time failing to jump over coals and spikes and noxious gas. There are three planes of depth in the game that allow for a mostly linear progression with some variety and layers. It also causes me to misjudge the exact location of platforms and fire pits. The levels that are heavy in jumping have been causing me a lot of trouble due to my poor depth perception.

To take a break from frying my cute and crispy little sackgirl I went through many of the tutorials in the create mode. I had no idea just how many tutorials there were! Because there are so many types of objects and so many ways to customize them, the tutorials have a lot of ground to cover. Normally I would find this tedious and unpleasant, but the tutorials and menus are narrated by Stephen Fry, making them great fun! At one point he even says "wibbly wobbly" which made me giggle. I hope to finish up the tutorials tomorrow, though I'm not certain how many might remain. It takes quite a while to build levels, but I'm enjoying the process. I hope to build a couple of fun little maze and puzzle levels without pain and death.

All in all, it's a really fantastic title. As I get better at judging distances and depths I find myself really enjoying Little Big Planet. It's great practice for the new title when it releases in a few weeks.