The latest LittleBigPlanet game is the third major title in the series and sees sackboy return for a new adventure. But in this game he is not alone and is joined by three new friends Swoop, Oddsock and Toggle. Players are able to now play as all characters during different parts of the game and also experience new ways of playing LittleBigPlanet as previous titles limited you to only using Sackboy. This is a fun game, but it’s also a game that I think is more for kids and actually it’s one of the few games on the PS4 that I think is purely for kids to play (so many shooters these days).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0Fuk7PImjM
The plot of LittleBigPlanet is fairly simple in that Sackboy comes into contact with a very misguided character known as Newton. Newton is obsessed with creating things and taking over Bunkum. He plans to unleash the Titans which will put the future of Bunkum in grave danger. This leaves it up to Sackboy to save the world, but going up against the Titans is a most difficult task, so he’ll need some new friends to do it.
I found the story of the game to be fairly good, I mean it is a game for kids so I’m not looking for something so deep here and for me the story is satisfying enough. It’s sort of like the level of storytelling you get from the old Crash Bandicoot games, Doctor Cortex would want to take over the world and you’ll need your friends to try and stop his evil plan. It’s not an entirely original story and many games can be said to follow similar plot lines, but but it’s very light hearted and seems to be all in good fun, so I’m happy with it. But is the game fun?
I would say that LittleBigPlanet 3 is actually quite a lot of fun. I played the game through mostly on single player and found it to be enjoyable. Some of the challenges can get a bit difficult at times but it’s not overly so that it gets frustrating, which is good for kids I suppose. Multiplayer is a bit more enjoyable, although I do prefer to play with a person in the room with me so you can actually see and chat to them and that’s a lot of fun to do in LittleBigPlanet 3. There’s also online multiplayer so you can have your online friends in the game with you and I played with a few random people but I didn’t really get into it (I also kept timing out). I just prefer having my friends with me I guess much more as that’s how I played all the previous ones to and all these kids games when I was younger. Also the game constantly asks you if you want to play online or on your own throughout the story mode, I found this dialogue box a bit annoying and most of the time when I went to play online to try it out, I didn’t find anyone.
The game also has a lot of new gameplay elements that comes from the new characters. While most will be familiar with Sackboy who is the main character, he’s limited compared to the rest of the playable characters. Sackboy does have tools though and he can use them in the game to deal with certain situations. These include such things as as the Illuminator which when pointed at picture frames lights them up to give you certain prizes. The Pumpinator which you can use to either suck air in to bring objects towards Sackboy or to blow air out and and this will blow objects away from Sackboy. There’s the Hook Hat which allows Sackboy to grapple onto wires and glide along them (kind of like he’s Batman) and there’s the Blink Ball which was my favourite item. The Blink Ball allows you to fire a ball that when it hits certain areas on the level allows you to blink (teleport) to that area, but you can also use it to kill enemies who might be in your way by firing it at them. Sackboy also has boost boots that allow him to double jump. All these items are unlocked as you go but they are interesting as they all provide different challenges and are all used in a fun way.
The new characters are a lot different to Sackboy, they don’t use items for the gameplay differences but instead act in diffent ways. Toggle is a big brute type of character, but if you press R1 he “toggles” and shrinks. So he can, depending on his size fit into small areas if he’s small and if he’s large he can move object around. Swoop is like a bird, Swoop can fly and glide through levels, Swoop is the easiest to play I found. Oddsock is like a dog, he runs fast, can jump far and can parry to get up a wall. I found Toggle to be the hardest to use as his levels were very difficult but in actual fact these characters don’t appear throughout the whole game. Actually you don’t get to play with them all that much, I did think going in that you would be interchanging constantly between them all, but actually they have levels just for each character and these levels are kind of minimal. Most of the time you’ll be playing as Sackboy, but these new characters are fun and because the gameplay is completely different with them, it’s a nice change of pace when you do use them and I liked that.
In terms of the appearance and look of the game, it’s still LittleBigPlanet, it’s super cute and you can customise your outfits however you like. Or you can just use the premade ones it’s up to you. It has really bright colours and on the PS4 it looks very sharp and nice. Although I didn’t see much difference in the graphics compared to the previous PS3 titles I have played so it kind of looks the same. But the game does look good and I I’ve always liked the LittleBigPlanet art style.
The music is also a good point. Levels have remixed versions of popular songs and there are many original LittleBigPlanet compositions that play in the background as you play. All the music during the Marlon Random stage of the game was excellent and I really enjoyed that level of the game overall, it’s probably my favourite of the places you visit. The music is always on the high notes and every sound in the game is cheerful and fun. If you’re a very cheery type of person this game is probably for you as its tone is nothing but smiles and it’s just a happy person’s type of game. It’s nice to have that sometimes.
LittleBigPlanet 3 has a few famous voice actors such as Hugh Laurie (House M.D) who voices Newton, Nolan North who is the voice of Marlon Random who is a character that you will meet along the way and there’s also Stephen Fry who narrates the entire game. The voice acting is good, although sometimes I felt with the game that the characters were talking at me and nagging me to do what was necessary to complete a level, such as opening the menu to look at it or whatever they needed me to do, they can be irritating at times when they keep repeating the same thing over and over.
One of the other things that I did like was the car racing and the car jumping jumping stages. There’s a part of the game where you need to construct your own vehicle out of parts you have collected. There is one race and there is one level where you go up a ramp and see how far you can jump. These were fun and I liked building my own things and playing around with it. I enjoyed most the the mini games that I cam across during my time with the story mode.
In terms of the rest of the building it’s all there, I’m not much of a builder and the tutorial for the build mode is very long, but it does teach you a lot about each thing in the game that you can do. There’s a lot to learn with the building and I often forgot what things did by the end of the level. But if you’re into building it’s there for you to enjoy, I prefer just playing on the premade levels.
Overall LittleBigPlanet 3 is exactly what you’d expect it to be and if you are a kid who’s say under 12 or you have kids that are under that age then it’s a game that I think they will enjoy quite a lot. It’s also a good game to have in your collection in case kids happen to come to your home to visit, as you can let them play it and not worry so much about violence in the game or anything like that as it’s very light hearted and cheery. The level’s are good fun and you can play them over and over many times and overall it’s a fun entertaining game. It’s a game made for the kids and even though I’m much older, I still enjoyed it so I can imagine for them it’s a lot of fun.
