{"id":1377,"date":"2008-10-08T22:51:58","date_gmt":"2008-10-09T04:51:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamingwithchildren.com\/?p=1377"},"modified":"2008-10-08T22:51:58","modified_gmt":"2008-10-09T04:51:58","slug":"its-a-little-big-world-afterall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2008\/10\/08\/its-a-little-big-world-afterall\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s a (little) big world afterall"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Playstation 3 exclusive LittleBigPlanet<\/em> does not go on sale until the end of the month, but a few (thousand) lucky people have already been able to play with the beta.\u00a0 As it has been one of my most anticipated titles for Sony’s big black machine, I’m very grateful that I am one of those lucky people.<\/p>\n

Read on for my brief first impressions after a couple hours’ worth of play, and why it made my daughter cry.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It may be hard to categorize LittleBigPlanet<\/em>. On the surface, it’s a 2D (ish) action platform game, a graphically fancy version of the run-and-jump games we’ve all played for years.\u00a0 Start at the start, collect a bunch of objects, and reach the goal.\u00a0 What sets this game apart from practically every other game is the insane amount of customization you and your fellow players can access, directly shaping the game experience.<\/p>\n

You take control of Sackboy, a cute little character that is best described as an organic version of those designer vinyl toys that are so popular these days.\u00a0 Beginning as a brown canvas sack, you’re immediately given the opportunity to customize the little guy, with a variety of eyes, hairstyles, fabrics, clothing, and accessories, and despite his name, you can easily control a Sackgirl instead.\u00a0 As you’re led through the controls, you’re exposed to some of the most charming and whimsical visuals yet seen in a video game, with levels made up of objects that look like the product of some deranged seamstress.\u00a0 Everything has a tangible weight, the game’s physics being responsible for the key gameplay moments, not pre-written scripts.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

You are shown how to apply stickers to various game objects, and you find out that just about everything (including your Sackboy) can be given a wild coat of paint with a few button presses.\u00a0 But it’s when you are given the ability to manipulate game objects themselves, not just their appearance, that the game truly opens up.\u00a0 While the game has its own story mode, the real draw is going to be the practically infinite number of user-created levels and game types.\u00a0 In the week or so that the beta has been available, we’ve already seen mad scientists creating working computers<\/a> from a series of strings and pulleys or recreating the levels of Sonic the Hedgehog<\/em><\/a> and Super Mario Bros<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

But what do I think of it so far?\u00a0 In a word, delightful<\/em>.\u00a0 There are a handful of games that bring me genuine joy when I play, a smile plastered on my face as I watch the action unfold happily, the last two being Katamari Damacy<\/em> and Super Mario Galaxy<\/em>.\u00a0 Little Big Planet brings much the same reaction, I’m just glad to be playing.\u00a0 Not that I got to spend much time with the controller – my three year old was hogging it, as excited as I was to find out I had beta access because she fell in love with the game from the moment we sat and watched the first previews together.\u00a0 This is the first game that has me looking to buy another PS3 controller, because the idea of all of us playing along together, creating our own family adventures, is irresistable.<\/p>\n

So why was Charlotte left in tears?\u00a0 It was bedtime and we had to switch the game off.\u00a0 I’m dreading her reaction when she finds out the beta ends on Sunday..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Playstation 3 exclusive LittleBigPlanet does not go on sale until the end of the month, but a few (thousand) lucky people have already been able to play with the beta.\u00a0 As it has been one of my most anticipated titles for Sony’s big black machine, I’m very grateful that I am one of those […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1377\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}