Have you ever played a game and thought that your brain just exploded because of so much awesome? Something powerful enough that it brings you back to a point where you played a game and wondered that innovation couldn’t get better then this. I would know because it happened to me. Little Big Planet 2 takes all the creativity and somewhat limitless bounds and expands it tenfold. The infinitely expandable game takes you on a joyride of fun, excitement, laughter and challenge into one package.
The game’s story line will course you through 30 levels and has our Sackboy hero trying to defeat a beast that has invaded. You will encounter funny and whacked out characters alongside your adventure who have some great personalities. All the essentials will be learned during the story mode which also include the new moves that have been added. The Adventure Mode isn’t all that memorable for its story but the actual levels definitely are. They are tons of fun, each world feels very unique and ramps up in challenge fairly quick. Flying, grappling, racing and button smashing are some of the things you will encounter from the main quest.
For those who don’t know Little Big Planet 2 at its core plays like the old style 2D mario brothers games. There are three planes of field which are the background, middle and foreground. You can make your Sackboy seamlessly jump between them and will be required to get through some obstacles. Tired of playing alone? The game can also be played with 3 others via online or locally. This is one of those games where you can really meet interesting people while traversing to new unfound places.
Now for the bread and butter which is the Create Mode. Like the first, this game is driven by the possibilities of creativity. This time you can go well beyond stage making and you now have the tools to build and manipulate all sorts of things. We managed to create a stage where the result was to escape what looked like a burning building. While not all that creative it was surprising how much easier this was to do over the first game. All the tutorials are compiled in a list which is easy to navigate on but I will admit that it all does seem a bit intimidating at first. Especially if you check out other users creations. We’ve played a first person shooter, a recreation of legend of zelda, a short film and Windows XP!
Creations are easy to get onto the internet and customize how it is seen. You can make your own planet for people to visit online and get feedback. Other users creations can also be rated, recommended or marked as favorite while viewing them. The beauty is that any stage can also be played online with others (provided that it allows the ability to) and are sometimes preferred that way. Players also have the ability to dress your sackboy up, plenty of pre-made costumes are ready to mix match or you can get crazy and place stickers that are collected from the adventure mode to be used on yourself.
The graphical style has been tweaked since the first and looks alot smoother. Really nice effects with great color and brining things in with the Playstation Eye can be very surprising at the results you get. The game does have some tiny issues too. Some of what annoyed people in the first game will still annoy people now. Sometimes a physics based action on the same object in two separate areas can give you a different effect, even weird at times. Some detection issues can be noted and as massive as the game feels, creating something can have its limitations. There are also some people waiting for Playstation Move support but the game doesn’t have it at the moment and those will have to wait. While the game sounds perfect, it isn’t but these are things you might not even notice, at least not right away.
Little Big Planet 2 is chock full of amazingness. Story Mode, Challenges, Versus Mode (mini games), and a Create Mode that can only be described as “Wow” is some of the best i’ve seen in any game. You can not only create a stage in this game but you can create an entirely new game within it. Media Molecule stepped it up big time and can’t wait for what they have instore for the future. The game breaths life every time you turn it on and we imagine it’s going to stay that way for a good while.
[starreviewmulti id=2 tpl=20]
Overall = 9.1
