Review: Little Big Planet

When I first got my Playstation 3 … this was the big game to talk about. This was considered the unofficial mascot of the PS3 … and still is. When you think of Sackboy and get past the perverted thoughts, you think of this game. So, when it came out I wanted to give it a shot. It was also a game where I bypassed my normal “rent on Thursday night” rule and just grab it if I found it – only because the rental store I went to only had one copy of it.

So, having played it and eventually buying it … is it safe to say that this is the savior of the PS3? Is it as revolutionary as it was made out to be and will forever impact the gaming industry?

Probably not.

One last LBP level on the way

I am apparently a glutton for punishment … two posts ago I said how I was done with making levels in LittleBigPlanet because of the lack of response yet here I am almost done with another one.

I’ll be releasing one more level to see how that goes. While the first one was a platformer where I was getting used to everything, this is a more points-oriented, fast-paced level where I use what Media Molecule is offering to us. From my view, it’s pretty short, but that’s because I kind of speed through everything but the best way to describe this is that it’s a combination of those little minigames that the game offers on the side – just with the opportunity to make a crapload of points.

I’ll see how this one goes since I’m thinking it’ll get better results than my first one. I plan on releasing it publicly on Saturday night but I’m thinking about giving proper previews to people who play my level or visit this site.

On Thursday night I’ll be updating my first level with a score bubble that has a key in it – it’ll give access to that level because while it’ll be published on Thursday, it’ll be locked. The key will easily be found in my first level – it’ll just be at the end so all you have to do is play through it.

I’m still at only 10 plays on my first level, but when I republish it places my level back on the “new level” list. Looking further into it, people do this a lot. So I’m going to see how this one goes … I’ll be hoping for about 25 plays within the next three weeks. If that doesn’t happen, I’m done … but if it gets a tremendous amount of plays … then maybe I’ll work on some other ideas I have brewing in my head.

First level results were unfortunate

So, it’s been about a week, and my level has only been played five times – and one was by my wife. And worst of all that’s probably going to stay the same unless I do tons of shameful promotion or they find my level through this blog or word of mouth. Which leads me to the sad conclusion that building a level is overall a worthless feature.

Smart idea and genius concept? Definitely – but I’m a man who tries to balance my time and get the same amount of results that I put into it. It’s why I don’t play MMORPG’s – one is because I [think I] have a small enough addiction that it would eventually eat all of my time – but because even a simple quest can take can take an hour or two to do … so if I only complete two or three quests in the span of three hours, I’ll feel like I’ve wasted my time.

For example … play Resistance 2 … I can level up my multiplayer status one level a day … so if I can pull that off within an hour or two, I feel like I’ve accomplished something during my time.

So, with a week behind me and only about five visits, I think I’ll pull the plug on doing another level. Because it’s really a waste of time. I wish it weren’t – but it is. When your level is published, you have a window of about 12 hours where your level is under the “New” category. After that, it’s lost in the abyss of other new levels, most likely never to be seen again.

Additionally, because the entire method of level design is simple yet complicated, it can add a lot of frustration to your day when a simple task should easily be done but it doesn’t work the way you want it to. Plus, you will undo a lot of things and that just gets really frustrating after awhile. So after spending a week or two working on a relatively simple level only to have terrible results, the result doesn’t justify the work – especially if you’re not getting paid.

Was it fun? Sure … but this is a feature that is meant to be viewed by other people. Heavenly Sword is fun, but its intention is strictly towards the user where the LBP level creation’s main intention is to have it be played by other users. But, like Yahtzee said from his Zero Punctuation review … unless your level is the rare instance that gets a lot of plays or is based on a Mario/Nintendo theme, then you’re pretty much out of luck.

First Little Big Planet Level Published

Quick note: This is NOT my level

It’s out there for all to mercilessly decimate with low ratings and negative comments. If you do a text search under the community search option for “InvaderDem” my level should be the first one that pops up. It’ll be called “First! – Little Weird Level” and I can say that the experience of finally publishing the level is gratifying.

I’m already ready to start the groundwork on my next level but impatiently have to wait about a week to see exactly the response I get from the level. That’s not to say I want good reviews – I just want visits. I want to know that people played the level that I worked hard on – despite how generic it may be.

Unfortunately, it may not be the way I had hoped.

How I love creating levels in Little Big Planet

When I first got Little Big Planet, it was because I liked the concept of the game. There was no real objective – sure you had survival challenges and all that jazz, but the core point of the game was to have fun. Games like Resistance 2, Resident Evil and Condemned aren’t as straight-forward. In those games, the point is to have fun, but their main focus is to have your character survive. Little Big Planet really doesn’t make that much sense that’s why it comes off as a fun game.

It’s also oddly peaceful. The game has a light-hearted feel to it that you don’t see in many games. Hell, it’s hard to get irritated when your Sackboy has to kill himself and he does that by holding his breath and builds up pressure until he pops into nothing but a few confetti strings. It also helps that you hear a nice little “pop” when you do explode.

And when I first got it, I thought to myself that there would be no way I could create a level. I was clearly wrong.