It’s not about proving something, conquering something, or getting to the end of the level – though all these things still have their place. In LittleBigPlanet ‘playing’ comes close to the sort of un-self-conscious messing around we get up to when we’re kids. ![]() We often talk about ‘playing’ a game, but often that term covers a multitude of experiences. The classic run, jump and grab gameplay comes straight from the Mario tradition, but the way the physics works on balloons, bungie cords, skateboards, springs, rope swings, dangling girders and mine trains makes all the old clichés feel fresh once again. You might have seen physics at work in driving games or FPS games before, but you’ve never seen a real-time physics engine employed in a platform game with as much energy and imagination as it is here.Īnd this is the key to LittleBigPlanet’s reinvention of the 2D platformer. Get hold of a wooden horse, give it a push, then watch as it responds to changes of slope and speed. Get your sackboy to grab and drag a sacking box and it moves and threatens to topple with a convincing impression of weight, friction and momentum. It helps that every surface and every object seems to have lifelike physical properties. The gorgeous detailed textures and naturalistic lighting make all this made-up nonsense seem strangely, tangibly real. On the other hand, the game and its world feel imbued with this wonderful physicality. On the one hand, it all seems weirdly home-made, with an aesthetic that’s one-third jumble sale, one-third art class and one-third Bagpuss. I know it sounds odd, but it’s actually as close as I can get to how LittleBigPlanet looks and plays. They’ve then arranged these bits into levels and somehow given you control of a little sackcloth puppet – a sackboy – who can run around them. ![]() Just imagine that somebody has spent hours making the platforms, springs, mechanisms and enemies that you might see in your average Mario game out of spare bits of wood, modelling clay, brick, cloth, stuffing and general bric-a-brac. You probably want a few more details first.
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