"LittleBigPlanet 3" continues with the same wacky art style of its predecessors, with levels that riff on haunted houses, Hollywood and outer space, to name a few. (In-game screenshot)
"LittleBigPlanet 3" continues with the same wacky art style of its predecessors, with levels that riff on haunted houses, Hollywood and outer space, to name a few. (In-game screenshot)
The creative mode of LittleBigPlanet 3 is packed with so many options that it's fair to say this may be the most robust set of creation tools on a console. If you can dream it up, it can probably be created in the creative mode. (In-game screenshot)
There are so many options in the "LittleBigPlanet 3" creative mode that it's nice to have a robust series of tutorials that run down the major components within. (In-game screenshot)
The community remains the strongest part of "LittleBigPlanet 3." Even though the game is new on shelves, there are already hundreds of levels, player-made games within a game and a very healthy online community. (In-game screenshot)
The campaign mode in "LittleBigPlanet 3" is actually quite fun to play through this time around, thanks to a better level mapping system and the reduction of the floaty jump controls found in previous games. (In-game screenshot)
We are well into the holiday gaming season, that glorious time of year where every publisher on the face of the planet has pushed out a game to try to cash in on your Christmas cheer.
While it’s not exactly accurate to call perennial platformer “LittleBigPlanet” an unknown quantity, its third and most recent installment is in danger of being overlooked by the Christmas shopping crowd.
It can be confusing out there for non-gamers looking to fill the stockings of their electronically-minded loved ones, so let me help. If you have an owner of a PlayStation 4 on your “to-buy” list, “LittleBigPlanet 3” is probably the perfect gift.
I say “probably” only to hedge my bets against those people who are just adverse to fun, sunshine and happiness. Everybody else should be able to at least glean some enjoyment out of “LittleBigPlanet 3.”
Don’t believe me? Let’s talk about the types of gamers that will love this game. There are the single-player fans, who just want a game to sit down and relax with after a long day. “LittleBigPlanet 3” delivers exactly that with a tremendous single-player campaign that finally fixes some of the issues with the previous games. In the other installments, the single-player modes were dull affairs that served more or less only as a gateway to the creative mode.
While players will still have to play through the single-player mode to unlock the widgets, stickers and doo-dads that make creative mode so expansive, the base game is actually fun this time around. This time around, the game borrows some elements from the “Metroidvania” style of games.
Certain areas won’t be immediately accessible until you unlock a certain power-up or character. Some elements of this were present in the past, but here it’s used to much greater affect. When you know you may have to come back to a level, you tend to enjoy playing it more than just wonder how the heck you can grab that one power-up.
Oh, and the much-maligned floaty jump physics of the past games has been reduced significantly. It’s still not quite as tight as any of the Mario games, but the cheap “feel” of the past is gone. In past “LittleBigPlanet” titles, I played the single-player mode only for as long as it took to nab enough prizes to be able to recreate my artistic vision in creative mode. Now, I genuinely look forward to playing through the entire campaign.
Players can bring a friend to run through the campaign with, or they can just connect to a random player over the network. In fact, some of the puzzles in the campaign require two players to complete, so multi-player aficionados may enjoy this game even more than crotchety olds like me. I tested the online components extensively and the netcode seems rock solid. I never once had a drop or lag issue and the online community is enormous, so there was never a long wait for a partner.
That leads us to what has always been the real strength of “LittleBigPlanet” — the community and creative modes. For those unfamiliar with the series, “LittleBigPlanet” revolves around a creative mode that gives players nearly unlimited tools to build and design not only their own levels, but entire games within the game. “LittleBigPlanet 3” offers an astounding array of tools for budding game designers to play around with. If it can be imagined it probably can be created here. Once you’re finished creating your own level, or racing game, or role-playing action adventure, you can upload it the PlayStation Network and share it with the world.
The community that has evolved around this feature is astoundingly large. There are hundreds of custom games players can join, offering up nearly an infinite amount of entertainment, even once the campaign is long completed. Even if you never touch the creative mode personally, you can spend hours just seeing how people have used the the “LittleBigPlanet” toolset to create some truly impressive stuff.
Finally, this is one of the rare games I can honestly recommend for gamers of all ages. The art style and narration skews a bit young, but there is plenty of challenge in the creative modes for adults to enjoy too. Between the excellent campaign and the increasingly-complex creative mode, there is enough content here to easily justify a purchase, either for yourself or for that special gamer in your life.
Bottom line: “LittleBigPlanet 3” is easily among the best games of the year.
Grade: A+ Platform: PlayStation 4 (Cross play on the Vita) Rating: E for Everyone online: littlebigplanet.playstation.com
