Review :: LittleBigPlanet (PSP)

I loved the original LittleBigPlanet, everything about it just appealed to me. The classic platforming mechanics, the whole creative aspect, everything. When they announced it would be coming to the PSP, I was pretty excited. Albeit, illogically excited. I wanted it to work, but didn’t think it could be pulled off. Oh, they more than pulled it off.

Of course there are differences between this portable planet and it’s big brother, but Studio Cambridge (who worked in conjunction with Media Molecule) have captured the essence of LBP and made one hell of a portable game.

LittleBigPlanet works great on the PSP, in fact, it surprised me. The structure of the game suits a handheld down to the ground. The levels are quick to play through whilst still remaining fun, something a good portable game needs. This means you can play it in short chunks making it the perfect game to play whilst your waiting for the bus, cooking dinner or any other boring, menial tasks.

I was surprised to find the game does have it’s own story. Personally, I thought a lot of the stuff would be re-hashed from the PS3 version, so my hat goes off to the guys and gals in Cambridge for that one. Like it’s full console counterpart, there is an over arching story (yes, really) and, also like it’s full console counterpart, it’s really good. Of course, you can choose to skip through the finer points of LittleBigLore, but I recommend you try and follow along. I mean, come on, it’s not exactly the work of Oscar Wilde. It does a good job of tying everything together quite nicely, but following it isn’t necessary to have a good experience. I think the devs will be the first to admit that people aren’t playing LBP for it’s story, it’s the fantastic gameplay we’re all here for. That’s another thing LBP PSP has in common with the PS3 version, it’s gameplay.

Essentially it’s a two-dimensional plaformer, a genre/game mechanic that works really well on the PSP. It’s simple, but effective. To my knowledge, gameplay-wise, everything that was in the PS3 version is here too. Another massive accomplishment of the dev-team. You can run, jump, grab and sticker your way through the mass of levels contained here, all of the mechanics working perfectly. I didn’t notice any graphical issues either, another nice surprise. I thought there might be a few, given the size of the game, but it held up perfectly.

Speaking of graphics, LittleBigPlanet is one of the finest looking games I’ve played on the PSP. Sure it’s a simple looking game, but everything looks really sharp and as it should. It’s obviously not got the graphical fidelity of the PS3 original, but it looks really good and would doubt people could find many better looking games on the system.

Aside from the story levels, there’s also the promise of a massive community. LittleBigPlanet started the “Play. Create. Share” ‘brand’ and that’s expanded onto the PSP. Not only is there a full single player mode in LBP PSP, the customisation options have also transferred over. Granted, this could never have been as expansive as it was on the PS3, but it’s still pretty fully featured. Players can customise their Sackperson and, the bread and butter of LittleBigPlanet, the level creator is in there too. Here’s where the share part comes in. LBP PSP has the potential to have a really good online community, and I hope it’ll be one that can be as big as the PS3 one.

Players can create levels and upload them to the server for others to play which means that the game could have a constant stream of content to play through once you’ve finished the campaign. Downloading levels couldn’t be easier, just click on the level you want, download it, play it and rate it. This can be done as many times as you want as all the levels are stored on the memory unit. Similarly, created levels no longer have a limit to the amount of stuff you can put in there. All of your levels are now stored on your memory unit, so you can have as much stuff as your PSP can hold. A terrific addition.

Of course, a game like this doesn’t come without it’s flaws. I got through the single player really quickly. Whilst it makes sense for levels to be short on a handheld, you might feel like you’ve not had enough when it comes to the end. Of course, this could be remedied with additional levels from the community. However, there aren’t that many there yet, so people might see this as a problem. Hopefully the community will get behind it and we’ll have a lot of stuff to do.

The game is one of the best on the PSP, hopefully Sony will support it as much as the original PS3 game. I think a few more story based levels wouldn’t go amiss. That said, if you have a PSP and want something to play over the holidays, you won’t go far wrong here.

8.9/10

Review :: LittleBigPlanet (PSP), 10.0 out of 10 based on 1 rating

Popularity: 2% [?]

News

Images