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Source: Media Molecule via Joystiq

Image: Joystiq

A recent update on the PlayStation Blog said that invites had only gone out to active members of the European LBP community and would be coming to the U.S. and Canada “in a few weeks.” That doesn’t sound too bad, but I can see your rage building as I type this.

Come August 17th, players will be able to run around as yet more characters from the Marvel Universe. Magneto, The Hulk, Green Goblin, The Punisher (above) and Storm will all be available to download. There’s more images after the jump.

Sony have announced that Sackboy will be making an appearance in United Front’s ModNation Racers. A certain amount of copies of the game will be marked with a sticker, indicating that the game includes a code to unlock Sackboy as a playable racer.

Sony seems to really be pushing the pre-order campaign for this game. Sackboy is the latest in a list of Sony characters to be included, depending on where you pre-order. This has only been confirmed for North America, but I’d be surprised if us Europeans didn’t see it too.

Check out the new trailer, featuring Sackboy, after the jump.

After selling over three million copies and with two million user created levels, LittleBigPlanet is one of the PS3′s premiere titles, so it only seems right that Sony made this acquisition. Their induction into the larger PlayStation family does mean that MM are no longer an independent developer but, Sony Worldwide Studios’ Senior VP, Michael Denny has promised that the team will still be supported. Saying: “Media Molecule will simply continue to make great games. Welcoming Media Molecule into the PlayStation family will allow us to better support their future titles and ambitions.”

This announcement also means there should be even more good things to come for LittleBigPlanet fans –  and it’d be nice too see them working on some new franchises too. That said, there’s still a lot Media Molecue want to do with Sackboy and Co so it looks like they’ll  still be focused on LBP for some time.

The costume features the Italian assassin’s cloak, tunic, glove, hidden blade, collar and breeches. You don’t have to wait long for it either, this costume is going to be available when the PlayStation Store updates later today for £1.59/$1.99.

Of course, the patch will be free of charge and will also add a few new tweaks and fix some bugs in a usual ‘patch-like’ way. The network code will be adapted, which will hopefully solve the lag problems that plague the game currently. There’ll also be updates to the save structure, your profile space and you’ll now have the ability to back up your levels too.

For more information click here.

Source: TheSixthAxis

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

Thankfully IGN grabbed the box art, so there is some kind of proof. Amazon were listing this at $50 ($10 cheaper than the original) and the box art quotes that there is $30 of downloadable content on the disc. We don’t know if this means content that Media Molecule have created or if it’s some of the community’s best levels.

There’s very little to go off from the listing, here’s hoping that Sony/MM announce something soon.