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.

Well it looks like fans may finally have confirmation that LBP2 is in the works. Electronic artist Ochre announced on his Twitter he had licensed one of his tracks (that can be listened to here) for the game. This was swiftly picked up on by IGN and marks the game’s second accidental mention in under a month.

As expected, Sony have refused to comment on the ‘announcement’ giving that age old line that the company “does not comment on rumors and speculation”. If this sequel does turn out to be real – it seems pretty damn confirmed at this point – then here’s hoping that all of the proposed ‘backwards compatibility’ features. Alex Evans better not break any promises, ‘cos in the process he’d be breaking sackboy’s little sack-heart and we don’t want that.

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.

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

The best thing about this (and the reason I shall be buying it) is that it has $30 of extra content. This content consists of some of the stuff released on the PlayStation Store, namely the MGS pack, as well as new content created by some of the top community level creators.

This sounds really cool and something I can see a lot of people picking up, especially if they haven’t taken the plunge or are buying one of those new PS3 Slim’s. The game will be available at the regular price of $60 (£40+) on September 8th.

With the PS3 Slim launching on the first week of September, is this a possible pack in? I think so.

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.

Also, Brazier Co. have been drafted in to create “PVC Figurines” of Sackboy as well as a “limited edition themed version”. These various Sack-things will be available in the above territories in October.

It’s not only Sackboy that’s getting the trinket treatment, GB Eye will be creating a bunch of posters based on various Sony franchises. No date has been set for this, but i’d be surprised if we didn’t see them before the end of the year. Nothing has been announced for the US as of yet, that said, it’s the internet. Everything can be imported.

The picture topping this post comes courtesy of, TPSN community manager, Ad’s. He was one of the lucky few to recieve a plush Sackboy courtesy of Media Molecule. I know, not fair.

As a somewhat related aside. The ‘Zero Punctuation’ Imp is also available as an 8″ plushy (above) here. You gotta love Yhatzee.

The PSP version of LBP will contain 30 levels – 20 levels less than the home console version. That said, it makes sense that the game would be smaller due to the technical limitations imposed when developing for the PSP.

To be honest, does it really matter? As long as the game is good, I think that the size of the game won’t be an issue. Plus, there’s all of those created ones to play too.

Oh Media Molecule, how you tease. You’re not like those folks in Japan though, they seem to like to spill the beans.

As you can tell from the image above, the LittleBigGhostbusters costumes have been revealed to the world courtesy of Japan and I think I like them. All of the costumes seem pretty inventive. You’ve got a Ghostbusters uniform (I presume with new hair do’s) as well as, the infamous, Stay Puft Marshmallow Man and, what can only be described as, a Slimer hat. The ‘No Ghosts’ costume that MM showed off at the beginning of the week is also in there, a pretty cool addition if you ask me.

Now, even though these costumes are cool, I still want more. MM have included a new weapon, the trap but that really doesn’f fill the ghostbustin’ void. I, like almost every other LBP/Ghostbusters fan, want new Ghostbusters themed levels. Come on MM, make it happen!

Sony are yet to confirm if this content will be coming to other territories next week, but it seems pretty likely.

[Via Siliconera]

That’s right, those guys over at Media Molecule have impressed again with their next array of costumes announced for LittleBigPlanet.  The latest license to be given the Sack-treatment is Ghostbusters.

The popular 80′s movies have been given a new leese of life by videogames in 2009 and I think LittleBigPlanet might just be the most genius…if MM can deliver more than just costumes. We said this about the Team ICO costumes, but i think this might be more important.

With the UK based studio saying that new levels were a priority, what better way to kick that off than with a Ghostbusters level pack. I know you agree.

Media Molecule we, the people, need more than just costumes from this pack!