I am awfully sorry for the shocking lack of any kind of blogging activity recently, especially after the theme of my last post, but I have been very poorly. I even took time off of work. But I am back now, with an aim to staying that way and I have much to discuss.
That is…the amount of gaming I have been getting in since I went off work. Although for the first few days I did nothing but lie under a duvet like a disgusting over heated blob, however, once I have started on the lovely drugs the doctor gave me I had perked up enough to be able to hold a controller once more. Most of my time has been spent in the land of Little Big Planet because, for my sins, I can search for levels made about tea and cake and Alice in Wonderland, and this makes me happy. But I would be doing Little Big Planet a great disservice if I conveyed it as a childish game of sugary nonsense because at its heart it is a platformer with substance and even played at its most basis level it is one of the greatest games of this generation and with its downloadable content and its ability for creativity it has far exceeded the platform genre.
My favourite aspect of the game is that the story mode is such a small element of the game itself. You play through Little Big Planet relatively easily, opening up its worlds as you complete levels until you ultimately come face to face with the boss. It cannot compact down to more than 10 hours of game play and when I say 10 hours I mean of course of MY game play. I am confident that most gamers will finish it with greater speed and accuracy.
What I love about the game is that it is the Little Big Planet community and their subsequently created levels that I can literally spend hours playing. With home designers producing original and challenging levels that push the games physics engine to its limit and even, with the case of a level played recently, break it. The level in question had your little sackboy (see image below) jumping across platforms that were given more or less gravity than the average amount used in the game. I have no notion how this was achieved but hearted the incredibly talented designer and went on to play more of his levels. I think that Media Molecule, the game designers, have taken a very unique approach with LBP because although they have given us a game to play and complete, it contains a game within a game and in my opinion, because of the possibilities with level creation within the community, it is a game that has no closing scene. It is the players’ own imaginations that act as the only hindrance to Little Big Planet, granted with downloads and patches, reigning supreme as a never ending platformer of wonder. As well as being bloody cute, mind blowingly tactile and fun to play and I haven’t even mentioned the exuberant nature of the multiplayer aspect!
Sackboy in his little pod
To Shanshu 