Don’t get us wrong, LittleBigPlanet 2 is a pretty great game. It follows a tongue in cheek but simple narrative, where your Sackboy (and possibly your friends Sackboys) is on a mission to defeat the evil Negativatron, and on this journey you encounter several new amusing and often times interesting characters. Progression is virtually the same as the previous game, where you go to different worlds collecting items and traversing dangerous traps and inventive enemies, then most of the time defeating a boss at the end of each world. LittleBigPlanet 2 however introduces breaks in its traditional platforming gameplay by introducing different genres. One minute you’ll be going through a level as you would in a traditional platformer, then the next you’ll suddenly be flying a Bee and dodging bullets in a mini-bullet hell inspired level. LittleBigPlanet 2 does a good job in breaking the pace and making it feel fresh, but this is severely limited by the fact that the game suffers inconsistent level design. There are moments where the game shines and quite brightly, where everything plays its part and things simply flow. But then LittleBigPlanet 2 will simply hit a brick wall, where its use of physics, platforming and general gameplay mechanics go somewhat haywire. It’s certainly no glitch, it’s simply part of the design, but it’s a frustrating endeavour when your Sackboy simply refuses to jump properly regardless of you doing it many times over in the past.
Hobo's unite and build a cardboard castle.
This isn’t just in the jumping mechanics either. New additions in LittleBigPlanet 2 such as the grappling hook are more annoying than they are enjoyable much of the time as it’s extremely difficult to control. The physics behind the use of the object is whacky and flat out weird, which can make for some unnecessarily annoying moments in the game. Most items are pretty good though and respond to the action you inputted accordingly, but one can’t help but feel that if LittleBigPlanet 2 ditched some of its clumsiness, it’d be a lot better in its progression. It doesn’t help that some levels are so complex in design now that it requires a fair amount of precision in areas (especially if you’re a completionist) either, so the fundamental mechanics behind the game are inconsistent at best.
Even robots look away from her. She's that ugly.
It’s not all disappointments however. LittleBigPlanet 2 proudly displays its levels of creativity with some amazing tools that are shown off in the Single Player portion, and this ranges from Level Linking (directly accessing another level through a previous one), entire cut-scenes made from the toolset, Manipulation of the camera to essentially make a whole new genre, and much much more. Media Molecule have delivered on their promise to up the ante with LittleBigPlanet 2 in the sense that you can almost literally create anything you wanted, and that in itself is a brilliant addition. The only issue that lies with the tools though is that they are still a little tricky to use just like in the first game, so creating something ambitious and complex can be a task both daunting and tiring. It’s also something of an acquired taste too because not everyone wants to create, so much of the value of LittleBigPlanet 2 is lost if you’re not into the creative side of things. The game still holds a lot of value through its near infinite replayability however with the fact that the community is constantly creating and sharing levels, and better yet all LittleBigPlanet levels can be played too, so there’s a lot to look into once the single player portion is complete.
Presentation has always been one of LittleBigPlanet's strongest areas, so it’s no surprise then that LittleBigPlanet 2 holds true to the originals polish and furthers it through even more refinements. Colours are vivid and used effectively to integrate into the levels, setting moods ranging from mysterious and calm to chaotic and out of control. Light effects are also used to superb effect, with some areas being used for gameplay purposes in that you must use the dynamic lights to aid you in finding your way around the level. There are a lot of improvements both technically and artistically in LittleBigPlanet 2, with the technical side obviously taking techniques from other benchmark titles such as Killzone 2 and Uncharted 2, and the art side simply improving over the cutesy nature of the original. With that said though LittleBigPlanet 2 can sometimes suffer from being a little too colourful at points where backgrounds are almost distracting towards the gameplay. We’re pretty sure it wasn’t intentional for Sackboy to almost blend into the background because there are so many colours flying around. It’s a minor niggle of ours but something to take note, as when we witnessed it, it was incredibly noticeable.
More orange than Jersey Shore.
Sound wise the game takes cues from the original once again with charming and relaxing tunes, all attuned to the mood of the level. Music is also much more dynamic and varied this time round, with Media Molecule creating an entire audio synthesiser in their game which allows for many different types of music, both in creation and play. Voice acting has taken a much bigger role this time round too and it’s done very well, with Stephen Fry making a return as the narrator, and other roles being executed very well on an overall scale. While the sound design is certainly nothing to absolutely go bonkers over, it suits the game well and provides good cues when needed.
LittleBigPlanet 2 feels like a decent game trying to be amazing, but struggles to keep its composure when up on stage. It has moments of glory and success, but is then dragged down by inconsistencies and the curse of its flimsy mechanics. For every brilliant moment you also have your frustrating one, and this is LittleBigPlanet 2’s ultimate downfall. As a tool, the game is absolutely worth your time and money as there’s so much to do, share and see that you can lose yourself in its complex nature. If however you’re simply looking for a good platformer then you might come out disappointed, as LittleBigPlanet 2 is a little short lived in that regard. It has the replay value available which is dictated by the community’s persistence in development, but if the first annoyed you with its mechanics and you were looking for a big jump in that department, then you’ll be sadly disappointed. Wonderful tool, average game.
, so go figure.
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