Now, Sony's portable is getting a dose of the good stuff with LittleBigPlanet PSP, and, in short, the game is great. I have a Platinum Trophy in LBP PS3, I often double back and play the game for our Level-Lovers feature, and still buy the DLC Media Molecule pumps out for the original title. My expectations were high for LBP PSP, and somehow the game managed to meet, if not surpass them.
Prepare for all sorts of heart-melting visuals in our Video Review.
If you somehow missed the cuteness invasion of '08, the LittleBigPlanet franchise is all about platforming levels – it's a polished, 3D, HD evolution of Mario Bros. You'll pilot an adorable little character named Sackboy through a bevy of missions that have you running, jumping and grabbing from one side of the screen to the other. That's it – you have just three inputs, but the results are anything but simple. Levels have you throwing musical switches to play tunes, leaping through complicated mazes that rotate as you walk, riding floating lanterns into the sky, and so much more. LBP might seem simple on the surface, but where the game shines and where I had the most fun is when a level does something that's completely unexpected and dazzling – and that happens more often than not.
The point to this platfomring adventure is capturing the prize bubbles that give you items to use in your own creations. Yes, you get a blank slate and get to create whatever goofy level you want with the same tools the developers used for the content in the game. When you're done, you can upload the creation to the LBP servers, download other kids' work, play it, take pieces of it, and so on.
Don't get confused; LittleBigPlanet PSP is a completely new entrant in the Sony franchise but will feel very familiar to anyone who picked up the controller and gave Sackboy a chance on the PS3. The main menu is broken up into three planets – an Earth made up of levels from the developers, a moon where you can create your own levels, and a community sphere for you to download levels other folks have created as well as upload your own beauties. This is pretty much the exact same thing we saw last year, but the content is all different.
This time around, the main story has you gathering all the LBP Creators for a massive carnival. This developer content is going to give you more than 30 levels spread across seven themed worlds that will take you from the feet of massive 'roos "Down Under" to hanging from decorative lanterns in "The Orient" to the slopes of "Alpine Run." Although Sony Cambridge took lead on this title and not LBP's creator, Media Molecule, this smattering of missions is once again an unexpected highlight. Catching sheep as they leap into the air before hurling them into a shearer, pulling out a giant ape's teeth, and dodging lasers for a brand new movie are all highlights this time around and they made me thrilled to be in control of Sackboy once again.
Although each world generally has you moving from one side of the screen to the other, deadly contraptions as well as massive spinning wheels hurling you across the screen keep things fresh along with visuals that give each place its own feel. There are point bubbles to collect, prizes to find, hidden levels to uncover, sticker switches to use, costumes to unlock for your character, and so much more.
All of this is leading up to you creating your own levels – or at least basking in all the free levels people have created and uploaded. For me, this was the biggest question mark about this game: how would the PSP handle creating and uploading user content? The answer is that it handles it pretty dang well.
In all honesty, I was a bit disappointed when I first got going with the creation stuff in LBP PSP. Because it's so similar to the PS3 version – the Popit Menu (the little toolbar Sackboy can pull up at any time) is almost exactly the same here and so are the bolts, strings, camera angles and so on – the few changes/limitations of the system standout pretty quickly to seasoned vets. Once you make a line of material with the brush tool, you can't come back and cut parts of it out with the brush tool. The game's nitpicky about letting you build things side to side; there are two planes to the level instead of three this time around, and by the end of my level the game would wig out if I selected one thing connected to all the other stuff and I'd have to watch as everything slowly came tumbling down.
It was a frustrating learning process, but so was creating in the first LittleBigPlanet. The thing about LBP PSP is that it is its own thing; you're going to have to take the basics of what you knew from the last game, toss out the rest of the garbage, and start over. Once I did that, I had a great time.
There's some slowdown when you're floating through your massive level in Edit Mode (and once or twice in complicated levels) and I had the game crash a couple times when I was trying to back out of the editor, but these issues are easy to overlook when you realize that you're playing LittleBigPlanet on a handheld. When my "Made From Lava, It's Ryan!" level was nearly done and I was just decorating the set and tweaking my text, it occurred to me how awesome this experience truly was. I mean, I had created a level while riding the bus and watching a movie with my roommate. The hours I sunk into my LBP level on the PS3 were spent in a darkened living room and I felt like I had to build in massive chunks. Here, I can literally turn the PSP on, work for a few minutes, and turn it back off. It's always there, it's always ready to be tweaked, and it's just as satisfying as the PS3 version.
Another extremely satisfying part of this title is sharing all of this content. Now, you could pop in and play levels other people had created in the PS3 version of LBP, but you needed to always be connected to the Internet and loading these opuses could take a fair chunk of change. That isn't the case here.
Over on the Community Moon, you can connect to the LBP servers and download and store up to 250 levels straight to your memory stick (as long as you have the free megabytes needed). Once they're on there, you can disconnect from your WiFi hotspot of choice and play the levels whenever you want. Just like on the PS3, you'll rate the levels you've played, heart authors, and post high scores. All of that data will be transferred back to the LBP 'net when you connect to the Web again. It's a fairly seamless process, but the best part is how fast it all goes. It was taking me just a few seconds to download new levels. The progress bar jumps from 10 percent to 50 to 90 to done in a flash for these levels, which were about 160 KB in my test.
You, once again, have a seemingly endless supply of free content at your fingertips when you connect this game online, but this time, you can take it wherever you want. That's awesome.
In terms of looks, LBP PSP is simple but good. I could've gone for more detailed levels – they can feel empty at times -- but the cardboard platforms and dozens of Sackboy costumes look very good and will keep you visually entertained. If you want to talk about audio, LBP delivers once again in the way of some really catchy tunes that had me tapping my foot as I put Sackboy through his paces.
Verdict
I love LittleBigPlanet PSP. The platforming's fun, the create tools are solid, and online's undoubtedly impressive – especially considering that these upload/download features are on the PSP. I'd like it to run a bit smoother at times, have the create tools be a bit more intuitive, and so on, but none of that should put a damper on this game for fans of the franchise or people looking to get their first taste of Sackboy’s exploits.
Make no doubt about it: LittleBigPlanet PSP is an outstanding game.
