One of the most anticipated games coming out of the Playstation 3 this year, LittleBigPlanet has recently had a public beta. The beta codes for this have become one of the most sought after commodities on the Internet. The question begs, what does this game feature that makes everyone want to try this game.

First looking at the precreated portion of the beta, it has four single player levels that act as a sort of tutorial to understanding the gameplay mechanics of this platformer. While the full game will feature a full range of levels, the beta just prepares you for the meat of the experience, the community created levels. The beta gives you a full range of tools creative tools to make all sorts of 2D style platforming levels that your mind could imagine. You can even customize your sackboy avatar using the built in character creator make it as personal as possible. This game will be captivating for those with love to creating and making things.

The level creator is the best part of the beta since it has so many options available to the player. You can import your own images through the Hard Drive, take a picture to be used within the game with your Playstation Eye. You can your objects on one of the multiple layers in your level. You can even specify where in a level it triggers specific musical piece to start playing. Something to keep in mind though is to get the tools used for your levels such as objects and materials, you have to unlock them by playing through the available levels and collect items there.

The gameplay itself isn’t radically different from any other platforming game out there. The one thing that really sets it apart is the use physics which makes manipulating the objects you find around the level seem fresh and the allows levels creators to make some interesting scripted events. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing however since as they say, "if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it".

The beta also features a cooperative multiplayer mode which allows up to four friends either locally or through the magic of the internet to play all the available levels together. When levels take into consideration the extra players added on, the game becomes a very fun party game. We’ll have to wait until the final release to see what levels are included in the retail copy to take advantage however we liked what we’ve seen so far.

While the beta only has a fraction of what the full game will have its already something to be very excited about. The creativity from only the short time the beta was out is very promising. If the creative energies spent on the beta translate to the retail version its reason alone to watch out for this game. Look for this game to head to a retail store near you later this month.

Thanks for reading this preview!  We actually had had three codes to give away if you had gotten to the bottom of this preview, all codes have been given away.