Finally one of the most anticipated games for the Playstation 3 has arrived in LittleBigPlanet.  This platformer has been a long time coming since its unveiling at the 2007 Game Developer Conference. Since then this has been seen as the saviour for the PS3, a system seller for Sony. Since then, there’s been a ton of hype which leads to the ultimate question, does it live up?

Starting off, the story found in LittleBigPlanet silly and loosely strings along the events in the game from one map to another. You’ll encounter among many characters, The King, with tasks for you in his kingdom, a bride who wants to be reunited with her fiancé and a ninja teaching you the ways of the warrior. If you’re going into the game for the story then this isn’t for you since while it does the job it’s not going to be winning any awards for this aspect for the game.

Graphically, LittleBigPlanet has a very unique look going for it. Imagine a world of stuffed animals coming to life and showing up on your big HDTV screen, and you’ve got a good idea how the game looks. What truly makes it feel authentic is how well implemented the physics engine is. Mostly everything in the game behaves how you’ve think and objective should behave in this world. So all of this leaves you with a very charming engine that makes you truly buy this make believe world.

What can be said about the outstanding graphics can also be said about the sound. The game’s soundtrack is absolutely fantastic, with many fantastic and memorable tunes that you will be humming to yourself long after you’ve finished playing the game. The sound effects fit into the game well and while if you’re expecting the realistic sound effects of Gears of War you’ll be disappointed however it is what it is.

Now let’s move onto the meat of the game, the gameplay. This is where LittleBigPlanet truly starts to shine. Playing the game can be described as nothing short then as a sort of feeling of euphoria. LittleBigPlanet isn’t the type of game where you have to think to hard about what you’re doing, usually where your going is straight forward.  However if you the game has no substance because that your sadly mistaken. There are tons of hidden items to find and chances are you’ll only find a fraction of them your first go around. So this means that LittleBigPlanet has a ton of replay value since you’ll go back many times trying to get 100% on each level. Replaying the levels is just as fun as playing it the first time and you’ll discover something new most replays. The only flaw I could is the physics in the can sometimes not work like it’s supposed, sometimes something my fall incorrectly or something gets stuck and you have to restart a level because of it. However this flaw is nowhere near a game breaker and I found I could easily forgive for all the things the game does right. Control wise the game is quite simple, you move around with the analog stick, you press X to jump and you grab onto things with R1. The only other controls you worry about is slapping people, and moving around your body and facial expressions.

While the single player is extremely fun, its brought up to a new level when you play when you play the online or offline co-op with up to four friends. Whatever fun you have playing the single player is multiplied with friends. Playing in the room with friends is fun and works exactly as you’d expect it.  Playing online gives you a close experience with voice chat via USB or Bluetooth headsets and the only problem I’ve experienced online are with four players it may lag from time to time though otherwise it works just as well.

While the story mode has plenty of replay value with you going back to it for hours, what extends it far more is of course the level creator. The only major fault in the level creator is that you have to put into dozens of tutorial before you’ve unlocked all the level creation functionality, however after you’ve done that then the level creator is so extensive you can recreate just about any level from the story mode in it. This truly shows when you look at the outstanding levels found in the community levels. While like anything that allows a community to participate, the quality of the levels will vary however when you look at some you at some the truly special levels like a Gradius clone you can get really excited for what can be created with the level creator.

LittleBigPlanet is without a shadow of a doubt my favourite game to come out this year.  This is a truly unique game and isn’t just a rehash like 90% of the titles out there.  The inclusion of the level creator and community maps lets you think towards to future and what it’ll be like when more games include functionality like this. If you only buy one game this holiday season, make it LittleBigPlanet because you won’t be disappointed.

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