OMGsoCUTE!!

Little Big Planet seemed to be THE game to get a Playstation 3 for when it came out. The graphics, of course, were stunning. But it really showcases the connectivity of the box as well. Since I didn't play it until a year and a half after its release I had the fun of downloading and installing for almost 30 minutes before I could even play.

It's basically a different company's take on Mario. I'm sure it's much more than that, but I kept coming back to that feeling. Where Mario games have bright happy colors and simplistic levels, this has realistic graphics and sometimes somewhat dark story lines. It's not all run and jump. There are several "ride in this type of vehicle" segments that break up the familiar platforming. The hero's nature is really taken to heart. Your Sack Boy looks to be made of a tiny stuffed burlap sack and the physics keep reinforcing that. You can clutch onto soft materials or get catapulted across the level and land without a scratch like, well, a rag doll. You quickly start collecting costumes and accessories to make your sack person your very own. And this was the part that hooked my wife.

I went out and bought a second controller hoping that she'd play along with me. I had history on my side here, since she played through all of New Super Mario Bros. Wii with me. A similar thing happened here in that I was quickly banned from playing without her since she didn't want to miss out on collecting any of the OMGsoCUTE costume parts. The level progression and gradual sense of completion appealed to me where the collecting and cuteness appealed to her. After we were deep into this I asked if she wanted to jump in to NSMB Wii again, but I think the choice of Luigi/blue/yellow Toad just couldn't compare to the customization available here.

The co-op is very intuitive. It seemed very natural to figure things out as we went along. "You go down there and hit that switch while I hang on to the handle up here" sort of thing. We played a few user-created levels and there seemed to be a wide range of competence there as you'd expect. I didn't bother with any of the creation tools. Every time you start a new level you choose Play Online or Play by Ourselves. We played online a few times and for the most part the other players that joined our game were really helpful. I'm not sure if the game even supports voice chat, but without a headset we were forced to use text chat anyway. It's done well but it relegated all our conversation with other people to things like "sorry" or "thx good game."

So I'm happy to say we both had a blast with this game and were always looking forward to another chance to play. Now it's time for GameFly Roulette to see what comes next.