Let's be honest, LittleBigPlanet isn't as special as everyone makes it out to be.
GAMEPLAY - At its core, Little Big Planet is a platformer similar to Mario or old school Sonic games. The only difference is that there are a lot more situations that require teamwork, puzzle solving, and ability to get past. As you progress through levels, you pick up more and more things to customize your Sackboy character, as well as new things used to design levels. Speaking of which, this game includes a level editor to make your own levels. So basically what it comes down to is that you go through levels collecting items to help customize your characters and improve your created levels. No one ever says how the platforming is horrendous, or how unbelievably difficult it can be to get past certain levels. This is especially apparent when playing co-op, which you will be doing if you want to collect every little thing. Unless you and those you're playing with are experts at 2-D platforming, you're not going to get very far. You have a limited amount of lives, and if you use them all up, you have to start from the beginning. Maybe I'm wrong here, but the difficulty is way too hard to even consider this game playable. And even once you're done playing the story mode, all you have to do is make levels or play ones that others have made. Most of the latter are very mediocre and/or are levels just designed to help others acquire trophies. Now, if you don't mind punishing difficulty and have a lot of patience, I think you'll enjoy this game. But I will admit, platforming games are typically my weakness in the broad spectrum of games. And, I must say, LittleBigPlanet ranks up there among the most challenging, and not in a good way. - 6/10
STORY - There isn't much of a story here to speak of. You progress through the levels that came with the game meeting silly minor characters that kind of push you along from level to level. They try to incorporate a story here, but it tends to fall flat just like with 90% of the other platformers out there. - 3/10
GRAPHICS - The graphics here do have an interesting look to them. I won't say that they're bad by any means, because they're not. I will say, however, that it can be very hard to keep track of your Sackboy with how the camera works. Especially during co-op. Overall though, this game does well here. - 8/10
SOUND - The sounds are very cooky and fun; they never get old. The music is also strangely hypnotic due to how catchy it is. I don't think anyone will be disappointed here. - 9/10
LENGTH/REPLAY VALUE - Here's where this game can either be scored a 5/10 or a 10/10. For me it's the former. Let's face it, if you don't like making levels on this game, you're not going to enjoy it nearly as much. Sure you can play community levels, but most are garbage anyway. This was a game that I played through on co-op with my girlfriend and became so frustrated with that I never really went back to play it again. Unless you're a sucker for platformers or have a good grasp on the level editor, you won't get much value here. - 5/10
BOTTOM LINE - LittleBigPlanet is a game for the hardcore platformer who is also very creative. Others probably won't appreciate all this game has to offer. Now that I own a Wii, I get much more satisfaction playing games like Super Mario Galaxy and Donkey Kong Returns over this lame excuse for a platformer. And really, even if you do try to design a unique level with the editor, it still feels like a platformer. It's not like you can change the camera angle so that it's first-person, third-person, or anything like that. So yes, once you strip it all down, LittleBigPlanet is a (mostly) 2-D platformer on a system deprived of platformers almost entirely. I don't blame PS3 owners for rating it so high. It has a unique presentation, and the create tools do leave a lot of room for creativity. For those of us who are the strict consumers at heart, however, this game feels absent of more content and is a little too high on the challenging scale as well. - 6/10