LittleBigPlanet PS Vita Review

Posted By Austin Yorski about 7 months, 2 weeks ago

LittleBigPlanet PS Vita Review

Sackboy and his imaginative home of Craftworld are some of the best things to come out of this generation of consoles. In fact, LittleBigPlanet 2 is one of the only games to ever earn a perfect 10 out of 10 score and a “Legendary” recommendation on BT’s relatively strict scale. With that said, the PlayStation Vita is a system in serious need of a blockbuster unit shifter, so it would be a real victory for the handheld if this entry retained any significant portion of the charm that put the series on the map. Luckily for Sony, this seems to be the kind of experience the hardware was made for.

You probably know the drill by now: You are Sackboy (or Sackgirl!), the cute little stitched-together hero who must platform through a 2.5 dimensional environment through a short campaign narrated by Stephen Fry. Story isn’t a big part of the BigPlanet software suite, but it is my biggest gripe. This time around your Sackperson is tasked with saving Carnivalia, a nearby planet which seems to house the imagination of Tim Burton. The world is being terrorized by an unseen villain called The Puppeteer (no relation to that other Sony exclusive), so you meet up with a bunch of whimsical characters and save the day.

Some allies have better mustaches than others.

The narrative works in a “Bowser has kidnapped the princess” way. You don’t need complex characters or deep and meaningful themes to justify a game like LittleBigPlanet, but it is a disappointment. In a lot of ways, I feel like the comparison to Mario is apt. Just because the world’s most popular mascot character doesn’t bother with a story doesn’t mean Media Molecule (or, in this case, Double Eleven and Tarsier Studios) shouldn’t aim higher. LPB has the setting and the humor to pull off a Pixar-esque triumph, but seems to be content with just doing a good job. A fair complaint, methinks, but a very tiny one in the grand scheme.

So what does LBP Vita do right? Just about everything else. The home-console-quality-on-a-handheld promise has been kept, with the game looking just about as good as you could possibly hope. The platforming is virtually untouched, although that might not be a good thing depending on how you feel about Sackboy’s jump arc. Personally, I loved every minute of the silly adventure. The boss fights in particular are inspired, while still remaining accessible to a younger audience.

I wanna go fast!

The move to the Vita has brought with it both improvements and deficiencies. The single best thing I can say about the title is that it uses the device to the fullest without feeling weighed down in tech demo gimmickry. Both the front and rear touch functionality are integrated into the platforming very well, with only minor instances in which it failed to translate my swipes or pokes. Pushing platforms and pulling switches also fits seamlessly into the overriding conceit of the franchise, as the proceedings are supposedly shaped by the “Imagosphere” projected by the player. This makes interacting with the world feel all the more organic.

Gadgets and vehicles make an improved return. Some of my favorite parts of the game involved turning the Vita to steer, despite how foolish it made me look. However, all of these little aspects are seen only briefly in the campaign, as it serves chiefly as a tutorial for the user-generated content system. UGC has always been the cornerstone of the entire Planet enterprise, and its implementation here is as you would expect it to be. Designing levels is easier than ever before, as touch controls and the Vita’s on-board camera and microphone make creating and tweaking objects easier than ever. The drawback is that the hardware itself doesn’t exactly have a sterling market penetration, which means that there will likely be fewer must-play experiences out there. All we can really do is hope that a strong community flocks to this version of the game.

It’s so easy to re-size things… as long as you can see past your fat fingers.

Making and playing platforming stages aren’t the only things you can do on Carnivalia (and its moon), however. There are a host of mini-games to be unlocked, some of which were just as fun as all the jumping around. Things like Whack-a-Mole are fun one-offs, but the air hockey and physics-based Tetris-like game were good enough to be stand-along apps. These distractions also use the technical capabilities of the handheld to their fullest, requiring taps, swipes, and dramatic system turning. You can bring along other players to both these and the main campaign if you want to lose a few friends, but prepare yourself to feel an amount of anger disproportionate to the ceaseless cheer of the game.

While creating levels I did stumble across my only other minor quibbles, which were some minor technical issues. The game crashed on me once, which was a first for the platform. I also found the loading times a bit wearisome after a while–a flaw which I imagine was unavoidable. While I mention these little things for the sake of full disclosure, I’m honestly impressed by the job Double Eleven and Tarsier pulled off. I’m sure many concessions were made in order to bring LittleBigPlanet to the Vita, but hardly any of them are noticeable from the user-end of things.

I’ll pop your sack, boy.

Should you buy a PS Vita to play LittleBigPlanet? No. The game isn’t a big enough leap forward from its predecessor to warrant such an investment. But if you already own Sony’s handheld you absolutely must pick up this title. Sit it down on the shelf next to Gravity Rush so the poor thing finally has some company. Leave a space for Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward and Ragnarok Odyssey though, since they will arrive in a few short weeks.

A copy of the game was purchased from a retailer for review purposes and played to completion in about 6 hours, with about 3 hours spent with the “community” features. The title is a PS Vita exclusive.

Also, follow me on Twitter @austinyorski (please).

LittleBigPlanet PS Vita Review

By Austin Yorski

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