Last year's big gaming trend was online co-op. This year? Undoubtedly, user-created content. With blogs, YouTube, Twitter, etc. clogging up the internet, we are a world that is bound and determined to express ourselves to anyone who is willing to listen or look- it was only a matter of time before the "YouTube mentality" spread to gaming and "Little Big Planet" is the YouTube of the gaming world.
It's difficult to describe "LBP" without actually seeing it in action. Deceptively, it looks like a regular platformer: players control their adorable and highly-customizable SackBoy as he traverses colorful levels that are all look as if they had been designed using house-hold items. Traversing each level is different and varied as the one before it: complete a race on a giant skateboard, or collect as many gems as quickly as possible, or simply jump-rope as long as your stamina permits- all the while unlocking special stickers, objects, or effects. All the while, everything that happens on-screen is charming, pleasant, and a joy to behold.
Using the tools, objects, pictures, environments, and sounds collected in other levels, players can use the fairly intuitive design tools to create whatever type of game they can imagine on the canvass of their Little Big Planet. Effectively, "Little Big Planet" is the rudimentary way to design a video game without ever needing to know how to program a single line of code.
Once your masterpiece is completed, the third leg of "LBP" becomes apparent- uploading and experimenting with others' user-created levels. Just as others can play your level once it has been published to the Little Big servers, playing other user-created levels is just a simple button-press away. Each level gives prizes chosen by its designer- sometime it may be a piece of custom equipment made by the designer, a custom sticker that can be used to tag your own level, and sometimes it's just the respect that's earned from placing top on the online leaderboards of that level. After playing the level, users can rate and assign a meta-tag to it for other users to be able to find it easier in the future.
And such is the experience of surfing the "Little Big Planet."
This is a title that won't even realize its full greatness until more people have gotten used to the design interface and really let their imaginations run wild. Already there are numerous homages to classic 2D platforming and recreations of some of gaming's greatest levels from other titles, but the excitement of a game like "LBP" are the original experiences that will come as a result of having simple design tools in the hands of Joe Gamer. For those who are willing to invest the time, there's no reason why "Little Big Planet" can't be the proving ground for a future game designer.
But for those of us who just want to play- "Little Big Planet" has a limitless supply of game levels to enjoy either alone or cooperatively. While there are several other titles this season which showcase user-created content, "Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts" for the Xbox 360 or "Spore," "Little Big Planet" certainly sets the bar incredibly high for a first effort.
No comments:
Post a Comment