The first thing you notice about Little Big Planet is that it’s Cute.  Even when it’s being scary it tugs at those little facial muscles that lift the mouth in an upwards motion.  Your sister will love it, your girlfriend will love it and your kids will love it.

The game is primarily a 2.5D platform adventure.  Like all platform games, you run jump and climb over obstacles while avoiding enemies.  The 2.5D element adds a (somewhat clumsy) allowance for moving forward and backwards in the in the world as well as left and right.  This often results in finding hidden objects and working out how to navigate multiple layers for obstacles.

Playing Little Big Planet in its most simple form means getting to the end of the level in a quick time, picking up lots of neat goodies (which I’ll come to later) and collecting little balls for points.  There are point to point races, simple puzzles that rely on gravity and guides to help you along,.

Where it scores over other platform games is in the subtle tones of Stephen Fry, guiding you through the trial levels and then later on when you open up other options, and in the ability to work through the levels with a friend online or offline, opening up new areas and completing puzzles impossible with one player.

So far, so familiar, but this is not just a platform game.  Little Big Planet really opens up when a planet pops up that lets you design your own levels.  Build from scratch, use a template and even use objects from some of the levels you’ve played through already.  By playing the levels available in the game and from other people you can collect new objects, tools and even background music to add to your very own game.

Building is simply a case of choosing your materials and placing them on the screen in the same way you would paint and stamp with a painting program.  As you progress you can add logic gates to open and close doors or raise platforms, pressure pads, fully working objects, music, sound effects and even a brain to creatures you build.  In short, you can build a fully formed level with a storyline and characters, then post it on the internet for everyone else to play.

And because there will be thousands of others doing the same you’ll be able to go online at any time and play a new level every day, play a level with a friend and rate levels for others to find.  Even your little Sackboy or girl can be given a new lick of paint and dressed up in all manner of clothes from bunnies to pirates.

There is one hiccup in this whole process, which is the layer system that doesn’t quite work at times and can be annoying if you’re racing across a level only to find yourself stuck behind some scenery.  This doesn’t detract from the experience, though and as you learn to control Sackboy, you will find it happening less and less.

It’s very rare that a game comes along and re-defines a genre, but after Little Big Planet, platform games will never be the same.  All hail Sackboy!

9.5/10