Ride the sack-rocket
Right, let’s see what we have…just a little more to the right…yes, yes! And up, through…in there. Grab on to this. Then…yes, just like that. Now try the…no, the other one! C’mon, we’re almost there, we…I know you like to slap me, but can we focus? Good…yes…yes…YES! That was great! Another one?
Thanks to my wonderful girlfriend there’s now a PS3 in the house, and as such we’re both completely open to new gaming experiences. While swinging by the game store I was looking for something that could we could play together and would enjoy. After ignoring a good chunk of the current content due to being FPS’es (I’d rather play darts using baked potatoes as dart arrows and a squirrel on acid as target than play a console shooter), I was running short of ideas, and as such, picked up Little Big Planet.
I’d heard plenty of praise at this point already, and with a decent price tag I figured we could give it a try. Good reviews had been scattered around it like rice at a wedding couple, so despite the pondering over exactly how fun a shiny colorful platformer could be, I ended up getting it.
And let me tell you, the game is fucking sweet!
When we picked it up and starting playing it was all very simple. Our characters, both simple sackboys (as seen above, and yes, it’s not separated but actually spelt sackboy, Sony trademarked and all!) simply emerged out from a glowing hole, and as we walked along we where gently instructed on how to play the game, controls and whatnot. The elements kept snapping into place one by one as we learned how to customize our characters, collect items and use the environment around us. Before you knew it we where swinging along on swings made out of sponges and just marveled at the small things like the fact that you can drag, pull and even slap each other, something that my girlfriend took big joy in every time I was being silly holding her down.
After spending about an hour or so the statement ‘This is such a kids game’ was flung out from my second half. As I turned around and, raising an eyebrow and asking ‘You’re not having fun then?’ all I got as a reply was ‘Shut up and keep playing’. And looking over it cynically, it’s very true. Little Big Planet is about as cute as kittens dipped in honey, rolled in sugar and used to decorate a cake made of candy-floss and lollipops. And yet, so very, very compelling. And why?
After a while the thought struck me. The game handles multi-player so very well, as it’s pretty much integrated and built around being multiple people, although it can be played in single player. Handling this kind of gaming isn’t really anything new, but this is the way-more-compelling sort of multiplayer that, rather than you sitting alone in front of some squad based, 256 shooter with bazookas shooting 4 flavors of laser, you sit next to a friend or significant other and giggle cheerfully as you grab onto something and your friend then grabs onto your leg and ride along in order to keep together.
I would seriously recommend getting someone over next to you to play this with. Get your girl/boyfriend, mom, dog or any other man-person that you have a somewhat established relation with, and play this. Get another manly man and you can play this game using the excuse that you can slap each other in it, and it should be macho and fine.
So why haven’t more games done this? It probably has to do with the fact that it’s a somewhat restricted format. Most games tends to try to pick you out as the sole courageous hero in the adventure, and while there generally are secondary characters, none of them are as awesome as you.
Resident Evil 5 was one of the more recent games that toyed with his and actually ended up giving a better game for it, although perhaps this had more to do with the fact that playing as co-op made for easier inventory management rather than a very much better game. There was also jokes tossed around about the fact that they added a ‘colored’ playable character simply to avert the claims of racism (which was pretty silly to begin with) rather than being an actual planned part of the game. And of course, everyone knows boobs sell, amirite?
How long the sugar-coated appealing cuteness of Sackboy and the other sackboy-ians (and…sackgirl-ians?) will last is hard to say. I’m getting the feeling that if you do plow through this you might just end up with a stomach-ache due to just being so damn sweet, but I’m guessing it’s one of those games you’ll play bit parts at a time unless you get really hooked to it. Either that or you’re already busy making level after level after level of your own, sharing with the community.
Just try to be original about it and don’t make too many rip-offs of already existing game levels in other games, will you? Although, if you can make the entire first PS Metal Gear Solid, I beg you, let me know.
Oh, and Brutal Legend is cool too.
