Review by Text
I remember years ago when Little Big Planet was announced I was instantly interested in the look of the game, the aesthetic gripped me, and I loved the playfulness of the world. Everything looking like it had been made from household items, from cardboard boxes to washing up bottles and everything in between. The games were really fun and the Create. Play. Share focus on the trilogy was wonderful everyone and their dog was making something for you to play whether you ended up on something bad or good was very random as so much was made, but I was still interested in checking out the levels either way.
Now, Little Big Planet seems to have gone for the time being, but in its place, we have a new game in the franchise and that’s Sackboy: A Big Adventure. This removes the Create. Share. Play aspect and focuses on delivering a Single Player game, or more accurately a single-player or co-op game that delivers something different from the side-scrolling platforming on a 2D plain that people are used to with LBP.
The very first thing you will notice with Sackboy compared to LittleBigPlanet is that the perspective is different, Sackboy has shifted to a more 3D view. The game is for the majority of the time isometric, they are points where the camera will change the angles slightly, but for the most part, it’s pretty consistent. The game keeps the wonderful aesthetic and the world still looks like it’s made of all kinds of things as if someone has taken bits and bobs from around their home and made little levels with various themes. Kind of like an odds and sods diorama. The game itself is visually great, with it being bright and vibrant, materials looking like the actual materials, be it rubbery or plasticky, or silky or fuzzy all things look spot on.
The game has kept the creativity with Sackboy himself, there are many costumes to unlock throughout the game, some you’ll find during the normal play of a level, others will be unlocked if you find a hidden present box and others are for hitting goals and getting enough points and the end of a stage. Then there’s buying some cosmetic items from the in-game shop called ZomZom’s. Through the game being in a level or in the overworld, there are objects you can break that give you bells, this is the in-game currency and with this, you can buy things. There are outfits, new skins, emotes and more.
Let’s talk a little about the gameplay, this is probably what is most important to people over things like visuals and sound, Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that a bad soundtrack and awful sound effects coupled with shocking visuals can’t have a negative effect on a persons experience and detract from the gameplay, or vice-versa, but the truth is if the gameplay is bad then rarely will visuals and sound make you truly enjoying the game if it plays like a chore. The thing is, this isn’t an issue here and I have no idea why I brought it up. The gameplay is really good, you have a simple but good move set for Sackboy, from the obvious moving and jumping to slapping enemies as an attack, then a flutter jump to get a little extra hang time while in the air, then a button to roll, which is handy for getting about a little quicker, and if you jump, flutter and then roll you can get a bit more distance from you r jump. I’ll mention it as people had issues with the floatiness of Sackboy and some of the physics in general in Little Big Planet. That isn’t present here, it feels more natural and the flutter jump is very reminiscent of Yoshi. There’s also spin attack, which can come in handy as well. This move set you to navigate through several worlds with varying themes to stop the villain Vex from turning everything into nightmares. The levels as I said are varied, some are even auto scrollers, but usually have a fun gimmick to them, be it you are on a train or you are been chased by lasers and have hoover boots to get about a little easier and to shoot laser blasts at obstacles in your way. As said the game can be played solo or co-operatively with 1 to 3 more players.I played it both Solo, with 1 ither person and with 3 other people. The game is for me at its best as a duo, it’s not too hectic and it and you still have the fun of another player helping, playing solo is beneficial to try and get no deaths on leaves and 4 players while hectic is just really really fun and it isn’t too over the top where everyone is annoying each other.
My preferred way to play it is with another person, there are many advantages to having a friend play with you like reaching more difficult heights by throwing your partner up to it, or both players doing certain things to wrack up your scores, there are also levels specifically made to do in co-op, these can all be done in 2 player co-op. Whereas in LBP there were sections that required 4 players. I think this is a good compromise to that idea, have it so you need 1 extra person but not 3 as some people may find it difficult to get 4 people to arrange a time suitable for everyone. The game is in the camp of it’s not very difficult to finish levels, but collecting everything, getting the highest score to unlock the rewards and not dying once in a level to ace it becomes a separate much challenging task and here lies the most difficult part of the game. No deaths on every level? Good luck.
The music in this is great, I think it is all licensed music, but it’s been picked appropriately for the level. Sometimes it’s simply a song, though more often than not, it’s edited in a way that makes it fit even better, like removing the lyrics or changing the arrangement slightly, it all gels together again like the rest of the game as if it’s woven and stuck together in a beautiful mish-mash of all things creative. There’s one great thing in this when it comes to the music and that is the music levels. They play similar to regular levels, but you have various things happen in the foreground or background when certain parts of music play, or when you hit a certain section of a level and a beat kicks on or the chorus of a song starts. It’s really well done, even the plant pods things that launch you to a new section of the level dance a little to the beat before shooting you out of them. There’s so much creativity to the game it seeps through every fibre of it. Sackboy has taken all the best aspects of LBPs single-player game and improved upon it immensely.