This week, guest contributor Jim McGinley talks about the player-created content juggernaut (and now Muslim-friendly) Little Big Planet.

I played it multiplayer for about 10 levels.
I haven’t played it online, nor have I tried single player.

1. Music & Sound Effects – GREAT.
   The best thing about the game. Upbeat, but not irritating. Even “sproing” sound effects sound great! Add a ton to the game’s charm.

2. Graphics – GREAT. some insanely good shadowing making everything look real. Wood looks like wood. The variety of graphics is incredible. Sackboy is an amazing character.
3. Gameplay – surprisingly AWFUL
   1. Controlling your guy is sloppy. And it’s precision platformer!
   2. You keep moving when you land from a jump (like you’re on ice) Sliding off small platforms is common, especially since relatively speaking your guy is so big.
   3. You automatically move 3D planes. It makes no sense. It’s confusing. You have no control over when it happens. When it switches, you probably don’t want it to. When it doesn’t, you probably wanted it to. It’s like playing an optical illusion. It’s horrible for young and old alike.

      Just horrible. They generally include 2 paths for people that can’t make the jumps – which is why complaints have been mitigated. i.e. Thank god I can just walk by those platforms, because jumping them is impossible. Should have just made the game on a fixed plane.

      It’s worth noting my arcade heritage means I can make the jumps 80% of the time, but Em is getting frustrated. They put fun items (new clothes) in areas that require life or death precision jumps Ironically, Em (Jim’s wife – ed.) wants these items more than me.

   4. You can make small or large jumps (by holding the jump button longer) I’ve yet to use the small jump. It’s useless. I have to keep reminding people to always hold jump.
   5. Checkpoint / live system is awful. You can’t buildup lives towards the hard parts hence, even if you breeze through the easy stuff you always get the same 3 lives to tackle the hard part. spend 5 minutes running past the easy crap, only to die at the same part over & over again. the 5 minutes does nothing for you (can’t pickup more lives for the hard part on the way) genius.

      I don’t know why more people aren’t talking about what a horrible, horrible platformer this is. Strip away the production values, and you’ve got a heaping mass of poo. Most 2-day flash games do better platforming than this. My first platformer was better than this. “Hold me closer, Giant Dancer” is easier to control than this, and that was a joke game.

      

      Jim McGinley’s Unauthorized demake of Shadow of the Colossus

      What’s extra baffling is their interactive, multiplayer menu system for making stickers, decorations,
      and character modifications is brilliant. It’s easier for me to position, rotate, and scale a sticker than to make a jump.

WHAT HAPPENED!

Prediction:
We’ll keep playing MULTIPLAYER for the music, graphics and variety. As soon as it starts getting hard (it’s going down that path), we’ll get frusterated and search for easy online levels, or go back to fun games (Rock Band 2).

Jimmy

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