Review By Anonymous
4/5 Stars
Platforms: PlayStation
I know the little number stuck on the end of the title is going to leave some people thinking that I’m going to ramble about a bunch of stuff introduced in the previous games of the LittleBigPlanet series, - which I won’t. Between this game and its predecessors, it is entirely separate (when it comes to plot, the concept/LittleBigPlanet style is still there), and a game not as talked about as I feel it should be. From the wonderful character voices, to the silly little gimmicks of each separate story arc level sets (it sounds a lot more complicated than it is), LittleBigPlanet 3 is a game filled with excitement and emotion from the moment it is opened.
We start our LittleBigPlanet 3 experience with the creativity concept episode (which, again, makes this game sound so much more complicated than it is). The creativity concept episode is a short video that’s around thirty seconds long explaining the entire concept of what the main character even is. Not who, what. Your main character is not human. Essentially, the video explains that all human heads are bursting with creativity, and that all that creativity needs to go somewhere. So, said creativity went into outer space, forming a planet. Which, on paper, sounds incredibly silly. However, the entirety of this game is incredibly silly and wacky, so, the silliness of summarizing the most serious part of the game is unsurprising.
(I tried to find the transcript of the creativity concept episode, but I couldn’t. Sad.)
Next, you’re introduced to your pod. Your pod is essentially a big cardboard rocket ship with a PlayStation controller smack dab in the center front of the window of your pod, or, essentially, smack dab in the middle of your pod. If you have any stickers you like, you can open the popit (the in-game character configuration/pockets) (you do this by pressing square) and use the sticker menu to stick stickers as big or small as you want anywhere in any position in your little cardboard rocketship. If you want, you can even stick stickers to yourself (although, they probably won’t stick around for long). Once you're done with all the shenanigans of your pod, you can press square in front of the big PlayStation controller in the middle of the pod configure where your little… thing will go next. The two main options when it comes to where to go are the Earth (adventure mode) and the Moon (sandbox mode). Sandbox mode comes with some puzzles (called popit puzzles) you have to complete to unlock certain objects and functions. Not that you’re not given all you need to make a level with as much beauty and easter eggs as one of the adventure mode levels. Adventure mode, however, is a lot more colorful, thanks to the NPCs, that is.
The first actual level you're introduced to is in the prologue level group arc of the game: Introduction. In Introduction, you’re introduced to the species of your main character: a sackperson, made with love and creativity! From there you’re taught how to dress up your character, how to make expressions, and even how to jump (along with a lot of other tiny things that add to the charm of the game). The level ends fairly quickly, never taking much more than a minute to complete, and you leave it quite a bit more knowledgeable than when you began. Which is good, because the next level teaches you the basics of in-level mechanics (such as layer launchers, grabbing, and climbing).
(spoiler territory; the next few levels contain a ridiculous amount of plot)
In the next few levels of the prologue, you meet, and get to know, everyone’s favorite lightbulb: Newton. Although, don’t let his name fool you, he’s not that achieved (or… smart, for that matter). Newton explains that there’s an evil old lady housing a tea container that holds the creativity-sucking titans of legends, who will prophetically free them that very night if you don’t work with Newton to stop her (the story isn’t actually time sensitive, you don’t have to wait a certain amount of hours to unlock it either). Said evil old lady is named Nana Pud. Nana Pud ends up being a cat-lover, and a good person who’s simply trying to protect the world from the tea container being opened by some prophetic intruders. Wait… you and Newton are the intruders. Newton foolishly opens the tea container thinking he can harness the titans’ powers to make a better world, only for the spirits of the titans to force their way into Newton’s body to control it. Nana Pud then berates you for leading her son, “Newty”, astray, while also saying you were fooled by him. The contradiction of those statements leaves your character feeling guilty of what they caused, so you head off to Manglewood Swamp in search of one of the heroes of legend: Oddsock.
(spoiler territory has ended)
I won’t go into too much more detail, because, as a player, you should get to experience at least some plot for yourself, and because this little summary of why LittleBigPlanet 3 is a good game is getting a little long. Essentially, LittleBigPlanet 3 is charming, silly, and full of good humor. In which, the player will have a heck of a time just getting through the plot levels, excluding the fun little side quests that have even more fun side characters, each with their own unique situation.