SGD '07: Joystiq hands-on with LittleBigPlanet
Sony's Gamer Day 2007 event in San Diego drew one of the most anticipated PS3 titles out of hiding, LittleBigPlanet. Out of everything being shown off here, this was what we were most looking forward to. They only had one demo station set up, and we couldn't shoot video of it, but ... wow.
The extreme amount of detail in this game, down to the stitching on the characters and the photorealism of some of the painted cardboard backdrops is amazing. It's oddly juxtaposed with the fact that it feels like such a little kid's game ... but the kind of little kid's game you can never put down, sort of like Lite-Brite or Barrel of Monkeys.
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The demo was fairly small and self-contained, but they put us through the paces and showed us a few things. First us all, we leanred how to activate our characters emotions, namely happy, sad, angry, and a sort of perplexed "what the?!" expression. They are going to be basing in-game interaction with other characters on these emotions. For instance, you can independently move each of your arms with the analog sticks, and with the proper movement, deliver a slap to the other characters. For instance, if you approach a "sad" player and you are currently "happy", you'll give them a hug. Two happy players will high-five each other, and so on.
Another thing we learned was that the currency in the game is sponge. We encountered sponge balls, and when our character ran over them they literally got torn to shreds and hopefully virtually "deposited" in our LittleBigBankAccount (a phrase we just coined ... zing). As you collect more and more sponge, you can use it to buy different in-game items, outfit your "patch" inside the world.
Our four little players helped each other over massive obstacles, obtained jetpacks, lost them, rode up and down on stars, climbed mechanical trees, and flew down a ramp on an enormous skateboard. It was a lot of fun, and probably the real standout among everything that we saw. As high-def as the graphics are, they're also extremely fun and well ... cute.
LittleBigPlanet will have a demo out sometime in the fall, and the game will hopefully be out in early 2008.
