A platformer at heart playing on a 2.5D plane (i.e. side scrolling but there are three "planes" that you can move "in" and "out" of). Thinking about it, this would be a great game to play using the directional buttons. So what happens? You can only use the analogue stick which feels weird since you will accidentally go to the different level planes while jumping and it feels awkward. It gets worse later on when the game decides you want to move to a different level and you end up dying. Anyway, the platforming is fun and there are some clever segments. There are generous checkpoints (at least that's what it seems at the beginning) but you can only die four times per checkpoint. Most of the time, this isn't a problem but there are some areas where it's triggerhappy and you will accidentally die... multiple times. In which case, be prepared to redo the whole level. Needless to say that this gets annoying and will get on your nerves. As you would expect, the levels get harder as you progress and as the trickier sections come up, you realize that the controls aren't as tight as you would have liked.
The floaty jump and sliding of Sackboy is part of the game's charm and distinctive feature but that doesn't stop accidental deaths from happening when Sackboy slides just a little bit more that you would expect when stopping and he ends up being spiked by some obstacle. This gets more aggravating during the later levels in which the platforming becomes very difficult and the precision needed (coupled with being forced to do it at speed) means that you will be trying many times before getting it right. You know what to do... it's just the controls are getting in the way. The final world is extremely frustrating with various elements in the levels that cause you to die again and again. You need to jump perfectly and quickly and the controls are just too slippery to make some of the jumps. It was at that point where it felt the four lives/attempts was too little and you end up playing the same stupid level ten times. It got to the point where I really wanted to throw the controller against the wall and cursed the level designer to something unpleasant.
These frustrating levels were the ones I really wished that I could have used the D-pad for movement as the analogue stick was too inaccurate to get Sackboy to stop when you wanted. After all that difficulty, you would have thought the final boss would be fairly epic but no, it was bitterly disappointing. It was in no way worth the effort to actually get to that point. The story mode contains approximately 22 platforming levels and many challenge levels (getting a high score in a mini-game). Each individual level is short; you can easily finish them within five minutes with practice. The story itself doesn't gel with the player, it's not very coherent and there is a lack of an overall objective. It would be nice if there was a proper story narrative to go along with some of the awesome platforming. As such, as you go to a new area, there's a very simple subplot which is usually the inhabitant asking Sackboy for help to get rid of an enemy. I guess it is enough as an excuse for going through the levels but it's a low quality narrative.
The major draw of LittleBigPlanet is the ability to create your own levels. The mechanics can understandably complex and in order to create some good stuff, you will need some patience. Or you can go and just play levels that's been published by other players. 95% of the stuff out there is probably junk (and trophy related) so you will have to go ahead and try finding the more creative stuff out there. There are some great stuff, from platforming mimics of well-known games (Dead Space, Crash Bandicoot, Temple Run etc) to original creations that's clever and blows your mind in relation to the attention to detail and effort put into it. That said, it's not too hard to create some passable levels with simple platforming. The tutorials are quick and simple, once you figured out the basics, learning about the rest of the tools is intuitive. Sackboy is a charismatic character and his design simple yet elegant. It's not wonder he become one of the PS3's unofficial mascot. The music stands out as good with a wide variety of melodies. LittleBigPlanet is a good game... but there are some minor control flaws that will make you annoyed.
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