The PS3 sequel to the successful LittleBigPlanet, this game is much bigger in scope and much more fun to play. It retains as a platformer while expanding on the user-generated content side of things. Instead of being limited to creating platform games, LittleBigPlent allows you to create just games in general, whether it be a shooter, movie or a platformer. The story is paper thin but carries more thought and charm in it than most platformer stories. In it, the antagonist known as the Negativitron appears in Craftworld and begins to suck up all its inhabitants, destroy buildings and turn Sackbots into evil minions. Sackboy joins The Alliance, a type of superhero team and he traverses across Craftworld to save it, battling monsters along the way and saving other characters. The story carries a lot of humor which makes the game much more enjoyable to experience.
The gameplay remains very similar to the first game. This is a sidescroller, with three "layers", or depths of the plane in which Sackboy can run between. Once again, this presents one of the game's flaws in that you might want to transition layers but the game doesn't allow you to, or you'l be travelling along when the game thinks you wanted to transition layers and you didn't. It is more annoying than a real flaw to be fair. Otherwise, Sackboy can run and jump his way across the levels. He obtains more gadgets which makes the game much more fun, retaining old favorites such as the grapple to newer ones like being able to grab and throw items. The type of gameplay changes often too, while most of the levels require you to time your jumps to pass obstacles, there will be chase sequences, arcade shooters and a simplified Lemmings type gameplay in which you lead Sackbots to trigger swtiches.
The other noticeable thing was that the levels are much more frustration-free. Whereas the first LittleBigPlent had a few levels towards the end of the game where it was infuriating, LittleBigPlanet 2 does away with this (and hopefully no one complains that it is "too easy"). The difficulty lies in finding and collecting all the Prize Bubbles scattered throughout each level, which is how it should be. Collecting the bubbles unlocks something you can use when you eventually decide to get your creative juices flowing, making the collectibles much more meaningful. You also obtain scores during the levels and on completion, a leaderboard appears showing how you rank compared to all the other players out there. LittleBigPlanet 2 boasts 50+ levels but only around 30 of those are long story levels. The remainder are minigames, which are still fun and provides a nice change of pace.
The game encourages cooperative multiplayer, even locking away Prize Bubbles in areas which require two, three or four players. You can connect online and play with a random player if you wish so no part of the game is locked if you don't have someone else to play next to you, otherwise you can opt for local co-op. The graphics are better than the first game, Craftworld looks beautiful and the attention to detail in each level is astounding. What's even better is the music, which is simply a masterpiece. From the hollow eerie tracks to the upbeat ones, they all lend well to the level and what's happening onscreen. The story mode only form something like 30% of the overall LittleBigPlanet 2 experience. The next 30% comes from the creation of your own levels.
Due to the massive additions in the amount of stuff you can do when creating a level now, it is really complex and will take you a large amount of time to get accustomed to all the tools the game provides you with. Creating a simple sidescrolling platform level is easy; it is when you start wanting to add projectiles, AI and other gameplay elements that will make you stand out. This is not mentioning the fact that finetuning your level, including setting an appropriate background and objects to make the level less empty will take time and patience. Lastly, the final portion of the experience is playing other players' creations, and this is by far the biggest potential of LittleBigPlanet. There were already millions of levels for the first game and this sequel ups that by making it all backwards compatible, maning you can load any level from the first game and play it.
While there are a lot of junk out there, some of the levels are truly astounding and amazing. Usually, you can't go wrong with a level which many players have played, then you can continue on with that author's other levels, then their recommendations and before you know it, you've played a bunch of quality levels that rival the developer's designs. Overall, LittleBigPlanet 2 is a fantastically fun game that manages to improve upon the first game in every single way. Retaining the similar gameplay, the story mode is packed with humor and excellent levels, which while short at approximately 6 hours long, makes the entry price worthwhile. Then you have the user generated content which theoretically could mean unlimited additional game time (all free of charge). The removal of the restriction of levels being solely platformers has broaden the scope and variety of levels out there. LittleBigPlanet 2 is definitely a worthwhile and fun game.
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