Little Big Planet 3 Game Review (2014)

game review, little big planet 3, PS3, PS4, puzzle platformer,

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Little Big Planet scrapbooked world of cardboard and metal grating is bigger and brighter in Little Big Planet 3. With more bits and bobs occupy your time and to go every last one of your fancy. It’s more of the same Little Big Planet you've come to know and despite a handful of unfortunate glitches, sincerely sweet new additions like new gadgets and characters keep the overall whimsy of the game intact.

The thing about these new characters is that while they’re fun to play, they’re not particularly playable. Each character is confined to the hub world in which they are unlocked. For example, once you unlocked Oddsock in the mingle with swamp hub you can only use Oddsock in the mingle with swamp levels. The same goes for Toggle and Swoop, but Sackboy is playable in all world and in some story campaign levels he’s mandatory.
Each hub world also offers only one point of small doorway at which we swap characters. I’m disappointing that after months of being tantalize with the idea of gathering three friends and playing all four characters at once, you rarely can. As Little Big Planet 3 launched, four characters levels are severely limited which is maddening and saddening all at once if you want to play the whole game as someone other than Sackboy.

Level structure itself is very basic. Within each hub, Sackboy has to find marbles that when placed together will awaken that hub’s hero. Marbles are rewarded for finishing main campaign levels and when you’re not marble hunting you can explore hubs for hidden side quests and mini games. These mini games ranged from go cart building to lemmings like challenges in which you have to guide six or more Sackboys to the finish line. Each quest is introduced by NPC that is just as colorful and strange as the world itself.
Playing Little Big Planet 3 alone is great when you’re score chasing but playing with friends is infinitely better. Helping each other navigate tricky traps and collect prize bubbles is rewarding as it helps the game transcend from just something on the screen to something affecting the real world space. You and your play partner will shout at each other, laugh, and maybe engaging some playful competition.

I can’t get over how beautiful this game looks. The world of Bunkum is bright and detail. The NPCs are also fully voiced for the first time in the Little Big Planet series. And between the myriad sounds and sights it’s like an adorable Technicolor acid trip in a beautiful and untouchable bubble of sunshine.
Little Big Planet 3 is entertaining and sweet but things get sour if you run in any of these strange bugs. Sackboy’s twitch uncontrollably or randomly bounce on the screen out of nowhere, or fail to respond in certain levels. A few times I spawn behind the moving boss character in side scrolling levels which broke the game force me to restart. These bugs can also make you lose progress and for more than once I find myself ready to give up because I had to begin levels again.

Developer: Sumo Digital
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Platform: PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4