'Little Big Planet' Revolutionizes How to 'Play' Video Games

Nov. 20, 2008— -- There's a new darling in the video game world: Sackboy, a little emotive rag doll made out of a virtual burlap sack.

Sackboy (or Sackgirl) is the star of LittleBigPlanet, a game developed by Media Molecule for Sony's PlayStation 3. It's a classic platformer, where you direct your little sackperson to run, jump, and leap to explore this highly interactive world.

But the game is so much more than that. It also provides you with the tools by which to build your own video game levels, and then allows you to share your creations and explore others online. With Sackboy leading the way, you'll play, create, and share.

This revolutionary new video game is so good that, for some, it could be the reason to get off the fence about buying a PlayStation 3. Since it's a PlayStation 3 exclusive, if you want to explore this game you've got to do so on a PS3.

When entering LittleBigPlanet, a magical place where everyone's dreams are stored, you start in the story mode. The story takes you to eight different worlds with over 20 levels of creative 2D platform puzzles. Your goal is to figure out how to move through each environment. These environments are filled with crazy contraptions and fascinating scenery made from craft materials, much of which reacts to your movements.

You will quickly realize that this is a real-world physics environment that can be manipulated. Your sackperson can run, jump, and even grab hold of and move objects in this world. You will also find tons of objects to collect, which are hidden in bubbles that you pop. Those collectibles become important in the second part of the game because they're the building blocks of game creation.

Tutorials abound, told by the characters or shown through hilarious videos. Each world has a different cultural flavor reflecting different parts of our real world, so in one, you'll be crawling up African animals and, in another, scrambling over temples. Up to four people can explore these worlds together.

After you have made it through the first world's three levels, you can visit the "MyMoon," the place to create user-generated game levels.

The objects you collected in the story mode will appear in your "goodies bag," and they are now available for use in creating your own game level. By going through tutorials in this part of the game, you earn even more goodies, including shapes, craft materials, tools and stickers.

Starting with a blank canvas or an existing template, you put together objects in a variety of ways using string, glue, bolts, rods, winches and more. Depending on your interest, you can create something quickly in under an hour, or spend days tweaking it to earn bragging rights with friends. Once you are finished, you can upload your level online to share.