Little Big Planet 1 you were a wonderful man..er, game

[Lee__Kanker]

I might be the resident hater of all things sony after the ps2, but even I have exceptions

LPB1 in particular had this like..lovely feeling of Childlike Wonder
Everything looking handmade and all the characters being animatronics you the player couldve put together, being able to clearly see all the tricks the levels use, the soundtrack being a mish mash of original compositions and whatever music the developers like (thank you for making me discover Royskopp and the GO! team).

The realistic look actually made it feel more fuzzy like you're imagining you're travelling around the world and this bunch of stickers and a piece of sushi really is japan, how you can see the levels really take place in the middle of some garden or street. And your bod just clearly bering a cardboard rocketship in a bedroom with stars hanging from the ceiling and painted walls..

*dreamy sigh* I dunno there's something about it that makes me swoon

 

[Gorse]

The original LBP epitomizes what I love about video games – excellent visual design, a focus on creativity, and extremely cute and endearing characters. The platforming... was certainly a lovely attempt by a non-Japanese developer, but it got better in the later games – and, really, nobody was expecting it to be Super Mario or Sonic the Hedgehog. In my mind, Little Big Planet is Sony's main platformer franchise – the Astro Bot franchise can go F itself. (They should definitely have used Sackboy as the Playstation mascot after the PS3 – how cool would that be!?)

I had the PSP game and spent countless hours with it. I loved the way all the "characters" were made out of physical, in-game objects, and how the levels would get all touched up and customized as you went through them. I also really just love the way the collectibles pop when you touch them, like they're glass baubles you're breaking open – that's a stroke of genius similar to how the item boxes in Sonic are TV monitors. Also also, any game that features Stephen Fry – in any capacity – should qualify it for GOTY status alone.

Media Molecule definitely had a house style that was completely unique to it, similar to Nintendo EAD or Sonic Team, and I'm a little sour that they aren't a bigger player in the industry today. The LBP series theme, "Get It Together!", easily ranks up there with other top game music, for me, and I also really liked "Sleepyhead", the commercial music for LBP 2. Awesome series, Sony are idiots for not capitalizing on it.

 

[DunkeyKong]

Ah Sackboy, one of the most underrated Sony's mascot. I've always loved it since the first one, such a simple yet amazing character

 

[nachito]

Played a lot of LBP2.
One of my most played games on ps3. So many amazing custom levels online. And all my levels sucked

 

[Lee__Kanker]

The original LBP epitomizes what I love about video games – excellent visual design, a focus on creativity, and extremely cute and endearing characters. The platforming... was certainly a lovely attempt by a non-Japanese developer, but it got better in the later games – and, really, nobody was expecting it to be Super Mario or Sonic the Hedgehog. In my mind, Little Big Planet is Sony's main platformer franchise – the Astro Bot franchise can go F itself. (They should definitely have used Sackboy as the Playstation mascot after the PS3 – how cool would that be!?)

I had the PSP game and spent countless hours with it. I loved the way all the "characters" were made out of physical, in-game objects, and how the levels would get all touched up and customized as you went through them. I also really just love the way the collectibles pop when you touch them, like they're glass baubles you're breaking open – that's a stroke of genius similar to how the item boxes in Sonic are TV monitors. Also also, any game that features Stephen Fry – in any capacity – should qualify it for GOTY status alone.

Media Molecule definitely had a house style that was completely unique to it, similar to Nintendo EAD or Sonic Team, and I'm a little sour that they aren't a bigger player in the industry today. The LBP series theme, "Get It Together!", easily ranks up there with other top game music, for me, and I also really liked "Sleepyhead", the commercial music for LBP 2. Awesome series, Sony are idiots for not capitalizing on it.

Yes the platforming is more akin to bouncing a doll around than feeling like you're in control of character but you know, I almost feel like it's part of the charm; sure they could be tighter but I never played it with the mentality of something like kirby nightmare on dreamland or klonoa where you can really go fast and shred through the level if you put your mind to it. I lime to lazily go through them and even apreciated levels that still made platforming feel challenging and fun despite the games limitations both in the campaign and online; besides the physics system I really liked

Yeah everyone praised astrobot to hell and back, I always thought the character looked dull, and lbp didnt need a bunch of refences to make people smile, it was its own thing! The dlc costumes were a bonus!

Also it had the best most Brilliant use of the ps3 controller, you shake your head with the gyroscope and use the dpad plus flail your arms around and do hand gestures to emote! The was so nintendo-like, using the controller thoroughly like that to give the game more of a personality; I just wish they also used the pressure sensitive buttons (but then again no ps3 game did sadly)

Whatever happened to media molecule? everything they made was gold and it doesnt seem they crunched, the studio looked lovely in interviews..what happened?

The level where you go from mexico to nyc is so magical, it really feels like halph hazardly going from one toy set to another haha! its delightful!

I also have a VERY soft spot for the promo art

 

[Somnia]

I love LBP, still super sad about the servers being unceremoniously shutdown with no meaningful way to archive the existing custom content. I know it's already been brought up in less-than-stellar terms but I do love Astro and I'm glad that his series retains some level of DNA from the LBP series. Creative powerups, fun level setpieces, levels that feel /literally/ alive, using every aspect of the controller possible etc etc.

Considering the ethos of LBP and the PS3's tagline of "It only does everything" you'd think that he'd have become a mascot. I suppose that much like most PS3-era Sony IP that wasn't Uncharted or The Last Of Us it just didn't maintain decent sales. Media Molecule clearly wanted to move on from LBP and while Sumo technically kept the IP alive with LBP3 and later Sackboy's Big Adventure, but nothing stuck. I know 3 was a pretty controversial launch though between the bugs and some hardcore fans feeling it wasn't a big step up from 2 in the way that 2 was from 1. SBA also just didn't have a level editor for some ungodly reason, though it's definitely a fun co-op platformer.

The saddest part is both IP's could exist because they are such different platforming experiences, though I'm sure the average consumer would look at "cutesy mascots with mildly similar proportions" and cry foul if Sony dared to keep both afloat.

Whatever happened to media molecule? everything they made was gold and it doesnt seem they crunched, the studio looked lovely in interviews..what happened?

They're still around but I really don't know what went on with the studio for the past decade or so. They made Tearaway and then seemed to have some kind of development hell type scenario with Dreams where it just kept getting delayed, only for it to seemingly underperform upon release (great game though, highly recommended). They got hit with some layoffs same as most studios and considering they've only launched 1 title in a decade I'm just glad that Sony didn't axe them. We have no clue what they're cooking right now and while part of me does want to see another proper Little Big Planet, I'd obviously rather them get to design something new since they're 3 for 3 as far as quality IP go.

 

[Gorse]

development hell type scenario with Dreams where it just kept getting delayed, only for it to seemingly underperform upon release

While I appreciate MM's intentions, they were much too ambitious with this game and really needed to dial it back. Making the best game creator ever is certainly a lofty goal, but by the late 2010s when it released, nobody was going to do it for free + locked to PS4 hardware anymore. I'd have quite liked to see another Tearaway game, myself.

 

[Skeetos]

While I appreciate MM's intentions, they were much too ambitious with this game and really needed to dial it back. Making the best game creator ever is certainly a lofty goal, but by the late 2010s when it released, nobody was going to do it for free + locked to PS4 hardware anymore. I'd have quite liked to see another Tearaway game, myself.

Dreams was one of my favorite games last year. I bought it for like 9 bucks on sale and played it consistently for like 5 months. I should really load it back up. It's cozy. Just like LBP. Can't believe we lost Sackboy to freakin' glorified advertisement Astrobot.

 

[Somnia]

While I appreciate MM's intentions, they were much too ambitious with this game and really needed to dial it back. Making the best game creator ever is certainly a lofty goal, but by the late 2010s when it released, nobody was going to do it for free + locked to PS4 hardware anymore. I'd have quite liked to see another Tearaway game, myself.

Tons of dope stuff has been produced with Dreams, but the issue is that unlike LBP the barrier for creating even mediocre experiences is pretty high. I think if they had made it a cross-gen AND PC launch they'd have gotten somewhere because a game like that needs as many people as possible creating and collaborating. If Sony was dope they'd throw it on PC with the ability to play all current creations on PS4, but I doubt they're cool enough anymore.

But yeah, ultimately its issue is that the sheer breadth of potential scared away many casual and even intermediate creators from giving it a shot and Sony did a terrible job of marketing its stellar-if-brief campaign so many people still don't even know it has one.

 

[Pokenami]

LBP1 and LBP2 were the games that I put serious hours in. I made a butt load of levels and I even got Team Picked pin from a level I collab in. I'm still sad that the official servers got shutdown but I'm a glad the community went ahead and made their own private servers. Still though, I did wish the official servers were brought back. It sucks even harder that Sony went ahead and delisted LBP3 as an added bonus to put the series under the ground for good like the rest of the IPs that Sony up and abandoned.

Dreams is a pretty good successor to the LBP series since it was made by the Media Molecule (Same great folks who made the series) and I'm playing that game every once and a while. But I know it might end up having the same fate as LittleBigPlanet.