I’m really excited to go back to the world of Little Big Planet with the upcoming “Little Big Planet 3.” Sure, it’s cutesy, and I often hear fellow gamers criticizing it for the sometimes simplistic puzzle design and short story mode, but I ALWAYS have a great time playing. I adore the hand-sewn, buttoned-up art style, paper mache crafting and level builder, and the (sometimes literally) bust-through gameplay that have made the last two titles so brilliant. Say what you will about the “difficulty,” these games bring you a great experience and the cooperative play is a joy.
At today’s E3 press conference we learned about new characters, mechanics and more fun stuff coming at us in the return to the whimsical world of “Little Big Planet 3.”
Three new characters, Oddsock, Toggle and Swoop, will now join Sackboy and Sackgirl as they try to make their way through the various puzzles in story mode. Oddsock, a frog-like fellow with a short stature, can wall-jump and is faster than the standard Sack characters. Toggle, a big, lumpy marshmallow, is the biggest and strongest of the new friends, but he also shrinks down to size when leaping from high speed platforms. The last new addition, Swoop, is a pebble-like bird (with an adorable, Muppet-like face!) that can fly about and carry his sack-patriots across gaps.
So what does this mean for the series? Likely we’ll be seeing much more complicated puzzles that may require up to 4 friends to complete and earn all the treasures in perfect form. It will be interesting to see if you can find friends online for your local completion or if AI will be available for local play. If nothing else, I’m sure the local cooperative play has returned, so you can ask three friends to suit up with you (I recommend Avenger’s attire) in pursuit of a Platinum Trophy (100% of all collectibles is usually a requirement).
One more great announcement: Sony stated that you will be able to play all of the user-generated levels from previous games as they’ll be porting them over to the online “LBP3” hub. They didn’t say much about the new tools that would be available in the level builder, but I’m sure we’ll see more details unfold as the game gets closer to release. Currently, “Little Big Planet 3” is slated for November, 2014, so be sure to stay tuned for more LBP news here on Big Shiny Robot!