With LittleBigPlanet being one of the bestselling games for the Playstation 3, LittleBigPlanet and its Play, Share and Create mantra has finally made its way to PlayStation Portable via both a UMD version and a download version (particularly useful if you have a PSP Go).

The plot for the PSP version takes place just after the first LittleBigPlanet, where your Sack character decides to go on Holiday. Where you will be guiding your Sackboy or Sackgirl around various places around the world like Australia, China and LA; unlike the first or second LittleBigPlanet games where you have to save the day, players can just chill back and relax.

Gameplay: Anyone new to the series will know that LittleBigPlanet is a 2D puzzle platformer, if you have played 2D platformer games in the past on various consoles. You’ll be guiding your Sack character through each level as you progress your way through around the world. As you go through each level you’ll collecting prize bubbles which will have a tool item which you can use to make your own levels in LittleBigPlanet.

Not only that, you can also pick up stickers which can be placed anywhere in the game; some puzzles will require you to place a sticker on something to activate a switch to move on.  During the first level in each area you play through you’ll also get costumes to dress up your sack character. There isn’t really much else to say about its gameplay other than you’re using the analog stick to move, and the directional pad to control your sack character’s emotions from happy, angry, sad and worried.

Anyone who has played LittleBigPlanet will find the lives system familiar, whereby if you pass a checkpoint and you die you end up back at the checkpoint, but instead of having 4 chances through each check point the PSP version takes away 100 points away from you instead, which makes it less-frustrating for players when it comes to certain parts of levels that became tricky to get passed. One downside to the PSP version is that there is no multiplayer so unlike the PS3 version you can’t with your friends online.

Graphics and Sound: For a game that looked really good on the Playstation 3, the PSP version of LittleBigPlanet does a good job on its graphics, visuals and animations making it feel more like a Playstation 2 game but being ported from the PS3 version. Most of the levels in Story mode are quite well detailed, and Media Molecule sure knows how to make creative levels in the LittleBigPlanet universe. The only thing you may find annoying in the whole game is that there a lot of long loading times which can seem to take forever when you’re waiting for a level to load: this affects both UMD and Downloadable version too.

Fans of the series will also notice that Stephen Fry provides more voicing and helps you out during the game, right from its opening video to its first three levels at the beginning of the game. Most of the other voicing is random gibberish.

The soundtrack also provides a great touch for LittleBigPlanet lovers, and newcomers who own a PSP, and you’ll be able to use the tracks when making your own levels plus there is more DLC stuff you can download from the store.

Overall: As a fan of the LittleBigPlanet series I was amazed how well the game played on the handheld. It’s a shame that it does not support online multiplayer, but you can at least create your own levels with the tools and materials have collected through the Story. You can also share and upload your own levels locally and online which makes it feel solid and close to the Playstation 3 version on its creativity.

Beating the main story can easily take you around 4-5 hours to finish making it feel really short, but there’s plenty of DLC content to pick up from the Playstation Store – though may take a while longer to download via your PSP due to its slower wi-fi connection than that of the PlayStation 3.

Fans of the series will get the most out of LittleBigPlanet but with a few changes taken in and out.


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