Ever since playing the first LittleBigPlanet game on the PS3 I have been a big fan of the concept of Play, Create Share; and I believe that LittleBigPlanet has been at the helm of pushing the whole concept. Now Double Eleven Limited has been tasked with literally bringing the whole concept to your finger tips via Sony’s new handheld Playstation Vita.
During my visit to Sony’s Vita event I managed to get some time to sit down with Little Big Planet Vita, and I found myself absorbed into the fun little word just like always. I felt at home with the game for the most part, up until I got to some obstacles which required you to make use of the touch and tilt features. I was a little lost at first, but after I was guided by a lovely lady at the event I managed to get into the swing of things.
Some of the cool uses of the touch implementation in the first level I played included playing a piano by tapping the keys which were embedded into the background; another saw me having to push cushioned blocks in and out of the wall by using the back touch-panel to push them forward and the touch-screen to push them back inwards, this allowed me to help Sackboy climb his way up a level. Up until this point I was very curious about the back touch-panel, as it could possibly get confusing knowing where your hidden fingers are touching. Thankfully developer Double Elven Limited has our back by showing an on-screen icon to let us know where our fingers are touching. One of the other levels I played was one I’ve seen done on the console version before, except this time with… yes you guessed it – Touch Controls! It was a top down vehicle based stage where I had to use touch to move from lane to lane dodging obstacles ahead whilst the level speeds up. Whilst this type of game in particular exists on the various smart-phones out there, they are no match for the Vita’s beautiful five inch screen.
With the ability to carry over all previously shared items from the console games, plus create new content specifically for the Vita version – Sony has promised that LittleBigPlanet will be the biggest in the series yet. I don’t deny that the creativity will be pushed beyond the previous limits with this exciting new hand-held edition of LittleBigPlanet. Even creating a level which is sometimes seen as overly complicated seems like it will be a ton of fun in this game. From my twenty minutes or so sitting with the game it is clear to see that LittleBigPlanet and the Vita go together like a marriage, as both the software and the hardware compliment each other in every way.
