[ http://www.mediamolecule.com/2008/09/25/inspiration-in-motion/ ]

Plenty more places to be filled

Media Molecule has pledged to give out a further 25,000 codes for the LittleBigPlanet beta ’soon’.

The beta, which kicked off earlier this week, gives lucky participants a small taste of some of the pre-made levels in the game, as well as a hefty chunk of the Create mode, which allows users to make levels, mini games and… pretty much anything.

“Over the next week there are over 25,000 codes being given out,” said a MM representative on the official forums.

“The LittleBigPlanet News Site will be giving out more details,” they added.

So you’ve still plenty of chances to get on it, if you haven’t already. In the meantime, you should check out this brilliant rendition of Tetris someone has made with LBP’s seemingly infinitely mod-able Create mode.

Mike Jackson
—

BFN,

fp.

Official Sony newsletter says so

An official Sony newsletter sent to US PS3 owners over night says that LittleBigPlanet - possibly the PS3’s biggest title of the year - will be out almost two weeks early.

The PlayStation Underground email - a subscription-only newsletter from SCEA, featuring LittleBigPlanet clearly says “available October 7″, according to the screen cap (from Platformnation) pictured below.

The recently-announced release date for US, however, had the title pinned for an October 21 release (October 24 in UK).

It could be a simple mistake that slipped through, but being as anticipated as LBP is, it’s enough to spark excitement in every Sackboy’s sack. We’ve fired Sony UK a message.
CVG Staff
—

BFN,

fp.

The hype for this game is massive but 200% justified.. absolutely brilliant!!

BFN,

fp.

It is the title that all current & future generation video games console titles should take note of, and learn from.

I could have gushed on about the game-play, the characters, the costumes, and other inventory items, the in-game world objects, and the excellent focus on the action, but that would be spoiling the joy that anybody else would receive first-hand like we experienced last night.

Of course, you may hate it, as everybody’s tastes in gaming are different. I am a first person shooter, martial arts, and racing game fan, and “LittleBigPlanet” has none of these elements (well, to a point, but I’ll not spoil that either!). My son who played last night also said mid-session that he had “forgotten that it wasn’t a game where you had to attack someone” as he was happily playing along in an environment where you can trust kids to learn problem solving skills, and adopt team-working strategies, rather than seeing how much blood & gore they can extract from a random character, or how to hot-wire a car.

It was a very refreshing change, and the time passed only too quickly before he had to go to bed.

I can’t wait for him to get home from school this evening so we can continue.

I only hope I can trust myself not to peek at the next puzzle before he returns

(My 7 year old & 10 year old showed no interest in playing; sticking to “Mercenaries 2: World In Flames” [PS3], and “Runescape” (PC online), respectively. Part of me wants to keep the game to myself & my youngest, and part of me wants to share it with them… but then my time with the game will be much less as they take-over *my* PS3).

Oh well… it’s almost 7 hours before they get home…

BFN,

fp.

After being unconvinced by all the marketing, hype, rumour & speculation for months, the last 2.5 hours of tag-team offline multi-playing with my 6 year old (”Awww… Sackboy… he’s so cute”) was all that I needed to understand “LittleBigPlanet”.

I tried to keep the game-play to myself for the first twenty minutes of the enthralling introduction/credits/tutorial side-scrolling visual wonderment, but gave in to the seemingly constant interventions by said small child’s open-mouthed delight, “Did I mention I hadn’t had a go yet, Daddy? That’s because I haven’t!… When is it my turn?… Come on already, give me the controller” etc.

A review of this title based on such a limited time could never do it justice. We only touched the surface of the ‘Planet, and what it will be capable of.

Any review, however, should include just three words… “Just play it”.

It IS *that* good.

But those who know me, or have come to ignore me, should realise I do have something further to add.

Do you remember the feeling you had when you loaded up the first “Crash Bandicoot” title on the original PlayStation when the cheeky marsupial turned to you & raised his eyebrow?

Do you recall the many hours (and coins) spent on “Donkey Kong” as the Jumpman (Mario Mario) Carpenter character seeing how ‘High can you go’ towards the next 25 metre level only to be thwarted by a barrel that was faster than your little legs could carry you?

And think back to the times spent with the same gaming premise but the differing approaches of “Hunchback”, “Manic Miner”, “Frak!”, “Prince of Persia”, “Chuckie Egg”, “Commander Keen”, “Super Mario Bros.”, “Sonic The Hedgehog”, & “Tomb Raider”?

Well, throw all these happy hours, nay, years of gaming into a bag labelled ‘Media Molecule’, shake it up, and stick your hand in.

Guess what you’ll find… that’s right, “CrashKongbackManicPersiaEggCosmicMarioHedgehogRaider”… a very large score at Scrabble, or the PS3’s finest offering to date, and more succinctly packaged with a rather more convenient (and memorable) name of “LittleBigPlanet”.

It is like all previous platform games you have ever played, but unlike any other game you have ever seen.

It is familiar but highly original.
It is the title that is the current video games console generation’s finest offering to date.

All those involved should be congratulated for their vision, design, execution, and by no means least, their ability to capture exactly what is needed to convince everyone that the PS3 is a more than worthy successor to the previous iterations of the Sony PlayStation brand.

It was just earlier today I was saying [ http://threespeech.com/blog/2008/09/thesixthaxis-on-ps3-and-mass-appeal/ ] that the PlayStation 3 “is portrayed as a device for adults, with very few titles for children, or for families”.

This title will change everything.
This title is The Next Big Thing.
This title is the past, the present, and the future all rolled into one.

This is Living.

Now please excuse me, I have to go & have just one more go…

BFN,

fp.