Sackboy is taking over the world. Already, he/she/it (referred to as "him" in the review for simplicity purposes) is probably one of the most recognizable mascot characters created in the past several years. Sackboy is whoever or whatever you want him to be, but underneath he is a cute, emotive character that everyone can and will love. Seriously, studies show that it's 99.99% impossible to actually dislike him. He is a videogame character, a tool to create videogames, and on top of that, an online community avatar and a virtual reflection of the person playing.

The central point of Sackboy's world is his pod, which is a little customizable cardboard capsule floating above LittleBigPlanet. From the pod, via a giant Sixaxis controller, Sackboy can play, create and share, or invite up to 3 other friends to join him to do so. It is also here where everything that the LBP community is involved in becomes available. There's a ticker that explains how your friends are doing, menu items which grade your progress, a huge selection of user-created levels, games and content, and more. Everything is presented in a very simple, effective interface within the pod. There are also tools to report or grief players, content and whatnot to cut down on inappropriate or "rude" behavior. LittleBigPlanet is a feature-rich game, and not everyone will choose to get involved with or absolutely love every aspect of it. It's a guarantee that pretty much anyone will find one part that really clicks.

LBP has always been touted as a game playing, creating, sharing type of project, it was great to see Media Molecule put so much time into developing an actual full-fledged Story mode for the game. The plot itself is standard; Inhabitants of LittleBigPlanet have started disappearing and Sackboy is appointed by the King to figure out what's going on. His journey takes him across 9 spectacular, themed locations, each with multiple stages, mini-games and "boss fights" in his quest to solve the mystery. The Story mode is where you come to grips with Sackboy's gameplay controls. Running, jumping, grabbing, swinging, placing stickers, using the innovative "popit" menu and manipulating the environment covers most of his basic actions. The game does a excellent job of hand-holding at first, with a relatively easy beginning level and plenty of tutorial videos and pop-ups presented within the levels themselves. LittleBigPlanet plays like a 2D side-scrolling platformer of old, but with a much more complex physics model in which everything in the world, including our friendly little Sackboy, adheres to. The physics-based jumping, and the momentum in particular, takes some getting used to and is sometimes a sore point. While being presented in a 2 dimensional point of view, the world actually exists on 3 background "planes". Plane switching happens automatically to an extent, and you don't have to always move into the background or foreground on purpose, but there are times when it is a required skill. As with the physics, jumping between planes can be unpredictable sometimes and may result in an unhappy squished/torched/impaled/electrocuted Sackboy. The Story mode starts out easy, candy-coated and happy, but believe it or not, it gets a little darker in tone and actually difficult in parts. Scattered throughout each level are a number of sometimes well-hidden prize bubbles, which when located, unlocks everything from new construction pieces/objects, to costumes, pieces of music, stickers and decorations. Also, upon completing a level, you are similarly awarded a number of important items based on your performance. Levels additionally contain smaller point bubbles, which are used to increase your overall score. If you want the maximum amount of tools/objects at your disposal for the Create mode, then a pretty thorough play through of the Story mode is required. After running through the entire Story mode multiple times (blame Trophies), it is still extremely fun and playable, even for multiple players.

Besides being so charming, the Story mode is rather exceptional for the reason being that it was entirely built using the game's tools that players can use when making their own game content within the creation mode. On top of that, Media Molecule decided to not hide how they went about creating the complex environments and objects within the game. Literally everything within the game, including the basic levels, mini-games and "boss" fights can made from scratch in the same exact way that the developers did. Of course you could just borrow and modify the pre-created assets and go crazy as well. The Create mode itself is a fairly complex toolbox for developing and sharing anything from full blown original levels, to proof-of-concept "machines", to just trippy abstract experiments. From the brief beta version alone, we've had gorgeous well-designed masterpieces such as the "The World of Colour" or "Azure Palace" stages, almost perfect recreations (within reason) of Sonic the Hedgehog and Super Mario Bros. levels, giant walking mechanized tanks, a virtual calculator and rendition of Tetris, and even a 2-cycle combustion engine powered vehicle. The game clearly sparks creativity even from those who aren't usually the creative type. The engine and tool sets do have limits obviously, and seeing how far the community can build within those constraints is what is so amazing to watch. Also incredible is the fact that everything was created just using a Sackboy, a Sixaxis/DualShock 3, and the virtual popit menu... no keyboard, mouse, drawing tablets or anything. There tons of tutorials and videos which can be instantly accessed, and are needed at first. The creative tools are overall very simple to get the hang of. There are sometimes issues trying to figure out exactly how certain creations are going to behave, and that's why a lot of experimentation and testing is required. The options thankfully make that quite easy to do. The Create mode isn't perfect, but in the grand scheme of things, for a console-based development sandbox, LittleBigPlanet is without peer. Via Sackboy's pod, the uploaded and published creations can be searched through, played, graded, tagged, marked as favorites and more.

LittleBigPlanet is a beautiful, happy, extremely eye-pleasing game that will put a smile on anyone's face who plays or merely watches it. Like Sackboy himself, it's impossible to not find the game both attractive and aesthetically pleasing. There is not a single aspect of LBP that's not loaded with production values. The cardboard kindergarten diorama look and colorful presentation fits the theme perfectly, and the filmic techniques and animation provides a near pre-rendered CG look to the whole package. LittleBigPlanet looks like nothing else out there... well, because there is nothing else similar out there to really compare it to. And the music, oh the music. Even though the game suffered a small delay thanks to some issues with content in one of the licensed songs, the audio is just as perfectly keyed in with the theme as the visuals are. The song selections for the Story mode (which can be unlocked and used in the Create mode) are really exceptional. Even the now lyric-less rendition of the potentially offensive piece of music works well. The sound effects are crisp and 5.1 surround sound is used to a nice effect.

The reason why we held off on publishing the review, was to test the online play and sharing once the retail servers went up. The beta was a good enough indication of what to expect, and with additional tools and community features, the full version takes it one step further. The online experience started off well enough, but was quickly hamstrung by a tidal wave of users logging on, uploading content, and jumping into to co-op games. It will probably be a few days before everything is optimized and streamlined by Sony, especially with such a "always connected" online-heavy game. When it worked, it worked very well. Voice chat sounded good quality, friends were able to meet up in a pod, and a number of story stages were finished with 100% completion. When it was bad, it took minutes to log on or join up with others, and publishing content was a no go. Hopefully the online issues are sorted out soon, and giving the benefit of the doubt, I expect they will be.

What else can be said? LittleBigPlanet was aiming extremely high, and Media Molecule came exceptionally close to hitting the mark. There are a few gameplay issues, the Create mode still has a few glitches and the online servers aren't quite doing their part at the moment, but the overall package and potential is unbelievable. We will probably not find another uniquely enjoyable, family friendly and completely creative game in the near (or possibly distant) future. Sackboy is here to stay, and yes, fun has indeed overcome.