Review by: Brendon Lindsey

Every so often, we play a game that just makes us smile. We may be able to explain why; we may not. Either way, they remind us of why we love playing video games, and the emotions they're capable of eliciting. LittleBigPlanet on the PSP is such a game. Like LBP on PS3, it has an undeniable charm that will make you fall in love with it from the moment Stephen Fry begins instructing you as you run through the opening credits. What surprised me most isn't how intrinsically happy LBP PSP is, but how similar it is to the PS3 version in almost every way, and how it even improved upon it in others.

For those of you unfamiliar with the original LittleBigPlanet, it's a physics-based platformer, with an adorable Sackboy (or Sackgirl) hero. You jump, grab, pull, swing, and push your way through great levels, designed in such a way that there's nothing else out there like it – except the other LBP, that is. The PSP version features 30 brand new story levels, based in seven unique settings. Like the PS3's, each is filled with composite characters asking you to do things for them, as you find your way through the level's puzzles and hazards.

Amazingly, the physics of LBP work perfectly on the PSP. I expected something with LBP skin that played only slightly similar (due largely to the fact that SCE Cambridge, not Media Molecule, was developing it), but it plays just like it does on the console – and in some ways is arguably better, mainly due to its lack of ‘floatiness’.

Floatiness was one of the biggest complaints many had about LittleBigPlanet. The way Sackboy seemed to float when you moved and jumped made precise control sometimes difficult. That element is almost eradicated in LBP PSP, making it much easier to perform delicate jumps, and hit just the right spot to grab that item bubble.