Review by: Danielle Riendeau

While the original LittleBigPlanet was an absolute revelation, a platform for creativity as much as a creative platformer, it is this second installment that truly makes good on the promise of making game design accessible and fun. It does so by offering a story mode full of inspiration, an incredibly deep suite of creation tools backed by an intuitive interface, and a robust, thriving community of builders with well over three million user-generated levels to try out.

As you start up, you’ll be thrust right into the story mode, which is leaps and bounds more involved than it was in the original. Centered around the premise that you (as sackboy or sackgirl) must help a wacky assortment of characters defeat the “negitivatron” by traversing strange and beautiful worlds full of 2D gameplay, it’s astoundingly fun. The narrative is kid-friendly and borderline nonsensical, but clever, funny and self-referential as well. It’s really just an excuse to cavort around the six worlds, which range wildly from psychedelic forests, funky factories, out of this world space locales, and bizarre, faux-gothic cake factories.

Each world has an overarching theme and art style, but the specific aesthetic of each and every stage is wonderfully unique, often a jumble of crafty styles. The Factory for a Better Tomorrow blends 1950s Americana with Soviet propaganda and funky metallic textures for a distinctly utilitarian vibe. Levels in the final world combine elements of old-school arcade games with craft versions of familiar spaceships and mechanics straight out of 80s arcade shoot-em-ups.

It’s in this mixing and matching of styles where LBP2 achieves its brilliance. While the controls are not quite as pixel-perfect as, say, a Mario game, things have been tightened considerably, and so many new game mechanics are introduced beyond the simple run and jump that it almost defies the comparison. On top of the hop and bop, you’re constantly given new tools that change the mechanics, including a grappling hook, a variety of projectile shooters (sort of like hats with guns mounted), a pair of gloves that allow you to grab, throw or move heavy objects, and so on.

The most drastic differences come in the form of various mounts that change the gameplay completely, making for stages that borrow from traditional side scrolling and top down shooters. In some stages you control a targeting reticule around the screen while the stage auto scrolls, while in others you control your vehicle/animal directly, dodging projectiles and shooting your way through swarms of baddies and obstacles.

The story mode is a fresh and dynamic experience, but it really serves to spark ideas in the player – since everything was designed with the tools in Create mode, it’s a subtle push to go in and try your hand at the master controls.