With the street date lifted it's now only a matter of days until every retailer starts selling their copies of LittleBigPlanet Vita. So, should gamers pick it up?
If you've played a LittleBigPlanet game before then you've already got a solid idea of what to expect from LBP Vita. Despite having a different developer it plays just like previous games in the series. So I'm going to focus on what's different and why I think this is such an important title.
This year we've heard news story after news story about how mobile is taking over the portable gaming scene. People are eating up those $0.99 apps. Want to see something kind of interesting? If you have an iOS device, go to your App Store, browse the Top 25, and look at the Top Grossing apps. Notice anything peculiar? They're mostly "free" apps (as of the time of this post there were three apps out of twenty-five that actually had an upfront cost). But with all this hype (warranted though it may be) we've yet to really see any shots fired back from Sony, Nintendo, or their big developers.
That was until today. The reason LittleBigPlanet PS Vita is such an important title this year is that it's the single best argument that has been made in favor of dedicated handhelds.
Controls
I've played a few platformers on iOS in the last few years. Most of them fill their touchscreen "quota" by using a virtual d-pad, a virtual jump button, and a virtual attack button. Then it's like they just stopped. They've done their touchscreen duties, now they can release their app that basically prints money. Other developers have broken the mold and used gestures for control. Swipe to the right to start running right, and so on. Again, they've fulfilled their touchscreen quota, so they're done.
LittleBigPlanet Vita doesn't have virtual d-pads or virtual jump buttons. It has the real deal. So when it came to adding touchscreen controls to LBP's levels Tarsier had to get creative. LBP has blocks you drag with your finger to make yourself a stepping stone, or to engage a mechanism that drops prize bubbles. It has blocks to tap on the screen to push back a layer, and then you can tap on the back panel to bring them forward again. And while you're playing keep an eye out for things that are touch-sensitive that aren't immediately apparent, like musical instruments. These are the kinds of creative ideas that despite having the advantage of a touchscreen for YEARS, mobile developers have yet to bring us.
Side Levels / Arcade
LittleBigPlanet Vita has a load of side levels just like its predecessors. What it has that is new is the Arcade room. You unlock mini-games as you play through the story levels. Here's the thing. Each of these side levels and arcade games feels like something that would have been a $0.99 app on a mobile device, especially the Arcade levels. And they aren't content to stick with the kinds of challenges that worked on PS3. Imagine my surprise when, after starting a challenge level, I got a diagram asking me to turn my Vita 90 degrees into a portrait orientation. Once the level loaded I was treated with a game of "Whack-a-Mole" with Sackboys instead of moles. Another vertical challenge level is a local-multiplayer block dropping game that supports four people on the same Vita!
The first arcade level I unlocked is a Pipe Dream style puzzle game, in a similar vein to the hacking mini-game in Bioshock. But what blew me away was that it has its own 1-2-3-Star scoring system, uses both touch and physical controls, and has who knows how many levels. This could have been a $2 or $3 mobile app easily.
In Conclusion
I haven't even made it that far into the game yet. I've only finished the first Creator Curator's world. If all of this is available at this point, I can't wait to see what's next. Media Molecule, Double 11 and Tarsier have crafted an amazing Vita game that not only shows what the system is capable of, but also cleverly shows what mobile has yet to offer gamers. LittleBigPlanet Vita is a must buy for any Vita owner.