This is one of those games that has really shaped me as a person. It’s the game that got me into creating stuff and even art. There has never been a better level editor in any other game out there. The game’s main story mode is also filled with memorable stages, characters, music and bosses, but the one thing that really tied it all together was the online. Unfortunately, it’s no longer active due to severe attacks, this shutdown also happened for LBP1, Vita and the PS3 version of 3. Anyway, the online mode for this game was really something special, as levels were being published every day at every minute by some talented and not so talented people. You could earn user made items and costumes, and even play them with your friends. Even building levels on your moon can be done with the help of online friends, it was like a genuine collaborative effort.

This game really does deserve all the praise it gets, and for once, critics knew exactly what they were praising. I doubt we will ever see another game like this again, but I do believe Dreams is a very close second.

If you were to get one of the LittleBigPlanet games at their respective peaks; this is definitely the best choice of the main three.

Its unique charm built upon its predecessor, with more gameplay elements which feel natural to the game. An entirely expanded-upon system of creation for user-generated content. Being one of the pioneers of the UGC genre, the game deserves a lot of acknowledgment just for that alone.

The story itself is, just like the first game, not very notable. However, the difficulty curve is a lot more reasonable for completion, yet maintaining a similar or tougher difficulty to 100% it.

With LBP1's well-chosen soundtrack, it is difficult for LBP2 to outdo it, but I think it is reasonable to say that the OST for this game is much more atmospheric and suited for a large variety of uses, whereas the first game seemed more constrained to meshing with the story.

Personally, I think the character-building in the first game is better, but utilising the third-most important addition to the game (being sackbots) as characters was definitely the way to do it, as the further ramifications of this led to insanely creative levels. Now that I've mentioned that sackbots are the "third-most important addition", I would say that the two additions I consider to have fundamentally changed the way LBP works is the Controllinator and the Microchip; being able to completely alter the way LBP is played and works. That is not even to mention other cool stuff like the Music Sequencer, new Power-Ups, Versus levels, etc.

Unfortunately, as LBP2 is PS3-exclusive, and the LBP Trilogy's PS3 servers are shut down permanently, the user-generated and online aspects are sadly absent - however, the creativity that was shown back then was phenomenal.

Due to circumstances beyond my control, this review of LittleBigPlanet 2 is of the single player campaign and nothing else. The PS3/Vita servers were shut off, and I didn't jump on these games soon enough to experience the community surrounding these games.

At a glance, LBP2 doesn't seem very different from the original. It's built off the original, after all. Anything you unlocked or created in LBP1 can be carried over to LBP2 automatically with no consequence, which is great. Stephen Fry's narration is still here, enveloping you like a warm blanket every time he speaks. Loading times have been shortened dramatically, which is always nice. However, it doesn't take long at all to discover all the new goodies beneath the surface.

LBP1's story mode was fairly run-of-the-mill. The whole thing mostly felt like it was working within the limitations of the engine. LBP2 introduces so many new mechanics that half the time, I couldn't believe that the inventive and unique levels were all created within the same engine that any player could pick up and use themselves. Every single stage brings something new and fun to the table, and is paced well to the point that none of the mechanics feel like they overstay their welcome. The entire story mode just flows. It's also aided by a full cast of fun characters, each with their own respective locations, and an antagonistic threat to seal the deal.

I may never experience the phenomenon that was the LittleBigPlanet community. What I can say is that it's clear to see that this game goes all in on the community aspect. The creation tools are easy to pick up, difficult to master, and flexible enough to create some crazy shit. 80% of this game's trophies are dedicated to playing online multiplayer, creating/publishing levels, and playing other users' content. MediaMolecule recognized that they had something special with the first game, and fully capitalized on the aspects of player expression for the sequel. I kinda regret not being there to experience it myself.

While it's unfortunate that the online functionality is no more (I'm holding out for some fan servers), I'm really satisfied with this game as a 2D platformer. Grab some friends locally and enjoy expressing yourself in this weird and wonderful game. Even as an offline-only experience, LittleBigPlanet 2 manages to be worth it in my eyes. If that's not the mark of a damn good game, I don't know what is.

Sometime following the release of LittleBigPlanet 2 in 2011, it was announced that Media Molecule was teaming up with Toyota, of all companies, to do a promotion for the Prius. Assets made to look like a Prius were given away, and a contest was held. If there's any indication of how that probably went, the entry my older brother submitted is as far away from palatable marketing as one can get. The description of LittleBigPrius Goes On a Killing Spree simply reads, "Go green with your road rage". You are trapped in a small cardboard box with an infinite number of rodents that never stop spawning, and your only goal is to kill as many of them as possible. There is no win state, and you cannot lose; it goes on like this until you get bored and decide to quit. In hindsight, the reading on what LBPrius Goes On a Killing Spree is is something you can spot from outer space: a counter-cultural shitpost used to disengage from a deplorable marketing scheme and throw discussion elsewhere. I was probably around nine or ten years old at the time, and he was eleven.

Almost by design, LittleBigPlanet 2 was a game that not only encouraged all shades of creativity but was particularly interested in seeing things through a more punk-oriented lens; we just didn't realize it at the time. You see that old man? He looks at the things you want to see and scoffs at them every time. And sure, he might be right, but fuck him! If you want to make a game where you have to survive in a Taco Bell as burrito-shaped bombs fall from the sky, you go, girl! If you want to have a game where the shark from Jaws is replaced with several miniature buttocks that shit an unrelenting stream of plasma at you until you die, he can't tell you no. If you want to create what you think a baller-ass house would look like, that can be considered a game now, as are all of the wildly inventive ideas you can think of. There is a reason why the emo community thrived on this game for as long as it did. I wasn't personally a part of it, and as a child, I found it to be quite off-putting. But on a platform where the limits of your creativity are stretched to "don't cuss and don't draw dicks," it only makes sense that the emotional at heart would have found a home, and I find that sentiment to be indicative of this package as a whole.

It's a shame that all of this is a footnote now. In a figurative and literal sense, the creations of old don't really exist anymore. Although everything is backed up in LittleBigPlanet 3, there are enough glitches in that game to shave a creator's vision off a mile from where it was etched. The additional layers added to the play space are brought over to old levels almost by accident. Unless the level you're playing on is Wiggler World 2, it's super easy to bypass levels entirely. The best example of this is raced-oriented levels. With this newfound ability, you don't even have to start races to jump to the exit of a level immediately. But I suppose that's all a byproduct of it being the only archive nowadays. I guess it was always an inevitability that the servers wouldn't stay online for long, but never in a million years did I think they would be used to spread hate before vanishing. As the eulogy this is, I'm almost bound by a clandestine oath to say that this is one of the greatest games of all-time, and it kind of is? But it's not. I don't know how we ever let it slide as children, but LittleBigPlanet 2 has to be one of the most egregiously over-monetized games I owned back then. The download code we received with the Special Edition when we got our copy was chock full of DLC to be sold at later dates—and we never even redeemed the thing. It expired before we even knew we had it in our house. Some of the DLC was great; the PlayStation Move pack that wound up being bundled with the Special Edition, for example, was an endless source of joy for us. But most of it was costumes, and they were just... whatever. The creativity of dressing up and finding new ways to look fancy was almost stripped by the corporate need to boost sales, and in retrospect, that's a damn shame. It's easy to remember the good times, but in doing so, I believe it's also necessary to be entirely honest.

With the online component stripped and left with only its campaign, LittleBigPlanet 2 is hardly worth visiting nowadays outside of a cursory glance done out of curiosity. But for the memories it's given me, I will always respect it.

File this one under “Perfect Sequels.”

In the late 2000’s, a magical game called LittleBigPlanet released for the PS3. On the surface, it was a cute 2.5D platformer with a simple Story Mode where you go through themed obstacle courses to make it from point A to point B. The visuals were beautiful and the sense of the world’s grand scale made your tiny hacky-sack person all the more endearing. Everything in the world looked like it was hand-crafted which made it apparent that they wanted you to tap into your imagination to fully enjoy the experience. You got to customize your little SackThing however you wanted and make them emote while you goofed around with your friends. You even got to customize the little ship that your character uses to select the levels you wanted to play.

While all of this was a great foundation, the Story Mode was simply means to an end: the developers wanted YOU to make your own levels like they did. Everything stated above is only a third of the game. Another significant part of the game is the Create Mode, which is the entire point of the hand-crafted theme that the game flaunts. In LBP, players could easily make their own levels using the powerful, yet easy-to-grasp level editor using all the goodies they collected in the Story Mode. The level editor seems overwhelming at first, but literally every aspect has a short tutorial. This might sound tedious, but each tutorial is optional, yet is narrated gently and delightfully by Stephen Fry who makes it fun to listen and learn. Afterward, you could go online and play all sorts of levels made by other users, whether it was a platformer, some sort of roleplaying map, a tech demo, a shark survival, monster truck rallies, fighting games with silly physics, PvP races, and the list goes on. Despite its primitive restrictions, people were capable of making truly magnificent things that wouldn’t seem possible at first glance, like working calculators or tic-tac-toe with an AI. Plus, the general concept of an online UGC video game was pretty novel at the time, especially on a console. Suffice to say, LBP was a fun, impressive game that really wanted you flex your creative muscles.

And then LittleBigPlanet 2 came along and obliterated LBP1 in every single aspect.

LBP2 takes everything that was great about LBP1 and cranks it up to11. Not only were there quality of life improvements across the board, but they did an exceptional job of filling in all the missing bits and pieces that you could possibly ask for. In the level editor, they added Logic Gates, which were little computer chips and other gadgets that gave you far more control over how anything and everything in your levels functioned. No longer did you have to rely on overly-complicated, yet primitive solutions to do something simple, you could just plop down a few Logic Gates and get it done in a minute. Plus, they gave you even more development tools at your disposal to make your levels more like a true video game. Enemies were easier to make, bosses were easier to make, multi-level narratives were easier to make and string together. There were lots of customizable power ups at your disposal that made creating your level around an interesting central mechanic easier. The new Story Mode was far more intricate and advanced than the old one, once again showcasing what was possible in the level editor. You could even make your own custom soundtrack with MIDI-like instruments if you wanted. You had SackBots which were NPCs you can change the behavior for, making them perform specific actions or just speak to the player. You could use a gadget called “the Controlinator” to make advanced vehicles, massive machines, or completely custom characters and bind it to your controller inputs. Players could now make things like Battleship, top-down racers, horror games, puzzles with serious depth, spectacular boss fights, collect-a-thons, survival gauntlets, and so much more. There were even people making feature length films with the new NPC system and cutscene tools, it was absolutely insane. To top it all off, if you had LBP1, you got to transfer EVERYTHING you obtained from LBP1 to LBP2. Music, clothes, building materials, objects, stickers, DLCs, your character’s outfits, everything. The amount of things you could do and how easy it was to build and play was truly mind-blowing. There's no doubt that this game has inspired people to pursue game development in their future.

Truly my only real complaint was the seemingly endless onslaught of DLC. It was cool that you could dress your character like Solid Snake or Ratchet or Jak or even Sonic with official costumes, but the prices would add up sort of quickly. Then there were level kits, where it was fairly common for them to lock an entirely new game mechanic like anti-gravity, wall-jumping, and gliding behind a paywall. By comparison, it was usually more worth it to get level kits, as they would have a small story mode, tons of new materials to work with, new music, a new central game mechanic, and even a few costumes thrown in for only a few bucks. Otherwise, they actually gave out quite a few free things from time to time.

Despite the years of experience between all the developers at Media Molecule, having LBP1 and 2 be their first games after forming a new company is astounding. When you play these games, it’s obvious that so much thought, love, and care went into them. For quite a few years, you could tell when Media Molecule made a game just based on the consistent quality, how detailed everything was and how there tends to be an emphasis on letting your creativity flow. Their mantra for their studio was to keep the amount of staff small so everyone could be tightly-knight and focused, which is a mentality that apparently inspired Hideo Kojima of all people when making his own studio. Their focus certainly shows in their games and LBP2 is easily my favorite game to come from their studio. Quite frankly, it’s also in my top 10 favorite games of the 2010’s.

This game dude. This was my LIFE from like 2011 to 2013. Basically my first ever experience with social media. Pretty much takes everything that the first game did and expands upon it in such a large way that it basically makes the original game obsolete. There were SO MANY good community levels and tons of players online to hang out with. This was one of the first games I ever stood up all night playing. As time has moved on though, so has this game. The servers were shut down in 2021 very unceremoniously, and I haven't spoken to anyone I used to play this game with in years. The single player mode of this game is cool, but the community was really where the game shined, and frankly that aspect is completely lost to time. You really just had to have been there.

I used to play the hell out of this game back in the day, and the memories I've made during that time will never fade away. Creating cool shit and dicking around with my friends was the most fun thing in the world for me back then, so it really is a shame that the online servers for this game have finally been laid to rest recently.

Because of that, it's hard that I recommend you play this game now because although the story mode is very charming, it's never been the focus of the game. Unfortunately, while the servers have only just now been shut down, the LBP community most likely already moved on long ago. LBP2 is very much a "you had to be there" game. But if you were there, you knew how damn fun this game was.