I have a problem with abandoning games, I usually don't do that and don't want to, and I've been almost a month without touching this game because there was nothing that drew my attention to it. I finally finished this just out of self obligation for getting rid of another rock in my backlog more than anything else. A thing you're sure to have heard when looking for reviews of this game is that this is just a Super Mario 3D World clone. I have played 3D Land, the one for the 3DS, and looking for gameplays of 3D World, Sackboy: A Big Adventure seems to have more in common with 3D Land than 3D World. The extent of Sackboy's originality ends there. This really is nothing more than a SM3D Land clone. Not even one remotely as good. This game lacks a lot of polish in its jumping and movement mechanics. Something like the ability to punch enemies is something that in theory should enhance the combat, but there's a reason why the ability to punch enemies is locked behind a power-up, the tanooki suit, in Mario and it is to create a more meaningful challenge centered around jumping on enemies. Maybe because the jumping isn't as precise, here on Sackboy, the best way of eliminating enemies is via punching, though the game throws some enemies that are better eliminated by jumping on them, but the hitboxes are unclear meaning there's a high chance of getting hurt while trying, so ultimately the best option is to go past those enemies.
The bosses are a mishmash of uninspired sequences that add next to nothing to the gameplay and are just common enemies with more life, bigger and with specific stages for them. At the end of every world there's a battle with the main villain, Vex, that repeats exactly the same world after world. And the worlds themselves are nothing more than the same one repeating over and over with a new coat of paint each time. New mechanics like the boomerang and the propulsion boots get introduced, but even then, they repeat from world to world, separating them from their originally specific context to put them into whatever scenario, getting rid of the minimal effort that was put into making each world feel unique and distinct from one another. All of this while a narrative that keeps telling you how important creativity is and how equally important is to protect it plays out, all while the most uninspired game design is being exhibited. LittleBigPlanet wasn't a unique franchise because of the quirky art style and forgettable campaigns, it was a unique franchise because it put a really interesting twist into something that had been extremely overdone like Unidimensional Platformers with a "Create and experiment" philosophy with really profound mechanics that led to the creation of a lot of imaginative levels made by the community. And this way, it managed to start interest on game development in a lot of people. Something that truly tied into the narrative about creativity those games always had. With its mechanical complexity, LittleBigPlanet could be an FPS (Garry's Mod), a creative sandbox (Minecraft) and a wacky 2D physics game (Happy Wheels), but Sackboy: A Big Adventure could never be any of those. And I mean, it doesn't have to, it's a 3D platformer. But that just begs the question: Why is this game in any way connected to LBP?
I've been trying to put my finger on why I dislike this game, and after thinking and thinking, I think I have a conclusion. Some levels in this game are made to be timed to a licensed pop song's tempo. This reveals, indirectly, the truth behind this game. This game's true meaning isn't about how important creativity is, because Sackboy: A Big Adventure doesn't give a crap about creativity. It wants to pretend to be young and quirky. I would say its only reason of being is to be a PlayStation 5 tech demo, but it also released on PlayStation 4 and Ratchet & Clank: A Rift Apart proved itself to not just be a better tech demo, but also a more interesting experience than Sackboy could have ever been. Through a combination of its uninspired worlds, unpolished combat and movement mechanics, half-baked narrative and playable systems and its top-charts extremely popular licensed pop music as well as the repetitiveness, Sackboy: A Big Adventure ultimately reveals the biggest disinterest possible in trying to be something of its own and its origin, not as a game made by creative minds, but a soulless executive-driven product conceived in a meetings room just to fill the PS5 launch library with no more intention than that. A truly dishonest experience with no commitment to itself.
The bosses are a mishmash of uninspired sequences that add next to nothing to the gameplay and are just common enemies with more life, bigger and with specific stages for them. At the end of every world there's a battle with the main villain, Vex, that repeats exactly the same world after world. And the worlds themselves are nothing more than the same one repeating over and over with a new coat of paint each time. New mechanics like the boomerang and the propulsion boots get introduced, but even then, they repeat from world to world, separating them from their originally specific context to put them into whatever scenario, getting rid of the minimal effort that was put into making each world feel unique and distinct from one another. All of this while a narrative that keeps telling you how important creativity is and how equally important is to protect it plays out, all while the most uninspired game design is being exhibited. LittleBigPlanet wasn't a unique franchise because of the quirky art style and forgettable campaigns, it was a unique franchise because it put a really interesting twist into something that had been extremely overdone like Unidimensional Platformers with a "Create and experiment" philosophy with really profound mechanics that led to the creation of a lot of imaginative levels made by the community. And this way, it managed to start interest on game development in a lot of people. Something that truly tied into the narrative about creativity those games always had. With its mechanical complexity, LittleBigPlanet could be an FPS (Garry's Mod), a creative sandbox (Minecraft) and a wacky 2D physics game (Happy Wheels), but Sackboy: A Big Adventure could never be any of those. And I mean, it doesn't have to, it's a 3D platformer. But that just begs the question: Why is this game in any way connected to LBP?
I've been trying to put my finger on why I dislike this game, and after thinking and thinking, I think I have a conclusion. Some levels in this game are made to be timed to a licensed pop song's tempo. This reveals, indirectly, the truth behind this game. This game's true meaning isn't about how important creativity is, because Sackboy: A Big Adventure doesn't give a crap about creativity. It wants to pretend to be young and quirky. I would say its only reason of being is to be a PlayStation 5 tech demo, but it also released on PlayStation 4 and Ratchet & Clank: A Rift Apart proved itself to not just be a better tech demo, but also a more interesting experience than Sackboy could have ever been. Through a combination of its uninspired worlds, unpolished combat and movement mechanics, half-baked narrative and playable systems and its top-charts extremely popular licensed pop music as well as the repetitiveness, Sackboy: A Big Adventure ultimately reveals the biggest disinterest possible in trying to be something of its own and its origin, not as a game made by creative minds, but a soulless executive-driven product conceived in a meetings room just to fill the PS5 launch library with no more intention than that. A truly dishonest experience with no commitment to itself.