LittleBigPlanet

LittleBigPlanet is a platformer in which the main character, Sackboy, makes his way through colorful, hand-crafted levels built from real materials – cardboard, fabric, wood, string, and buttons. The character can be dressed in dozens of costumes and decorated with stickers collected while going through the campaign, and the physics engine gives jumping and swinging on ropes a pleasantly tangible feel. Alongside the campaign itself, the game offers a sophisticated level editor in which players can build their own levels, from simple jumping courses to complex machines, and share them with others – this made it a unique combination of game and creative tool for its time, summed up by the motto "Play, Create, Share." The entire campaign is also accompanied by warm, witty narration voiced by actor Stephen Fry, which gives an otherwise quiet platformer a distinctive English atmosphere.

The PSP version launched a year after the original on the PlayStation 3 and had to adapt the whole concept to a portable console with a single screen and considerably weaker hardware. It lacks four-player co-op on a single screen, since that couldn't reasonably fit on the handheld's small display – a fellow player joins only via a local wireless ad-hoc connection between two handhelds. Levels and gameplay elements relying on controller tilt via Sixaxis were also dropped, since the PSP has no motion sensor, so the controls rely purely on buttons and the analog stick. The level editor was retained, including the ability to build and upload custom levels, but in a more limited form matching the handheld's memory and performance, and the graphics were reworked for the smaller screen resolution. Despite these limitations, it was a functional and playable port that let fans take the creative platform with them on the road, albeit with a noticeably smaller scope than on the home console. Custom levels could also be uploaded and shared online from the handheld, so community creations were connected to some degree between PSP and PS3, even though both versions remained separate software with their own level catalogs.

Why play it: For players who want LittleBigPlanet on the go too, the portable version offers a preserved level editor, albeit without the four-player co-op and controller tilt of the PS3 original.