LittleBigPlanet PSP

The mini-sized adventure gets even more mini, and survives the transition well

LittleBigPlanet was exactly the kind of game I bought a PS3 for in the first place; it was endlessly happy, achingly saccharine and warmed by the smooth and dulcet tones of Stephen Fry. It's a rare game that can make me laugh from the sheer joy of playing it, but LBP did so effortlessly, and what made it such a gem was the way it turned the design ethos of traditional games upside down. Rather than staple a level editor to its single player mode or devote the entire game to level creation, LBP crafted a tightly made story mode using the same tools that the player would eventually be given to make their own. No half measures were allowed; the developers found a way to craft their vision with a Sixaxis, or they didn't do it at all. The result had a deliberately hand-crafted feel but never felt cheap or crude, and the result was a game more charming than Stephen Fry himself.

The PSP edition fares amazingly well; Media Molecule have trimmed away the fat where it is needed the least, losing a few excess animations and incorporating a more rudimentary menu screen, while retaining the soft lighting and gorgeous animations that made the original so fluffy and warm. The minimised PSP screen is the game's greatest asset, where a few rough edges are all that truly separate it from the visuals of its bigger brother. There isn't anything to rival the scale of the jaw-dropping wheel of doom from the Collector's lair, nor a boss battle so convincingly constructed as the showdown against that particular villain, but the developer's conservative approach to level design still allows for a few standout moments, such as a level-spanning chase against an angry dragon, and a clever ball-in-the slot puzzle nestling amongst whizzing UFOs and a rampaging ape in the Tinseltown levels.

So what does the PSP outing change, exactly? Very little, is the answer, but LBP was designed from the beginning to generate fresh content from the same engine and assets, so portability is enough of a treat to add to a whole new single player mode with brand new levels, sounds and building blocks. You run, you jump, you swing, pull and grab, all while basking in some of the most charming game design around; the staggering amount of materials, stickers and construction pieces that the original conjured up clearly haven't depleted Media Molecule's imagination, and the UMD outing manages to hold as much content as its Blu-Ray brother.

In fact, LBP may be the perfect showcase for the PSP's capabilities. Players can sign in to the Playstation Network and stay logged on for the duration of play, giving them the always-online experience of the home consoles. Extra levels and content make a smaller footprint on the memory card than you'd expect, allowing for plenty of expansion, while the game itself is regularly updated, as is the News section. Multiplayer is suspiciously absent, but given the small screen-size the developers can probably be forgiven, and I suspect that the prospect of adding an extra load to the already-straining servers that blight the PS3's online play probably had something to do with it as well.

Multiplayer is not the only casuality, and it is here that a few of the game's flaws have been given short shrift; the slight flakiness of jumping between foreground and background hasn't improved, and small niggles in the physics continue to dog the experience, especially when making certain jumps. It is understandable that Media Molecule would like to keep both versions of the game identical, but a little housekeeping wouldn't have gone amiss. Even more disappointing is the apparent lack of steam when they knocked out the final levels, which are as visually pleasing as a cardboard box and designed with about as much flair. The very end of the game involves nothing more than a brief trundle through the jungle in a rickety parade float, which is only soured further when you think back wistfully to the final showdown with the Collector. Climactic it surely ain't.

But despite this, LBP is at home on the small screen as much as it is on the big screen. The original captured our hearts from the first screenshots and didn't let up past release; without the luxury of warm, fuzzy, self-generating hype, it is great to see that LBP can still offer us plenty to love. And as with its bigger brother, the best content is going to keep on coming months after release, and keep us loving it for a long time to come.

Verdict:
A lack of multiplayer and occasionally flaky physics don't prevent LBP from being an essential title, and a fantastic showcase for the PSP's capabilities.