Time for my first preview and I must say it does feel kind of special. I was lucky enough to get into the Little Big Planet Beta fairly early on by winning a code from 1UP and I thought as I was lucky enough to get on early I should calibrate a short preview for all to read who weren't lucky enough to get their hands on the beta, although keys are a lot easier to get your hands on now with the open beta opening next week. For those who haven't heard about Little Big Planet before here is a quick rundown. LBP (little Big Planet) is a 3D side scrolling platformer at heart but opens up into much more with a little imagination. LBP has 2 main features which differ ates itself with other side scrolling games and they are creation and co-op. Creation allows you to create almost anything you want and I believe all the levels created in the main story of LBP have been created using the same engine/tools that you have access to meaning after a few weeks you will start seeing some pretty amazing stuff. With co-op it allows for more complex puzzles along with the hilarity of jumping around 3 of your mates, also certain game features allow for that competitive style gameplay always ending in anger with the winner. Then add funny emotions, smacking your friends and waving your arms around for complete comedy value. Now onto my impressions.

As soon as you load the beta you get excellent opening credits level/tutorial (video above) voiced over by Stephen Fry, so as soon as you jump into the game you can really see the potential of the creation engine. The magic of this game comes alive one you enter your first level and you set eyes on the beautiful art style and shown some new moves including stickers. Stickers can be used at any time in the game allowing you to customize the official levels along with your personal pod (basically 3D menu/waiting room) and yourself. In the beta there are only 4 levels but you will be playing them a good few times just to collect all the unique items to use in creating your own levels and to show off to your mates. 

Once you have completed all of the levels to 100% what do you do now? Simple, see what everyone else is creating by using a YouTube style interface allowing you to easily find user generated content to play by yourself or with your mates, some of these include remakes of Sonic, Mario etc along with crazy rockets and wipeout! Right so you have had a laugh on user generated maps but have just had an awesome idea which you want to share with the world. The beta allows you to make your own map using a huge amount of tools (more to be in the final version) which can create almost anything you can think of like cars, AI enemies or crazy swings. It’s pretty amazing on how simple the level create editor is to use and it will produce some pretty amazing results with the right imagination and creatablity.

As it will be in open beta soon enough I'll stop blabbing and allow you to experience the magic that is Little Big Planet for yourself. The game is due out in 3 weeks in the UK with 4 player co-op creation to follow fairly soon after launch. Enjoy!