LittleBigPlanet 3 Toggles the Mind - Preview
by Karl Koebke , posted on 12 June 2014 / 3,449 Views
After Media Molecule tweeted they weren't going to present anything at this year's E3, LittleBigPlanet 3's inclusion in Sony's Press Conference came as quite a surprise. Media Molecule didn't lie, however, as LittleBigPlanet's fate is now entirely in the hands of Sumo Digital, a team who also happen to be developing the Xbox 360 version of Forza Horizon 2. So is Sackboy in good hands?
The first demo I played was of a single player-focused campaign level designed around introducing Toggle as a character. For those who haven't seen the announcement trailer, Toggle is a new character to the LBP world that can instantly switch from being much larger than Sackboy to being significantly smaller. This also comes with a change in mass, which was a common theme in the obstacles of the level, but did not come with the scientifically accurate giant nuclear explosion. I passed by the standard LBP areas that required more than one person to get into, but as always these were optional so those who just want to play the game on their own don't have to worry.
My favorite moments were when Toggle interacted with water. When Toggle is large he sinks like a rock to the bottom of any body of water, while small Toggle bounces on the top of water. For those not keeping track at home, that means that Toggle's increase in mass must be greater than his change of volume upon toggling in order for this density to shift from much less than 1 g/ml to much greater than 1 g/ml. Science! If you don't care about all that, the important thing is that you can switch between these two forms to pop yourself out of the water like a dolphin.
I also got a chance to play the demo showed off by developers during Sony's press conference and it was just as fun and hectic as it looked on stage. My only issue is that Oddsock's wall-jumping ability doesn't have any useful application when there's a character that can fly. I didn't come across any situations where Oddsock's abilities were useful for the group and Swoop couldn't have done the task instead.
My other concern when I watched the conference was that completing the entire game would require four players, but a Sony representative assured me that there was a full single player campaign that could be played with or without friends, similar to previous LBP titles. I look forward to seeing Sumo Digital's take on the LBP franchise when LittleBigPlanet 3 releases this November.
