LittleBigPlanet 3 shakes up the series by adding three new characters: Swoop, a bird that can pick up small objects and characters, Oddsock, a four-legged beast that can move quickly and walljump, and Toggle, a lumbering heavy giant who can transform into a tiny lightweight and back again. Both of the levels featured in the demo were 2-player, showing off Oddsock and Toggle’s potential.
Oddsock’s speed and walljumping ability make LBP feel more like a serious platformer. Past complaints about vanilla Sackboy’s floatiness do not apply when playing as Oddsock; he’s no Mario, but he makes traversing levels a lot more fun. Levels now go deeper, and feature spring platforms that fling characters between the deep background and foreground, and wall terrain that pulls players forward and back, which adds extra spice to the walljumping mechanic.
Toggle, on the other hand, was built with puzzle-platforming in mind. Big Toggle is slow, heaving and plodding, so he can push and pull heavy objects. When he transforms into Little Toggle, his jumping ability improves, and he can fit into small spaces and even run on top of water. The interplay between these two forms and transforming between them is where the concept really shines. Big Toggle sinks, and Little Toggle floats, so transforming from Big to Little while underwater causes the player to rocket up and out of the water to get over obstacles. Use Little Toggle’s superior jumping power to grab a hanging swing, then transform back into Big and use his weight to swing far over gaps. The demo level provided plenty of opportunities to test out a wide variety of Toggle mechanics.
Aside from the new additions, all the signature aspects of LBP are still here and looking better than ever, from the levels that look handmade to all the ways you can customize Sackboy and his friends.
LittleBigPlanet 3 releases in North America on Nov. 18 of this year, and in Europe the following day.
