LittleBigPlanet (Playstation 3, 2008)

You can’t change Little Big Planet’s direction as a platform game with one-hit kills, but it’s only a matter of time before somebody makes a great photo booth lounge or full-field sport. The Media Molecule crew must be terrified.

My biggest warning is that Little Big Planet demands an Internet connection. You need four players to collect all the Story Mode prizes, and there just aren’t enough in-game levels. Costumes are meant to show off, and custom levels are meant to share with an audience.

This also means that parents should think about whether Little Big Planet is appropriate for their children. It’s a great toy set, it’s got great creative potential, and it’s very kid-friendly, but like most any online service, it’s possible that you could hear swearing over voice chat and view penis-monster levels. At least a few community features let you flag offensive players for possible consequences.

My other warning is that the first few weeks of LBP may be rough. The closed beta period was fun, but four-person online games suffered from huge lag spikes. Most online games these days are flooded at first and then they stabilize, even World of Warcraft crashed on opening day. These problems usually level out soon after launch, but if the lag persists, though, it will be a serious blow to LBP’s multiplayer and online components.

Little Big Planet is just what Doctor Sony ordered: universally appealing gameplay with an appealing everyman hero that is connected to streaming delivery of new content. Sony should be lauded for such a gamble, and Media Molecule should be praised. This is a rare toy that has the capacity to inspire the inventor, the explorer, and the gamer.