The first trailer of Sackboy: A Big Adventure immediately brought the thought to many viewers: ‘Hey, that plays like Super Mario 3D World! ‘ That is a thought with two sides. The game and gameplay look great, but on the other hand you are immediately compared to Mario. Sackboy knows how to largely prove himself, but does not really stand out as a platformer.
The game has a fairly generic story, but hey, it does what it is supposed to do. Where the game shines is the look, the variety, the use of cardboard-like backgrounds coupled with sewing materials and other household items. The stylistic approach works and makes Sackboy adorable to look at, while at the same time it gives a very accessible feeling to the game. This approach is reflected throughout the game and makes everything complete, from start to finish. It also helps that the game tries to do something new with each level, in terms of appearance and certainly in terms of gameplay. That could be a new mechanic, new enemies and so on. It allows you to keep your attention and look forward to the next thing the game has to offer.
This package is stuck together by the supporting music. Your own music is magically beautiful and often matches the level you are running around in. Sometimes you have, like in Rayman Legends, levels in which you play to the beat of a real song such as Uptown Funk and sometimes there is just a remix hidden somewhere subtly in another piece of music. The quality of the music is high and much attention has been paid to it. The sad thing about the music levels is that it is not a smooth happening, purely because you are (probably) busy looking up the collectibles in a level. The pieces in which you platform work to the beat of the music, but in between a repetitive piece follows while you are exploring.
Speaking of collectibles, the game wouldn’t be a spinoff of LittleBigPlanet without customization options. In the game you will come across tons of costumes for Sackboy, which you can freely combine to create hilarious results. You can also give Sackboy different colors and design it with different materials. For this you have to scour the levels looking for the different parts. You can also find currency to buy costumes, you have to collect enough points for the maximum score and you can find orbs to unlock levels. Enough to find and admittedly, some of them are quite difficult to find too.
I personally recommend that everyone play the game in co-op if possible. Online matchmaking is unfortunately not possible, although it should be added in a future patch. Fortunately, because the game has co-op exclusive levels. Other than that, couch co-op is hilarious to do, because you can of course sabotage each other. Each game is also played as a competition, because at the end it is shown who has performed the best and also receives a trophy (which you can of course take away). Solo I found the game a lot less, because the levels quickly feel way too big. I don’t want to say that the game was developed with co-op as a focus, although it sometimes seems like it.
Where the game goes wrong is the platforming and the moveset. The moveset is very limited: Sackboy can run, roll, hit and has a single jump with flutter. That is it. For the whole game. There’s nothing to master, no power-ups, this is it. Add to that the fact that jumping feels inaccurate, something I already hated about LittleBigPlanet, and the platforming just isn’t satisfying. Especially when you consider that movement by Sackboy is traaaaaag. Even without a snail costume. It is not bad gamebreaking or anything, but it is inaccurate and somehow even a bit boring. Not positive for a platformer, of course, which is now kept afloat by the rest of the game.
Because don’t get me wrong Sackboy is a fun game. The variation in the levels is clearly visible, the collectibles keep you busy and the music keeps your attention. But things really go wrong in the platforms themselves. It is all just too slow, just not precise enough and just too limited.
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