Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts theme by Dennis “F-Rott” Ferrand
Download: BanjoKazooieNutsNBolts.p3t
(5 backgrounds)
| Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Rare |
| Publisher(s) | Microsoft Game Studios |
| Designer(s) | Gregg Mayles |
| Writer(s) | Leigh Loveday |
| Composer(s) |
|
| Series | Banjo-Kazooie |
| Platform(s) | Xbox 360 |
| Release | |
| Genre(s) | Platform, vehicle construction |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts is a 2008 platform game developed by Rare and published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox 360. Set eight years after Banjo-Tooie (2000), Nuts & Bolts follows the bear-and-bird duo Banjo and Kazooie as they compete with the witch Gruntilda for ownership of their home. Although Nuts & Bolts retains the structure of previous Banjo-Kazooie games—collecting jigsaw puzzle pieces to progress—it shifts the focus from exploration to vehicle construction. The player designs vehicles, including automobiles, boats, and aeroplanes, and uses them to complete challenges across various worlds. In multiplayer modes, players can compete or share their vehicles over Xbox Live.
Nuts & Bolts entered production following the completion of Grabbed by the Ghoulies (2003) and was developed by the same team behind the Nintendo 64 Banjo games, led by designer Gregg Mayles. It began as a remake of Banjo-Kazooie (1998) but was repurposed as an original game. Rare sought a broad audience and, wanting to evolve the platform genre, introduced vehicular gameplay to take advantage of the Havok physics engine. The customisation elements originated from the Rare co-founder Tim Stamper's suggestion for a game similar to connecting Lego bricks. The soundtrack was composed by Robin Beanland, Dave Clynick, and Grant Kirkhope in his final work for Rare.
Nuts & Bolts was released in November 2008. It drew criticism from fans for departing from the Banjo-Kazooie gameplay, but received generally positive reviews. Critics considered the vehicle editor robust and praised the visuals, music, and creativity, though they found some challenges tedious, and some questioned the new direction. Nuts & Bolts was a commercial disappointment, selling 140,000 copies in the United States by the end of 2008. Afterwards, Microsoft laid off staff at Rare and restructured them as a Kinect and Avatar-focused developer.
In the decade following its release, Nuts & Bolts's reputation improved, though it remains divisive. Some journalists reappraised it as the best Banjo-Kazooie game, while others felt it failed to provide the series' gameplay. Nonetheless, its focus on construction and player freedom has been considered ahead of its time, predating popular games such as Minecraft (2011), Fallout 4 (2015), and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (2023). Nuts & Bolts was among the 30 games included in Rare's 30th anniversary compilation Rare Replay (2015) and one of the first added to the Xbox One's catalogue of backward-compatible Xbox 360 games. It remains the most recent Banjo-Kazooie game, despite fan interest in a continuation.
Gameplay[edit]
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts is a 3D platform game in which the player controls the bear-and-bird duo of Banjo and Kazooie to construct vehicles and complete challenges. The player finds or earns vehicle components and blueprints across six worlds to give their vehicles new traversal abilities and complete further challenges.[1][2] The story is set eight years after Banjo-Tooie (2000). Banjo and Kazooie's archenemy, the witch Gruntilda, returns to their homeland Spiral Mountain for revenge. The Lord of Games ("L.O.G."),[1] who claims to have created every video game,[3] interrupts them and proposes a vehicle-based competition with the winner to own the mountain.[1]
The player starts in the hub world, Showdown Town, a city where they can explore and converse with non-player characters (NPCs).[2] The player uses vehicle components—of which there are more than 1,600 options[4]—to build vehicles including automobiles, helicopters, submarines, hovercrafts, boats, and aeroplanes in Mumbo's Motors, a workshop in the hub. Another character in the hub lets the player purchase additional vehicle parts and blueprints.[2][5] The player can test drive their creations to determine potential improvements.[6]
Like previous Banjo-Kazooie games,[7] the player collects golden jigsaw puzzle pieces, Jiggies, to progress.[1][5][7] To do so, they partake in Jiggy Games, time-limited minigame challenges,[8] including races, combat, deliveries, transporting NPCs, and an embedded, side-scrolling parody minigame featuring the character Klungo.[8][3] The challenges accept multiple solutions depending on the vehicle the player uses and reward a Jiggy to be claimed from a dispenser in the hub.[1][8] The player receives a trophy for surpassing a challenge's best time; collecting four trophies earns an additional Jiggy.[9] There are a total of 131 Jiggies,[3] and additional worlds open when specific Jiggy thresholds are met.[10]
Nuts & Bolts removes the exploration-based platforming that characterised its predecessors,[1][2] but the player may disembark from their vehicle to explore on foot.[7] Banjo and Kazooie can grab ledges, swim underwater, balance on tightropes, and jump. They do not retain their traversal and combat abilities from prior games,[7][11] but Kazooie can use a spanner as a melee weapon.[2] Their agility and the spanner's attack power can be upgraded in the hub.[12] Scattered around the worlds are collectible musical notes,[13] which serve as currency to purchase blueprints and parts. Musical notes vary in value by colour (gold, silver, or bronze).[14]
Players who own Nuts & Bolts and Banjo-Kazooie (1998) on the same Xbox 360 can unlock bonus content,[15] such as novelty vehicle parts.[16] Local and online multiplayer modes let up to eight players compete in challenges, such as races and association football, and battle opponents cooperatively.[17] Players can compete using custom or pre-made vehicles and share vehicle blueprints over Xbox Live.[1][8]
Development[edit]
Conception[edit]
Rare began discussing ideas for a third Banjo-Kazooie game after Banjo-Tooie's release in 2000.[19] Although Rare generally resisted continual sequels,[20] they knew they were not finished with Banjo,[21] having teased another game at the end of Tooie.[22] Rare became part of Microsoft Game Studios when Microsoft acquired them in 2002 and obtained the Banjo intellectual property rights from Nintendo.[23] The Banjo team wanted the third game to feature game mechanics that were impossible on older hardware,[24] and did not think it was possible to build a worthy successor until the Xbox 360's release in 2005.[21]
What became Nuts & Bolts entered development after Rare completed Grabbed by the Ghoulies (2003),[25] their first game for Microsoft's Xbox.[26] Gregg Mayles led the 71-member team,[19][27] which included the core members of the Nintendo 64 Banjo team.[18] Nuts & Bolts, Rare's first Xbox 360-specific project,[a] began as a remake of the first Banjo-Kazooie featuring cooperative gameplay, an idea suggested by Rare co-founder Tim Stamper.[28][29] However, staff felt the effort it took to recreate the environments would be better spent on a new game and feared that audiences would dismiss the remake as a rehash.[28][29] They retooled the project and decided to diverge from the series' typical gameplay, believing that audiences were uninterested in traditional platformers.[28]
Rare settled on featuring Banjo and Gruntilda in a competition. The initial concept was a platform game wherein an AI-controlled Gruntilda would interfere with the player's progress. As developing such sophisticated AI would be difficult, they shifted to exploring how to make traversal as fun as obtaining objectives.[29] In a departure from their previous reliance on proprietary software, Rare used the third-party Havok physics engine, and added cars and vehicle gameplay to take advantage of the engine's capabilities.[28] When Stamper suggested making a game like "an interactive Lego set", Rare built a prototype to customise vehicles with blocks and put them in a level they had developed for the remake.[29]
From there, Nuts & Bolts began to take form,[29] and development continued for the next two years.[19][21] It was the first Banjo-Kazooie game developed without Nintendo, though Mayles said that this did not change Rare's development process.[27] Rare and Microsoft wanted Nuts & Bolts to establish Banjo as an Xbox brand mascot equivalent to Nintendo's Mario.[30] Nuts & Bolts's working titles included Banjo 3, Banjo-Buildie, and Banjo-Threeie, but Mayles chose Nuts & Bolts to appeal to non-fans and differ from previous titles.[25]
Design[edit]
Rare developed Nuts & Bolts using a modified version of their Viva Piñata (2006) game engine.[31] They wanted to reach a broad audience of players old and new,[32] with accessibility they felt the Xbox 360 library lacked.[30] They avoided overwhelming the player with vehicle components, made game progression open-ended, and provided vehicle blueprints for beginners while tailoring replay value and the vehicle editor for experienced players.[32] While the team did not feel pressured to match previous games,[32] Rare sought to stay faithful to the series. Mayles and Rare head Mark Betteridge said its humour, characters, structure, and feel remained the same, and they still considered Nuts & Bolts a platformer despite the focus on vehicles.[24][27]
Mayles wanted Nuts & Bolts to be a fresh start for the franchise in a genre he felt had grown unpopular, stagnant, and in the case of Banjo-Tooie's objectives, tedious.[27][33] He thought vehicles would make exploration more fun, since he found travelling to objectives was often the weakest part of platformers; the game design grew from this.[34] Mayles expected the new direction to unsettle fans initially but hoped they would come to appreciate it.[27] This approach necessitated larger worlds and extensive playtesting,[16] which took months due to the number of parts and their possible combinations.[35] Game balance was complicated, as the nonlinear gameplay meant each tester approached objectives differently, though the game changed little during its testing phase.[16] Rare also faced difficulty making the 3D vehicle editor simple and understandable.[29][16] Early editors required players to keep parts attached to vehicles or they would fall. This was changed to make building feel more like a Lego set, so players could see all their parts and choose where to put them.[16]
As with Viva Piñata, Mayles wanted Nuts & Bolts to look distinct.[25] To reflect the vehicle-building theme, Rare designed the worlds to appear imperfectly constructed, with gears in the sky, clouds hanging from cables, and patchwork covering the ground.[9][29] In contrast, the hub was designed to look real, taking inspiration from the layout and topography of Tenby, Wales, and Saint Malo, France. The designer, Steve Malpass, felt those cities' winding paths enticed people to explore around corners. In contrast to the previous games' modular hubs, Malpass designed Nuts & Bolts's hub as a singular area with different districts, making the divisions between them unclear to maintain realism.[36] Rare initially re-used Banjo and Kazooie's design from the Nintendo 64 games, but thought it lacked charm as a high-polygon model. After several redesigns, the team chose a blockier design with sharp edges reminiscent of an upscaled low-polygon model, which they felt fit Nuts & Bolts's direction.[29]
Leigh Loveday wrote the Nuts & Bolts script,[37] which features self-deprecating humour referencing other Rare games and the state of the video game industry.[38][39] Loveday, who had not written for a Rare game since Jet Force Gemini (1999), had to balance the distinctive speech tics of the Banjo cast with making gameplay details clear and was required to write in American English rather than British English.[40] Rare used Comic Sans for the dialogue since it was readable on both high-definition and standard-definition displays.[25] Mayles ensured that the script retained the series' humour, and Banjo-Kazooie's programmer, Chris Sutherland, provided Banjo's voice.[27] The team considered using full voice acting instead of the series' usual mumbling voices, but Mayles felt this "would have ruined the Banjo charm".[25]
Music[edit]
Banjo series composer Grant Kirkhope returned to compose Nuts & Bolts[41] alongside Robin Beanland and Dave Clynick.[42] Performed by the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, it comprises rearrangements of Kirkhope's tracks from Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie alongside new material.[41] Kirkhope's new tracks incorporated references to past compositions. His first track was a rearrangement of the Spiral Mountain theme using a real banjo recorded in Pro Tools. He intended the rearrangement to sound "a little rough round the edges, [imagining] Banjo sitting there trying to remember how he played the banjo all those years ago".[43]
The Nuts & Bolts soundtrack was Kirkhope's final work for Rare, having worked there since October 1995. He described composing it as a distressing time.[43] Given the popularity of his first two Banjo soundtracks, Kirkhope felt it was fitting that Nuts & Bolts was his final work. Though Kirkhope had hoped to handle the Nuts & Bolts sound himself, this was unmanageable as he was also composing Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise (2008). Beanland and Clynick joined to help compose, and the sound design was handled by the rest of Rare's music team.[43] Sumthing Else Music Works published the soundtrack in 2009.[42]
Release[edit]
Microsoft announced an Xbox 360 Banjo-Kazooie game as in development at its X06 conference in September 2006 with an animated trailer but no release date or gameplay details.[44] Apart from confirming in early 2007 that Mayles and the original Banjo-Kazooie team were returning with unexpected elements for the franchise,[45] Rare did not want to show off the game before they felt it was ready and remained silent about the project throughout the year, to the point that in November they had to deny a rumour that it had been cancelled.[25][46] In February 2008, Microsoft Game Studios announced that the game would be released around the 2008 Christmas shopping season.[47] On its recently created website,[48] Rare challenged fans to guess the game's plot on April Fools' Day 2008.[49] Microsoft formally announced Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts during its Spring Showcase event in May,[50][51] a few days after screenshots leaked.[52]
During its E3 2008 conference, Microsoft showcased a Nuts & Bolts trailer and provided a demo to attendees.[53][54] VG247 named Nuts & Bolts among the best games showcased at E3 2008,[55] and IGN wrote Microsoft and Rare tailored the E3 demo to show that it was a natural continuation for the franchise. They felt it retained the series' core elements while introducing "fresh ideas to a genre that has fallen out of favour with gamers".[53] Conversely, 1Up.com was left unconvinced that the shift in direction was for the best, finding vehicles difficult to control and the level of freedom daunting.[31] The game won IGN's Xbox 360 Best of E3 Special Achievement for Innovation award alongside nominations for Best Platform Game, Best Artistic Design, and Game of the Show,[56] as well as a Best Platform Game nomination for their Overall Best of E3 Awards.[57] Microsoft invited journalists to its UK headquarters in Reading, Berkshire to play Nuts & Bolts in September,[58] and Rare released a demo via the Xbox Live Marketplace in October.[59]
The X06 reveal led to excitement from Banjo-Kazooie fans,[45] as it marked Banjo and Kazooie's first major appearance since Tooie,[60] but Nuts & Bolts proved divisive following its announcement. While some observers found the possibilities offered by vehicle construction exciting, the new direction confused others.[31][53] Banjo-Kazooie fans had desired for the first Xbox Banjo-Kazooie game to build on its predecessors' gameplay,[13] and Nuts & Bolts's departure from the series' style left many angry;[61] Hardcore Gamer said the new direction was seen as "a giant middle finger to fans".[61] GameRevolution said the release "was undeniably defined by the cries of longtime fans feeling as if they had been wronged... it was impossible to read about Nuts & Bolts without hearing how upset Xbox 360 owners were that the game wasn't a traditional platformer".[62] They noted part of the discourse was rooted in console war sentiments, as some backlash came from Nintendo fans who remained bitter over Microsoft's acquisition of Rare.[62]
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts released in North America on 11 November 2008 and three days later in Europe.[63][64] Those who pre-ordered Nuts & Bolts received the Xbox version of Banjo-Kazooie for free.[65] Nuts & Bolts sold 140,000 copies in the United States during its first month on sale and over 100,000 copies in the United Kingdom by 2010.[66][67] It was added to Microsoft's Platinum Hits budget game line in January 2010,[68] indicating sales of at least 400,000 copies within nine months of its release.[69] Despite this, Nuts & Bolts was considered a commercial disappointment.[66][70] Fable II, another late 2008 Microsoft game, sold 1.2 million copies in the United States within the same timeframe as Nuts & Bolts's 140,000.[66] GameZone attributed the lacklustre sales to poor marketing during a holiday season filled with high-profile releases.[71] Though Nuts & Bolts underperformed, Rare was satisfied with the released product.[72]
Reception[edit]
| Aggregator | Score |
|---|---|
| Metacritic | 79/100[73][b] |
| Publication | Score | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 1Up.com | A−[6] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Eurogamer | 7/10[3] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Game Informer | 8.5/10[74] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| GameSpot | 8.5/10[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| GameSpy |  
Winmac V4.0Winmac V4.0 theme by PSWinmac Download: WinmacV4.p3t
P3T Unpacker v0.12 This program unpacks Playstation 3 Theme files (.p3t) so that you can touch-up an existing theme to your likings or use a certain wallpaper from it (as many themes have multiple). But remember, if you use content from another theme and release it, be sure to give credit! Download for Windows: p3textractor.zip Instructions: Download p3textractor.zip from above. Extract the files to a folder with a program such as WinZip or WinRAR. Now there are multiple ways to extract the theme. The first way is to simply open the p3t file with p3textractor.exe. If you don’t know how to do this, right click the p3t file and select Open With. Alternatively, open the p3t file and it will ask you to select a program to open with. Click Browse and find p3textractor.exe from where you previously extracted it to. It will open CMD and extract the theme to extracted.[filename]. After that, all you need to do for any future p3t files is open them and it will extract. The second way is very simple. Just drag the p3t file to p3textractor.exe. It will open CMD and extract the theme to extracted.[filename]. For the third way, first put the p3t file you want to extract into the same folder as p3textractor.exe. Open CMD and browse to the folder with p3extractor.exe. Enter the following: Little Big PS3Little Big PS3 theme by HikariNoSenshi Download: LittleBigPS3.p3t
P3T Unpacker v0.12 This program unpacks Playstation 3 Theme files (.p3t) so that you can touch-up an existing theme to your likings or use a certain wallpaper from it (as many themes have multiple). But remember, if you use content from another theme and release it, be sure to give credit! Download for Windows: p3textractor.zip Instructions: Download p3textractor.zip from above. Extract the files to a folder with a program such as WinZip or WinRAR. Now there are multiple ways to extract the theme. The first way is to simply open the p3t file with p3textractor.exe. If you don’t know how to do this, right click the p3t file and select Open With. Alternatively, open the p3t file and it will ask you to select a program to open with. Click Browse and find p3textractor.exe from where you previously extracted it to. It will open CMD and extract the theme to extracted.[filename]. After that, all you need to do for any future p3t files is open them and it will extract. The second way is very simple. Just drag the p3t file to p3textractor.exe. It will open CMD and extract the theme to extracted.[filename]. For the third way, first put the p3t file you want to extract into the same folder as p3textractor.exe. Open CMD and browse to the folder with p3extractor.exe. Enter the following: Metal Gear Solid 4 – OTCMetal Gear Solid 4 – OTC theme by DeathByNickname Download: MetalGearSolid4OTC.p3t
P3T Unpacker v0.12 This program unpacks Playstation 3 Theme files (.p3t) so that you can touch-up an existing theme to your likings or use a certain wallpaper from it (as many themes have multiple). But remember, if you use content from another theme and release it, be sure to give credit! Download for Windows: p3textractor.zip Instructions: Download p3textractor.zip from above. Extract the files to a folder with a program such as WinZip or WinRAR. Now there are multiple ways to extract the theme. The first way is to simply open the p3t file with p3textractor.exe. If you don’t know how to do this, right click the p3t file and select Open With. Alternatively, open the p3t file and it will ask you to select a program to open with. Click Browse and find p3textractor.exe from where you previously extracted it to. It will open CMD and extract the theme to extracted.[filename]. After that, all you need to do for any future p3t files is open them and it will extract. The second way is very simple. Just drag the p3t file to p3textractor.exe. It will open CMD and extract the theme to extracted.[filename]. For the third way, first put the p3t file you want to extract into the same folder as p3textractor.exe. Open CMD and browse to the folder with p3extractor.exe. Enter the following: Kansas City Chiefs V2Kansas City Chiefs V2 theme by Dennis “F-Rott” Ferrand Download: KansasCityChiefsV2.p3t
P3T Unpacker v0.12 This program unpacks Playstation 3 Theme files (.p3t) so that you can touch-up an existing theme to your likings or use a certain wallpaper from it (as many themes have multiple). But remember, if you use content from another theme and release it, be sure to give credit! Download for Windows: p3textractor.zip Instructions: Download p3textractor.zip from above. Extract the files to a folder with a program such as WinZip or WinRAR. Now there are multiple ways to extract the theme. The first way is to simply open the p3t file with p3textractor.exe. If you don’t know how to do this, right click the p3t file and select Open With. Alternatively, open the p3t file and it will ask you to select a program to open with. Click Browse and find p3textractor.exe from where you previously extracted it to. It will open CMD and extract the theme to extracted.[filename]. After that, all you need to do for any future p3t files is open them and it will extract. The second way is very simple. Just drag the p3t file to p3textractor.exe. It will open CMD and extract the theme to extracted.[filename]. For the third way, first put the p3t file you want to extract into the same folder as p3textractor.exe. Open CMD and browse to the folder with p3extractor.exe. Enter the following: LittleBigPlanet #19LittleBigPlanet theme by OPTIMUS Download: LittleBigPlanet_19.p3t
LittleBigPlanet (LBP - stylised as LittleBIGPlanet) is a puzzle platform video game series created and produced by British developer Media Molecule and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Most games in the series put a strong emphasis on user-generated content and are based on the series' tagline "Play, Create, Share". The tagline represents the three core elements of the series: playing alone or with others locally (on the same console) or online, creating new content using the in-game creation tools, and sharing creations and discoveries online with other players. Tarsier Studios, Fireproof Games and Supermassive Games also contribute to the development of the PlayStation 3 games, creating in-game assets (downloadable content) including costumes, backgrounds, objects, and stickers. Some of these assets will also provide the player more tools and gadgets to use in the level editor.[1] The series comprises six games across five gaming platforms. The series was launched in 2008 with the PlayStation 3 game LittleBigPlanet, which was followed in 2009 by a PlayStation Portable version of the same name, initially developed by Studio Liverpool[2] and later handed to SCE Studio Cambridge. The sequel to the PlayStation 3 version, LittleBigPlanet 2, was released in January 2011 alongside a smaller spin-off title called Sackboy's Prehistoric Moves. LittleBigPlanet PS Vita was developed by Tarsier Studios and Double Eleven, released in September 2012 for the PlayStation Vita. At E3 2014, Sony announced LittleBigPlanet 3, a PlayStation 4 instalment that was developed by Sumo Digital and released in November 2014.[3] The games are all published by Sony Computer Entertainment. The latest instalment for the LittleBigPlanet franchise titled Sackboy: A Big Adventure was revealed during the PS5 live event and released on the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 in November 2020. A Windows version was released on 27 October 2022.[4] On 17 January 2015, it was announced that all LittleBigPlanet servers in Japan would shut down on 31 July, along with the PlayStation Portable version and LittleBigPlanet Karting in late August in all regions. Due to attacks on the online servers, all LittleBigPlanet servers were taken down in May 2021 (the Vita version had remained closed since March).[5] The servers for the PS4 version of LittleBigPlanet 3 were brought back up on 13 September 2021, however, in the same announcement, it mentioned that the servers for LittleBigPlanet, LittleBigPlanet 2, LittleBigPlanet PS Vita and the PS3 version of LittleBigPlanet 3 will remain closed permanently.[6] On 8 January, 2024, it was announced that, presumably due to more attacks on the online servers, the servers for the PS4 version of LittleBigPlanet 3 were being temporarily closed while they investigate them.[7][8][9] On 19 April 2024, the servers for the PlayStation 4 version of LittleBigPlanet 3 were permanently shut down due to ongoing technical issues.[10] Gameplay[edit]The core mechanics of the series revolve around its tagline, "Play, Create, Share".[11] Play[edit]In the first two instalments of the series, gameplay consist primarily of traditional two-dimensional look in a three-dimensional style platforming like jumping and avoiding obstacles to successfully navigate to the end of a level to win.[12] Since LittleBigPlanet 2, the series has included mini-games, including ones that do not follow the platformer genre. Most LittleBigPlanet games involve a player playing solo or co-operatively with friends to navigate through a level whilst collecting various "bubbles" along the way, which can take the form of either points or collectibles. In-game collectibles can be used in level creation or to customize Sackboy, the player character. There are also numerous co-operative parts of levels whereby certain prize bubbles can be earned. In LittleBigPlanet 3 and Sackboy: A Big Adventure, Collectables are also present, being used in various shops to purchase more costumes. Create[edit]The Create component primarily refers to level creation in the game, along with other features like character customisation. Players can create their own levels with the built-in level creator. Many items that are collected while playing through the story mode and from LittleBigPlanet's community can be used to help with level creation.[13] These levels can remain as the original LittleBigPlanet platforming gameplay, or they can include other game types, such as racing, fighting, shooting and sports.[12] The player can also make non-gaming creations such as music and films (commonly known in-game as cut-scenes).[14] In LittleBigPlanet 2, Sackbots were introduced to give players more control over non-player characters in their levels as well as make the levels in their entirety more intelligent. The creation technique introduced on the game gave the possibility for logic, and it gave the ability to build sets of machines and complex contraptions.[14] [edit]Lastly, the Share component relates to sharing creations with the game's community by uploading levels to the PlayStation Network. To-date there were an excess of ten million user-created levels available to play on the LittleBigPlanet server in the PlayStation 3 games.[15] After the release of LittleBigPlanet 2 and the LBP.me community website, the Share component also had a strong emphasis sharing discoveries. Players were encouraged to share levels they found with other players by writing reviews and comments in-game and by sharing links to creations' LBP.me pages via social networks. Overview[edit]The series takes place in a world known as LittleBigPlanet. Each curator is in charge of a part of LittleBigPlanet and they govern them independently. LittleBigPlanet has geography inspired by the real-life Earth. All games in the series follow the main protagonist Sackboy, a small anthropomorphic creature made of brown fabric with a zip fastener and button eyes. He can be customized to the player's liking using costumes that are either unlocked in the game or bought as downloadable content from the PlayStation Store. The player can control Sackboy's four emotions; happiness, sadness, worry and anger, each of which has three levels of intensity. The English language version of each game is narrated by Stephen Fry and in all formats Fry's scripts are written by Dean Wilkinson. Games[edit]
Main series[edit]LittleBigPlanet[edit]The first game in the series was released on the PlayStation 3 platform in 2008 and was the first title developed by Media Molecule, under the name The Next Big Thing. The player controls Sackboy as he travels around the titular LittleBigPlanet, helping the eight creator curators of LittleBigPlanet with their problems in their own respective realms. Throughout the story, Sackboy tries to stop The Collector, one of the eight creator curators who has gone rogue, kidnapping the creations of LittleBigPlanet.[16] The game received widespread acclaim for its design, gameplay, and customization afforded to the player, particularly the built-in level editor. After its release, it received numerous industry awards.[17] LittleBigPlanet 2[edit]The second game in the series is a direct sequel to the first LittleBigPlanet and was developed by Media Molecule for the PlayStation 3 for a release in 2011. The sequel saw a major shift in the direction of the series, going from a primarily traditional platform game in the first two entries to a more varied style of gameplay called a "platform for games". The second game gave players a wider variety of options when it came to level design, which saw the creation of levels other than platforming such as racing, puzzles, and fighting games.[18] Following the events of the first two entries in the series, the game takes place when an antagonist known as the Negativitron invades LittleBigPlanet and begins to suck up all its inhabitants. Sackboy must team up with a secret organization known as "The Alliance", led by Larry Da Vinci, to save LittleBigPlanet from the Negativitron.[19] The game also supported the PlayStation Move, with an update post-launch. LittleBigPlanet 3[edit]LittleBigPlanet 3 is a game for the PlayStation 3[20][21][22] and PlayStation 4. Announced at E3 2014, it was developed by Sumo Digital and was released in November 2014. In the game, Sackboy is transported to another world, Bunkum, where he has to awaken its three missing heroes, OddSock, Toggle and Swoop, who are new playable characters. Sackboy travels through different worlds in order to free the 3 new characters and stop Newton.[23] Handheld[edit]LittleBigPlanet (PlayStation Portable)[edit]A portable entry of the series was developed primarily by SCE Studio Cambridge in association with Media Molecule for the PlayStation Portable. The game, released in 2009, shared the same name as the original game; however, it was not a port of the PlayStation 3 game, but rather a new entry in the series. It has a story-mode with levels and features many of the same mechanics of its PlayStation 3 counterpart, such as customizations, albeit without the multiplayer component of the game. The game takes place after the events of the PlayStation 3 version of LittleBigPlanet, in which The Collector has been defeated. A carnival is being held and Sackboy decides to go around the world to invite the eight curators of LittleBigPlanet to the carnival whilst finding materials for his own carnival float.[24] LittleBigPlanet PS Vita[edit]The fourth game in the series was developed by Tarsier Studios, Double Eleven, and XDev for the PlayStation Vita handheld and had a 2012 release.[25] The game features the same core mechanics from LittleBigPlanet 2, with the focus being on a "platform for games" rather than a platformer like previous entries in the series before LittleBigPlanet 2. The game utilizes the unique controls of the PlayStation Vita by using its multi-touch touchscreen and its rear touchpad to navigate through various obstacles in stages as well as for level creation by users.[26] The game supports cross-buy of DLC costume packs between LittleBigPlanet 2, as well as LittleBigPlanet Karting. Spinoff games[edit]LittleBigPlanet Karting[edit]LittleBigPlanet Karting is a kart racing game developed by United Front and San Diego Studio in conjunction with series creator Media Molecule for the PlayStation 3.[27] In its story mode, the player ventures through worlds including: LittleBigPlanet, Monster Islands, Victoria's Laboratory, The Progress Emporium, Eve's Asylum, The Space Bass, and Hoard, Sweet Hoard, to put an end to the Hoard racers, who snatch many pieces of the different planets to stash them in the Garage at the End of the Universe. Sony Entertainment America shut down the North American LittleBigPlanet Karting online servers on 31 August 2016.[28] Sackboy's Prehistoric Moves[edit]The game was developed by XDev as a spin-off from the LittleBigPlanet series utilizing the PlayStation Move on the PlayStation 3. It was released in December 2010, as a downloadable title from the PlayStation Store and was later bundled with LittleBigPlanet 2. The game was described as a "demo" and featured 10 prehistoric inspired story levels. In the game, Sackboy must save Little Big Planet from the T-Rex. Unlike the main games, which can be played as a single-player experience, the game required a minimum of two players to work.[29] This was due to the main mechanics of the spin-off whereby one player would control Sackboy traditionally using the gamepad for platforming while a second player had to use a PlayStation Move similar to a pointer to move obstacles and objects out of the way in order to successfully navigate a level.[30] Run Sackboy! Run![edit]Run Sackboy! Run! is a free-to-play endless running game developed by Firesprite and published by PlayStation Mobile that was released on iOS on 30 October 2014,[31] Android on 17 December 2014[32] and PlayStation Vita on 31 March 2015.[33] The game has no real plot, except for Sackboy running through Craftworld from the Negativitron. The game awarded players with exclusive costumes for LittleBigPlanet 3 (which was released at a similar time) by reaching point goals and collecting stickers.[34] LittleBigPlanet Hub[edit]LittleBigPlanet Hub is an unreleased free-to-play game for the PlayStation 3.[35] It was planned to be a downloadable title from the PlayStation Store which would have allowed players to create levels and play a curated selection of community levels from LittleBigPlanet and LittleBigPlanet 2 as well as 16 levels from the games' story modes. LittleBigPlanet Hub would also have contained weekly challenges, not found in other LittleBigPlanet games. Downloadable content purchased in other games were to be compatible with LittleBigPlanet Hub, and users were rumoured to be also able to access additional content from the PlayStation Store.[citation needed] Since its announcement in August 2013, no further details about LittleBigPlanet Hub were revealed.[36] In February 2024, a beta tester posted a video showing gameplay from a beta build onto YouTube, and shortly afterwards, with assistance, dumped it online for download. This makes the build playable through unofficial means, such as emulations like RPCS3 or PlayStation 3 homebrew.[37] Sackboy: A Big Adventure[edit]Sackboy: A Big Adventure is a 2020 platform game developed by Sumo Digital and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment for the PlayStation 5 and the PlayStation 4. It was announced at the PlayStation 5 reveal event on June 11, 2020, and was released on November 12, 2020; a version for Windows was released on October 27, 2022, marking the series's first release on PCs. Unlike previous LittleBigPlanet entries with 2.5D platforming, A Big Adventure features a range of perspectives and 3D movement. Ultimate Sackboy[edit]Ultimate Sackboy is a free-to-play endless running game developed by Exient Entertainment and released on mobile on 21 February 2023. It is the first LittleBigPlanet game to feature limited-time paid subscriptions known as "Marathons." In contrast to Run Sackboy! Run!, it adopts the style from Sackboy: A Big Adventure and is played in 3D. Reception[edit]
Most of the games in the series have been well received by critics with the LittleBigPlanet on PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable gaining Metacritic scores of 95/100[38] and 87/100[39] respectively. LittleBigPlanet 2 garnered nearly as much acclaim as the first game, with an average score of 91/100.[48] LittleBigPlanet PS Vita also received very positive reviews and was the highest-ranked PS Vita game at the time of its release with an average score of 88/100.[49] However, the release of LittleBigPlanet 3 did not receive critical acclaim, garnering a mostly positive average of 79/100.[50] Critically, LittleBigPlanet Karting is the worst-performing major game in the series so far but still gained a "mixed or average" Metacritic score of 74/100.[51] However, the mobile game Run Sackboy! Run! performed worse, with a Metacritic score of 65/100.[52] Additionally, the character of Sackboy is often seen as a PlayStation mascot.[53] In 2011, readers of Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition voted Sackboy as the 50th-top video game character of all time.[54] References[edit]
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