Awesome, awesome game, by the way.

It is wonderful.

I’ve been going through story mode, sometimes alone, more often with my wife by my side. Either way, it’s superb. From the reviews, I’d got the impression that story mode was nothing more than an extended tutorial, but it’s a full game. Levels are very replayable, each new level throws up new surprises and challenges and it’s given us hours of pleasure already. We’re near the end, but there’s a fair amount we’ve not found yet. And, oh, for those of us who love unlocking little things in games, this is heaven. New costume parts, new objects, new stickers, new decorations, new mini score attack levels. Every level is absolutely full of new things to get.

And it’s fun. It’s not just a collector’s dream, jumping, running, swinging and flying are all great fun. Every level in story mode is designed with love and care, the physics, graphics and sound add charm by the bucket loads and it’s just an absolute joy.

I really can’t speak of it highly enough.

And that’s without mentioning the hours I spent on Sunday morning making my own level. I haven’t published it, because it’s not very good, but I loved making it. First, a football with a face, sombrero and fine moustache welcomes you to the level. I mde that character. Then a heart-shaped multi-legged creature takes fright when you come close and jumps away. I made that creature, too. Then you find a a spotlighted area with some prizes in it. Then you come to a bit with some flaming mountains (which I made) and some very tricky jumps past some bats. (I didn’t make the bats, I just used some I’d picked up in one of the story levels.) That’s hard, though I have made it easier. At one point during the jumps it takes your photo and adds it to your Photo Booth photos. And then there’s a short race over some spikes. You have to grab a balloon and fly over. And then the level ends. You unlock some nice photos for completing it. And if you somehow manage to do it without losing any lives, you win the creatures and mountains I designed for the level to use in your own levels.

As I said, it’s not very good, but it’s a proper, working level that I had great fun messing around with.

And I still haven’t gone back and finished the user-made Castling level I downloaded a few days ago, or gone looking for any more levels.

Now, after all the gushing praise, we come to the problem. There’s only really one and it’s not a big one, but it’s a problem.

Little Big Planet is more-or-less 2D in gameplay terms, but takes place over three planes. You can manually move between the three planes, but the game is intelligent enough to work out where you’re jumping and automatically adjust your plane as you go through levels. At least, that’s the idea. And it works for me. I can move planes when I need to and let the game take care of it for the rest of the time. It’s fine. My wife, however, has terrible problems moving between planes and we can’t work out why it works fine for me, but not for her. It doesn’t spoil the game for her at all, but adds some extra frustration that I don’t have.

And then there was a required update to the game, which took twenty minutes to download and install. And then, before I could get online, I had to update the PS3 system software, which took a further fifteen minutes.

That can’t be right, can it? We’re not really going to put up with this crap, are we?

Yes. We are. We’ll put up with it because, well, we don’t have much choice.

And also because, when you get something like Little Big Planet, it’s worth it.

If you boil Little Big Planet down to core gameplay it’s a 2D platformer. Physics-based, like a lot of stuff is these days. But it’s the most charming, lovely, happy game I’ve played in ages. The Sackboys are wonderful creations, full of personality. Stephen Fry’s voiceover is a like a warm, fuzzy hug. The music is happy, jolly loveliness. The world looks almost photorealistic (if you had a rubbish camera) yet unreal and videogamey to the max. Just jumping around randomly is a joy. It’s full of secrets and stickers to find away from the main paths through the levels. It’s one of those games that makes you smile and laugh in delight. It’s one of those games that has your wife begging to play. It’s one of those games.

And it’s true to its roots, being very frustrating at times. Some jumps are very difficult. It’s possible to mess around enough to break puzzles and have to leave the level and come back. And stuff my wife collected with me in co-op disappeared from her collection. But, hey, it’s a game. Maybe one day I shall be back expressing a hate and loathing for the game as I fail to complete a late level for the fiftieth time. But I don’t think I’ll fall out of love for long.

And if the pre-made levels get frustrating, there a million others out there. I tried out a level called Castling made by someone on the rllmuk forum and it was wonderful. I was in awe of the fact that somebody had made it at home. It was tricky and I failed to finish it before bed time, but I’ve hearted it and will play it again later.

And, by the way, my Sackboy is currently and Elizabethan astronaut.