The story of the Game takes place in the land of Craftworld, a magical place where creativity runs supreme and everyone is invited. It was a lovely day until a mythical entity born from chaos and fear known as Vex decided to to make a grant appearence in the land of Loom, the homplace of the Sackfolks, this univere's most gently creatures. Vex appears by tearing up the sky and self proclaim himself the bringer of Nightmares and states that he is here with an exciting discovery called the Topsy Turver. The most deadly device that will transfrom Craftworld from a realm of dreams and creativity into a land of pure Nightmares. He shows them his Paper plans and then starts to kidnapp the sacklings in order for them to work for his plan. While he was absorbing the inhabitants he drops his plans, and Sackboy being the only survivor graps the papers and jumps in his rocketship in order to escape Vex. After reading Vex's plans Sackboy knows that if he wants to save his friends, he ll have to go on a journey to collect all the Dreamer Orbs before Vex if he Wishes to stand a chance againts him. The dreamer Orbs are spheres that contain Creative Energy. Sackboys adventure has just began on his hourney to save Craftowrld. Along the way he makes new friends and alies that help him on his mission. However Vex is not as Naive as the players may think and he has alot of plans for the little hero.
The story is very simple but very effective. The players get all the key factors they need to know within the first cutscene. They get to know :
Zom Zom is another returning hero from the Little Big planet Series. Similar to his appearance in LBP3 Zom Zom adds nothing to the story of the game and acts only as the Shop keeper. Zom Zom becomes available early in the game and the player can visit his store in order to purchase new cosmetics that can change his appearance. The more the players proceed in the story and unlocked more worlds the more things become available for the players to purchase. In the store the players can purchase full costumes such as a Wolf costume,a pirate costume or even costumes representing a hero from another game title such as Ellie from Last of Us Part 2. However the players are also given the option to purchase different items in regard to the skins. For example the option to purchase the pirates hook alone and the wolves tail is also do-able. The store also various of comseticks that do no necessarily represent something specific. These are hair,eyes,mouths,eyebrows,tops,bottoms,belts,shoes,gloves,items to be held and others. Outside of clothing, in store the player can buy certain skin type. For example replace Sackboy's skin with leather, spandex and other materials. All the items mention are also capable of swapping colors, given that the player has collected various color paletes whilst on a level. Last but certainly not list the last available items to purchase are emotes and facial expressions. Theres plenty of emotes for the players to equip and customize witha given expression. Items are purchsed with golden bells. Golden bells are acquired through out the levels, in the hub world's breaking objects and from minigames.
The store is also linked to the players wardrope. The player can only purchase the items from the store but to equip them, they ll have to go back and select wardrope. In wardrope all the items available are shown and the player is free to start experimenting on their appearance. Fully made costumes are stored seperately and the players are also free to store the costume that they made and want to keep without losing it if a new skin is selected or replaced. The menu is very straight forward and explains how to alteranate a costume, which pieces replace others(E.g Gloves replace bracelets) and how to change te skin colors.
Zom Zom is very friendly to the player. Outside of his store, he also appears within a magical lamp thats appears every so often in the hub world. It is recommended to use the lamp as it often appears after a certain amount of levels is cleared. Not doing them only resolves on
delaying the next one. This Lamps are series of Minigames where the player free roams in a square space and golden bells(the currency) are thrown around. The Players have a total of one minute to collect as many as they can. The minigames are very stariht forward, some are free
roaming, others are dissappearing platforms, in others the player is given a weapon and so on. The logic remains the same, 1 minute to catch as many as possible. Dying in aminigame will instantly respawn sackboy by costing him 3-4 seconds.
Knight Trials are mainly parkour challenges that the player is task to reach the finish line within a given space. A timer is set and the player has to manuver through obstacles and clock a decent time. Finishing first is gold and rewards the player with 3 Dreamer orbs, Silver rewards two
and bronze rewards only one. Dying in a challenge resets the player and the time. The timer starts once the player leaves from the starting line. There's a total of 15 challenges , however they only become available if the player spots them and collects them during a normal level. They re
visually represented as a golden Rubik's Cube and this is also how it is represented in the hubworld. Each of the challenge has to do with a certain element the player went through in main campaign. For example some have to do with jumping platforms, others with dangerous enemies and otherwise
require the usage of tools. The 15th challenge only becomes available if the player manages to atleast finish in all the challenges prior to it. The final challenge is a combination of all 14 stages prior to it. The final stage is required if the player is going for the 100% completion.
Knight challenges are also available, where certain platforming challenge is posted and players can place a score for an online competition. Each challenge rewards the player with cosmeticks and a spot in the leaderboard.
Being a 3D platformer it means the player has a few things to be aware in order to avoid dying. Falling of in a non playable area, and being struck by an enemy or traps placed in the map. Sackboy is very fragile and can only be hit twice. The indication of the first strike is visually represented
with Sackboy turning pale white and losing all his color. Succesfully reaching a checkpoint will restore it's color and it's stamina. The player moves around with L3 and jumps with X. Tapping X will cause the hero to have a small jump,whilst pressing it will cause a higher Jump to occur. Pressing X
and holding it down will cause Sackboy to slighlty hover on air. Square is the way Sackboy hits the enemies with a slap.X+ Square is a jumping uppercut and Circle square is a spinning attack. Circle is the dodge ability where Suckboy rolls away. Dodging on an enemy will heatbut the enemy. Tapping Circle
will cause the hero to constantly roll which is a way to manuver faster. Jump,hover and dodge will greatly increase the distance covered. Triangle is used to interact with the environment. Jumping and triangle will cause sackboy to headstomp the ground. R2 is used to grap items or other players and throw
them. R1 is used only when a level has certain power ups.
When it comes to collectables this game has plenty of them. Collectables in the world of sackboy with the exception of the orbs, are the cosmeticks, the knight trials and the stickers. As mentions cosmeticks are items that can be bought from the store, however some of them can obtain through levels. When entering a
level, the world has a present simple. The present represents a total number of cosmeticks. While playing the level the player can see a rolling egg that has certain symbols representing extra life,gift, money and bomb. Hitting it while the gift is shown the player will earn a cosmetick. Some levels might have their
cosmeticks placed in floating bubbles for the player to catch. Last but not least each level has a certain amount of points that require the player to finish to obtain extras. Getting the gold will give the player items such as money and costumes. Points are collected by gathering orbs, marbles and killing enemies. Losing
lives reduces some of the points earned. The levels are very generous and have plenty of Multiplications (x2) for the players to build the necessary points. There are over 300 pieces for the players to collect and cosplay/dress as they enjoy. Knight trials as mentioned above are represented as golden Rubik's cube. The player
when first visiting a level with one in it, will visually see it as a flying cube in the hubworld , and as a sticker to be colected. There are 14 in total to be collected and can be accessed on the giant cube placed in the hubworld. The final type of collectable are the stickers that cen be placed in the sticker album. When
clearing any level and succesfully acquiring all the orbs, the player will receive a sticker for his album.
The Game's animation is fantastic. Honestly it shows the power of the ps5 in many aspects when comparing to it's latest entry on the ps4. The frames, the models the textures are just level beyond the LBP3. The animation can be seen from the interactive environment, the ray tracinng, and the amount of sparkles that can be on seen without losing framerate.. The music is nice and differs level to level. Certain levels have their own remix of famous songs such as Brithney Spears Toxic , Uptown fank by Mark Ronson and plenty of others. All of the worlds introduce different mechanics that change the gameplay so it doesnt get repetitive. Some are simple platforming levels, others have certain type of enemies that cannot be tackle head on and others have different of the items mentioned above in powerups.
Overall Sackboy is a simple 3D platforming game that can be shared with up to three players. The game's mechanics are simple and all of the players can enjoy a the experience without deep patterns. Teamwork is essential however in most cases teamwork may not be seen as much of a colaboration between players but more or less trolling between friends. Players can easy triggered their teammates by simply throwing the game. To elaborate players can slap each other that will cause the players to be thrown and stunned for a while. Other form of trolling is picking up the members and throw them of the cliffs or in map traps such as spikes and lazers. Trolling Outside of straight player to player sabotage is failling to collect points and orbs, throwing the overall score down. Last but not least suiciding cost players lives and score. Certain players simply enjoy making the ones who take the game more seriously angry.
This is a video of me reviewing the game