Last week on the super secret Infendo internal communications network (read: gmail), I fired off a email to the crew about this new game coming out in 2008. It’s called LittleBigPlanet. People love it. Heck, even I found myself watching the keynote trailer a few times.
Jack, Infendo fanboy:
How ironic that, in 2008, the “Killer app” for the PS3 [will be] a platformer. A simple, 2D side scrolling platformer. With “cute” graphics to boot. “Been doing that for years with my NES and Wii,” I’ll say, while sippin’ Cristal.
That was March 8. This is IGN’s Levi Buchanon yesterday:
For the last five or six years, people have crapped on Nintendo for making these kinds of playful, colorful games. I have read “Ninty is teh kidy!!!1!” on more than one rueful occasion. Sony busts out a sweetheart platformer at GDC and then suddenly reaps the praise? Wha’ happened?
I’m not trying to take anything away from LittleBigPlanet here. After being consistently disappointed with my PS3 since its November purchase, I wanted something like this to look forward to. I like video games that rejoice in looking like, well, video games. Nintendo has done this for years. Crackdown manages this with aplomb, even though it’s still quite violent.
The hypocrisy of the gaming “industry” these days is maddening. But I tell you what. Given the choice between the original, Nintendo, and some platformer due out in more than a year’s time, I’ll take Super Paper Mario in heartbeat. I’ll use the money I save with that approach to buy some Cristal.