Wonderful - With Some Caveats
by handyjohnson Nov 9, 2009, 4:19 AM PST
Just bought a PS3 this weekend and by virtue of it's co-op and lack of blood and death this ended up being the game I bought with it. Thought it would be something my girlfriend and I could have some fun playing through together.
I'm not particularly a fan of the side scroller genre anymore so I wasn't expecting to like it all that much but I have to say... it's pretty damn impressive. After getting past the annoyance of having to download and install updates for fifteen minutes (which I got over when I realized one of the things it added were the trophies (I'm a bit of an achievement whore)) things started up and the games aesthetics hooked me instantly. The way the gameplay eases you into it is just wonderful, and the opening credits of the game are the best I've ever seen.
I didn't think I would care particularly for the stickers and related stuff (seemed cutesy) but going back through a level with a sticker you've just found to plop it into the environment and open up new stuff is oddly satisfying. The graphics, despite the fact that they're portraying cardboard and denim and...well...other sack related material - are wonderful. The variety of textures has got to be better than anything I've seen the 360. I just played Resident Evil 5 which was the best looking game I've ever seen. This has got to be close and it's much sweeter and more fun.
The online content is staggering as well. I haven't opened the level editor but the variety of online content suggests a depth and complication I can't imagine. I'm working on the "star 50 levels" trophy. Last night I played a Halloween level in a haunted castle followed by a level called "The Miracle of Life" where your a sperm traveling through the reproductive system (being swiped at by tentacles and monsters (hee-larious.))
I do have a couple of gripes. The community levels are kind of hard to search through. Media Molecule had a particular idea in mind for the interface which was cute but not really designed, I think, to accommodate the massive amount of content that has been created. A simple sortable list would probably have been easier to use but might have violated the spell they were trying for. Instead you're kind of randomly searching through content (unless you know what you want to search for.)
The multiplayer is a little rough as well. If one person gets a little farther ahead the screen doesn't go split screen. Instead, the person lagging behind dies and then spawns from the
