MediaMolecule’s upcoming release for the Playstation 3, LittleBigPlanet, is certainly causing quite a stir, both here on Co-Optimus and abroad. With the recent announcement that not only will there be Sackboys of characters from your favorite third-party Sony games, but all of the user-created beta levels will be available at launch as well, the hype for this game is growing more and more. With the game now officially available, we here at Co-Optimus thought we’d take a look back at classic games that have helped to pave the way for games like LittleBigPlanet.
When you get right down to the basics of it, LittleBigPlanet is a platformer with user-generated content and, of course, co-operative gameplay. It’s a bit early to tell whether this combination will make for a successful new IP in the world of video games; however, early indications certainly seem favorable. LittleBigPlanet may be the latest outing with elements of co-op platforming and do-it-yourself level building, it owes quite a bit to those games and franchises that came before it and broke the ground for each of these respective elements. So let’s take a trip to the past and look at just two of the games that helped shape these familiar game mechanics.
The Lost Vikings [Blizzard / SNES / 1992]
Doing a search of co-op platformers will yield quite a few results, both recent and old. One game in particular, however, sticks out for me as being an outstanding co-op platformer: The Lost Vikings. It may be surprising to some that Blizzard has done games other than Diablo, Warcraft, or Starcraft, but what shouldn’t be surprising is that the same quality that is present in those games was present for a game (and its sequel) that predates those series by at least 3 years.
The premise for The Lost Vikings might not be anything to write home about (the three Vikings are kidnapped by Emperor Tomator of the Croutonian empire and put in an inter-galactic zoo), but the gameplay was truly unique and creative for the time. In order to complete the 37 stages that spanned across 6 different themed worlds, the player had to switch off between each of the Vikings, Erik the Swift, Baleog the Fierce, and Olaf the Stout, and use their abilities to solve the puzzles and clear the path for one of the others so they could proceed and do the same. This was one of the first games I can remember playing that successfully paired the “each individual has their own ability” puzzle aspect of games like Lemmings with the traditional platformer. What’s more, while the story may not have been the greatest, the Vikings themselves made up for it with their between-level dialogue. Being a Blizzard game, the Vikings had plenty of commentary to make about their situation, each other, pop culture, and the videogame industry as a whole.
Olaf: If Tomator is so evil, then why does he leave these… bombs and machines for us to use? Baleog: No one else in videogames wonders about that stuff.
Baleog: I wonder if this is King Tut's tomb.
As if that wasn’t enough to make a great game, The Lost Vikings also included some of the best co-op action of the time. Many of the puzzles in the later levels required using the abilities of two, or even all three, of the Vikings in coordination in order to solve them and switching back and forth between each of the Vikings to progress just a few inches got a bit tiresome. Bringing a friend along to play with you not only meant that solving these puzzles became a lot easier, but the individual puzzles that each Viking could only solve individually went faster as well. This was due to the fact that the developers were smart enough to realize that tethering the Vikings to one another and forcing them to be on the same screen would pretty much make the game impossible to clear, so a split screen mechanic went into effect whenever the players were a certain distance from each other. This greatly sped up progression through the levels and made the play experience that much better. Sure it could be frustrating if your friend accidentally killed off a Viking, but more often than not, it was just funny. Besides, most of the levels were such a blast to play anyway that restarting a level just meant you got to experience the fun all over again!
So what does this have to do with LittleBigPlanet, aside from the fact that both have co-op? Well, specifically, both games have some degree of co-op puzzle platforming. While LittleBigPlanet may not give the Sackboys and Sackgirls their own unique abilities that they need to use in order traverse the levels, there are certain challenges that you’ll face in levels that can only be solved with the help of another person. Even if the 60 pre-made levels that come packaged with LittleBigPlanet don’t provide you with all of the co-op opportunities you require, you can always create a level with your friends locally until the on-line version is patched into the game. If that sounds like too much work, though, rest assured that there are players out there in the world working on making the most mind-boggling, most fun co-op only level to post on-line.
The Incredible Machine [Dynamix / PC / 1993]
Speaking of user-generated content, one need only look at the mods for games like Half-Life 2 or Unreal Tournament III to know that there’s a booming community already in place for this stuff. While mods go back along way through games like Quake and Doom, there was one game that was released in the early 90s that came packaged with all the tools and devices you needed to make your own content quickly and, most importantly, easily: The Incredible Machine.
The Incredible Machine, and all of its iterations, was a series of Rube Goldberg type levels that required the player to fill in the blanks, or in this case, fill in the device. Essentially, for each level you were given an objective, some fixed objects already set in place to work with, and an array of additional objects and devices that you had to place in order to achieve the goal. By today’s standards, where every object and device has its own unique properties and physics behind it that would make outcomes practically random, this sounds impossible given the tools provided. Fortunately, this is a case where limited processing power and design resulted in a much better execution. The more stable objects you could use, such as ramps, walls, etc., had orientation and size limitations while the devices, such as trampolines, a candle and rope, etc., operated with set rules and limited physics. Thus while each puzzle had a few different solutions, all of them were fairly apparent when you saw what you had to work with.
Of course, the game wouldn’t be nearly as exciting if it stopped there. The Incredible Machine also had a “freeform” mode that let you build and design your own level. You could set your own goal and determine what devices/objects would be available to another player to use, or just build a complete Rube Goldberg device that caused the marble to roll down a ramp, light the candle, burn the rope, unleash the bowling ball, etc. All of the objects and tools were there at your fingertips and took little to no time to set-up and arrange within the world. Best of all, you could share those levels with your friends. Sure computer games and the Internet weren’t as well integrated as they are today, but all you needed was a 3.5” floppy disk on which to put the level file and then pass it along.
If you’ve seen any videos of LittleBigPlanet, or played the beta, that design aspect should sound incredibly familiar. Indeed, LittleBigPlanet’s design mode has a lot in common with The Incredible Machine. Both provide you with all of the devices/objects you need to create your own level; both allow you to share those levels with others (although LittleBigPlanet is on a larger scale); and both have worlds that are ruled by their own physics. While LittleBigPlanet may seem like it’s geared towards more traditional platformer-type level building, some of the more creative levels I’ve encountered thus far have used some form of a Rube Goldberg device to achieve a neat effect. Taking it one step further, pretty soon your Sackboy will be that marble that rolls down the ramp, which causes the candle to light, which causes the rope to burn, which… well, you get the picture. Better yet, your Sackboy will be the marble that can only go down the ramp with the help of a friend.
Often times it seems like the gaming community is so busy looking ahead at what the next big gameplay innovation or mechanic will be that it’s easy to forget how a lot of those earlier games got a lot of things right. Not always, but sometimes there was an originality or elegance in these early games that served as a genesis for the games of today. What’s even easier to forget is how so many of the aspects of gaming we take for granted today, like user-generated content or character customization, sometimes got their start with a system that could only handle 8-bits at a time. LittleBigPlanet may not be the most revolutionary game to hit the market this fall, but it is a part of the recent revolution of revisiting old ideas, old mechanics, and even old heroes. And whether LittleBigPlanet fares well or falls flat, at least it got one idea right: games are about empowering the gamers and not just one-upping the competition.
Trivia:
Prior to making LittleBigPlanet, what other game by Media Molecule included the use of "ragdoll" physics? Every great level has a humble beginning. What are the 6 basic materials you can use to build your world?