LittleBigPlanet pirate trailer

By Tom Bramwell Published 10 December, 2007

Shape ship.

Sony has released a new trailer for LittleBigPlanet showing off a pirate ship level.

Debuted during the Spike TV Videogame Awards yesterday, the Go! Team-accompanied 102-second short shows players customising their ship with seaweed, shells and the like before taking it for a ride.

Toward the end the cute, woolly little rag-doll characters zoom down a hill at speed, something they look slightly upset by, before barrelling into some blocks which tumble about the bows as they disembark.

Developed by British outfit Media Molecule, LittleBigPlanet sees players reshaping their environments, and past demos have seen players collaborating to overcome physics-based puzzles.

There's a heavy emphasis on user-created content, which is part of Uncle Phil's "Game 3.0" vision, and you can admire some more trailers on our LittleBigPlanet gamepage.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000. Follow him on Twitter.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (37) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • homerramone #1 5 years ago

    But whens it coming out !!!

  • ostrasized #2 5 years ago

    But where is the *game*? 2D Garrysmod is all very well, but as the 'great white hope' of the PS3 it'd better have some really good gameplay.

  • JediMasterMalik #3 5 years ago

    AAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

  • morriss #4 5 years ago

    Q4 2008

  • Machetazo #5 5 years ago

    /jumps up and down in excitement
    Whooooo! :D

  • Monkey_Puncher #6 5 years ago

    Looks very clever and all, but I wonder how longevity it's gonna have in all honesty. I mean how many times are you honestly gonna want to run through these user created levels?

    Still very clever though, I just hope the gameplay doesn't let it down.

  • Pac-man-ate-my-wife #7 5 years ago

    Those of you who can't see the vast potential of this are small-minded.

  • dllord #8 5 years ago

    Looks a bit daft to me, but what ever floats your boat i suppose!...LoL see what i did there ;)

  • ostrasized #9 5 years ago

    Yeah, the 'bakery' aisle in my local Tescos has vast potential, too. However, I don't want all the ingredients separately - I want moist, delicious cake.

  • Carlo #10 5 years ago

    Ostrasized.

    Some of us however, love making things. This is a closet game creator/designer's dream come true.

    You only need to look SEUCK (the one that in my mind started it all) and suchlike to see the vast potential this has.

  • Dan_LXIX #11 5 years ago

    It looks superb.

    Could this turn out to be the PS3's Viva Pinata - a great game that no one buys because it looks like it's for kids?

  • Schiraman #12 5 years ago

    @ostrasized: Hehe, nicely put.

    I'm all for added customisation and ability to create and share content, but there really does need to be some game there as well if this is going to succeed.

  • Retroid #13 5 years ago

    SEUCK was shite, though.

  • sanctusmortis #14 5 years ago

    I don't for the life of me think it's going to be a massive smash with the average consumer. However, look to the fun that people like myself are having with the much simpler Forge, or indeed Finjitzu's ridiculously well-viewed platformer creation, and you can see the massive potential of a game like LBP.

    I assume there'll be a load of stuff you can do WITHOUT having to design, but the toolkit is the main draw.

  • Apologie #15 5 years ago

    Really funny... i'm glad to see something different. Looking forward to it.

  • dsmx #16 5 years ago

    I'm still amazed that people can't see the vast potential of this game.

  • redneon Verified Programmer, SUMO Digital #17 5 years ago

    @Retroid

    Aye. It was. As was Klik n Play and Games Factory and Dark Basic and all the other "game creation tools". Especially Torque *shudder*.

    However, what I would say is that LBP doesn't look to be a game creation tool. It looks like a genuinely fun game where you play about with pre-built entities.

    At the moment I have no plans to buy a PS3 but this could well be a game to purchase a console for.

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #18 5 years ago

    It's very pretty certainly stylish, with its Vauxhall Corsa / Orange advert stylings and its Go Team soundtrack, but that trailer doesn't actually make it look very interesting to play. Seriously, they stick some seaweed decals to their pirate ship, toll down a hill and jump on a couple of rope-suspended platforms.

    That, and I was disappointed in Ragdoll Kung Fu.

  • tonynibbles #19 5 years ago

    Can't wait for this game!

  • Machetazo #20 5 years ago

    Gah! That pirate ship did not just appear, but was constructed from various parts, as implied by some responses. There was no pirate ship, no waves, no decals, no colours - it all started from the blank slate...BUT someone wanted there to be a pirate ship, so figured out how to make that ambitious pirate ship concept a reality.

    Probably at least at the start, with plenty of "trial and error" (remember that term?) THEN, the results of the trial and error created a pirate ship (or some section of it) but for someone else that process might not make a pirate ship - perhaps the other player realises during building that mechanic x with mechanic y and shape combination z actually inspires something else altogether different. Maybe on the other hand, you could just choose to try to recreate something you've already seen as an LBP level.

    You can then share the creations online, share with others, and a game is included to show you how things come together. This looks to me, to be a game in which you can play, create and have fun throughout, because you never need do the same thing again - there's always that "what happens if I try this?" or "(how) could this work with that?" which is a beautiful situation to be able to see. :D
    Edited by Machetazo at 10/12/07 @ 14:50

  • Machiavellian #21 5 years ago

    The problem with LBP is not the ideal. Yes there is huge potential in the game but mass appeal it doesn't have yet because there really isn't a game there. I am sure this is the reason the game is taking the time that it is because at this stage it's just a nice cute environmental mode.

    Being able to create a level is great. Being able to create a level with friends is even better. Being able to share that content is priceless but the one fatal flaw is that a lot of people will not want to create but just play. I have not seen anything yet that shows the potential of the gameplay mechanic for LBP. At the end of the day it looks like a simple platformer which would get boring very quickly if there are no other methods within the engine to spice things up. Also, a big concern is how big these custom levels can become. If it takes you days to create a level but you only get less then a minute of fun out of it, then the appeal of LBP will quickly disappear.

  • Machetazo #22 5 years ago

    I'm fairly sure, from what was said early on by the devs, that in downloading a 'level' to play, you don't so much download the level as a static object, but more the pieces that make up said level in the default arrangement. So that, if you're playing the level alone, or with friends, you can still use the creation tools to interact with your copy of the level if, and how you want.

  • Gurgeh #23 5 years ago

    "At the moment I have no plans to buy a PS3 but this could well be a game to purchase a console for. "

    In that case you would be in a tiny minority. Very few people are going to buy a PS3 for the ability to create levels. LBP will be judged by the "levels" that it ships with, not the levels you can create - because most people won't create anything. They lack the time, the inclination and the ability.

    At the moment LBP is a real curiosity. It looks fantastic but it also looks like a toolkit rather than a game. Maybe there's a SIMS-like structure in there to help people along.

  • JediMasterMalik #24 5 years ago

    IT COMES WITH PRE-MADE LEVELS PEOPLE!

    Jesus, how many times!

  • Kenshin001 #25 5 years ago

    Christ, a lot of party poopers in this comments section. The game is going to be great fun to play with friends, plenty of people will create levels, most of them will be shit but there will be absolute gems. Stope being such a bunch of funkillers FFS.

  • ostrasized #26 5 years ago

    Yes, but what happens in these pre-made levels? That's the point. There's been media hype from Sony for the last year or so, all about the tech and the sharing and the blah blah blah.

    Cut the bullshit, let's see the gameplay. At the moment all we've seen is people jumping around and putting hats on ;-)

  • Kill_Crazy #27 5 years ago

    I reckon it's going to be something akin to Lemmings where you have set number and type of 'pieces' and have to get from a to b. Maybe with certain parameters like 'must use wheel based vehicle' or 'fly over this bit'. Maybe.

    It's an easy game to screw up and make dull. Let's see how they do.....

  • Machiavellian #28 5 years ago

    I think the people who are overly hyped about this game do not understand that people who find things to criticize are hyped as well but we just want to see something more than what has been shown. As much as I love the concept, the look and feel of LBP, I still do not see anything there beyond a simple platformer.

    At this time, I see some cute little avatars that can jump around an environment but I know from experience that this would not be enough for me to enjoy the game. Not everyone has the time to create their own levels so if this is the big thing most of you are getting hyped on then that’s great but it will not satisfy the majority. I know LBP will have levels that come with it but if they are anything like the videos we have seen already then those would get boring real quick. Being able to create your own levels is great but from what I have seen, those levels are not that big for the amount of work that will go into those levels to make them fun. Not only that, there isn't anything fleshed out on what you can do within those levels. If you look at all of the videos on LBP, you see once the levels are completed, you go from point A to point B which appears to be very boring. I feel that LBP has a chance to be something truly great but from what has been shown so far it’s still needs more time cooking

    The thing that would make LBP the absolute bomb and definitely the killer app is the ability to create your own custom gametypes as well as levels. In other words, if I wanted to create Super Smash Brothers gameplay then I should be able to. Maybe I want to create some crazy sports themed game type or a multiplayer shooter. Maybe I want to create a platformer head to head gametype with different customizable characters as adversaries you name it. Being able to create your own custom gametypes instead of just custom levels would be the killer app that LBP needs.

    From what I have seen so far, LBP is a nice mod that will be cute to play with for a couple of hours but in the end doesn’t have enough content to make it anything more than a nice diversion.

  • Gurgeh #29 5 years ago

    "plenty of people will create levels, most of them will be shit but there will be absolute gems"

    In a way it doesn't matter how many people create levels since they will all be complete bollocks. "Wait, there are bound to be some good ones". Yes, but if you have to download 999 broken, ugly and incomplete abominations to find 1 gem, then no-one will bother.

  • Kropotkin #30 5 years ago

    Machiavellian makes some excellent points there which is why I think the game is in development hell right now. Yes they have some nice tech in there but I'm anxious about the game itself as in, where is it? Something to ponder methinks as right now it would probably entertain me for as long as the average Flash game...

  • the_dudefather #31 5 years ago

    this is pretty much the game I want a PS3 for, ever since the first demonstration last year

    @Gurgeh

    hopefully the youtube style level rating/commenting system will help filter out the horrible levels

  • Ihya #32 5 years ago

    Some people never played with lego or meccano as children, nor saw the appeal I guess.


  • ostrasized #33 5 years ago

    lego and meccano didn't cost £400 just to have a go.

  • Vandrius #34 5 years ago

    This game has the potential to be GoTY potential... or brilliant but flawed.

    One of the two.

  • Wyrm #35 5 years ago

    It looks great, but I am scared it will be something that you fiddle with for a few days and can't be arsed to create anything worthwhile with.

  • lennon #36 5 years ago

    It reminds me in a way of the ability in Forza to create your own skin for a car. Smashing in principle but when it comes down to it far to much of an effort to actually create anything worthwhile (for me at least).

    Now to be clear Im sure some people will get to grips with it and create some wonderful things just as in forza but I want to know what the point is. The novelty of spending hours building a pirate ship just to roll it down a hill into some blocks isnt going to last long is it?

    If there is a game in there I would like to know what it is as at the moment I get the feeling that I can probably see most of what I would want to see of this on YouTube.

  • ronuds #37 5 years ago

    For a while I've had trouble figuring out LBP, but I think Machiavellian hit the nail right on the head why I've had this trouble.

    So, I get the point that you make your own little levels and you get a little guy and you run around a little. Then what happens? What's the appeal, really - other than creating a level, which seems to be the most fun part about the game? I'm guessing this is kind've like a Sonic game, but without the coins and monsters that stand in your way?

    I'm just struggling to figure out what the huge appeal is to this game. The levels look fun and all, but seems a bit like setting up and knocking down dominos: it takes a billion hours to set them up and 10 seconds to knock them down - after that, the fun's over.

    I could be quite wrong though.