Sackboy: A Big Adventure
star Sackboy hasn’t quite achieved Sonic levels of mascot status, but his very own 3D platformer shuffles him further into the spotlight
Littlebigplanet
Sackboy’s peaceful world has been invaded by the wicked Vex, a sort of evil jester who kidnaps and enslaves the simple sackfolk, forcing them to help build a device that will transform Craftworld from a place of happy dreams and imagination into a barren wasteland of nightmares. Luckily, Sackboy manages to evade capture and soon learns of a prophecy that tells of a Knitted Knight who will save the world from such terrible schemes…
Perhaps not a tale to put you on the edge of your seat, but this 3D platformer feels like a proper big-budget exclusive, with characters brought to life by the likes of Dawn French, Richard E Grant and Simon Greenall (Michael from I’m Alan Partridge).
Collecting orbs to unlock levels, you’ll find a boss battle at the end of each world, which grants you space travel to the next. Each world has a theme, from snowy mountains to jungles and underwater settlements, and all appear to have been made from a combination of cardboard and household junk. And toilet roll – loads of that about.
A Big Adventure does some pretty amazing things with music too. The soundtrack is a mixture of original stuff and licensed tunes cleverly edited to play in sync with where you are. This being a game starring Sackboy, there are also countless costumes to discover; within the first few hours I dressed as both a ninja and an Elvis tribute act, before settling on a wrestler in a tiger costume.
The ‘arts and crafts’ theme has been done to death, but in 4K HDR at 60fps on the PS5 this becomes a very fine-looking game, and one that makes good use of the Dualsense controller’s haptics and speaker – including, disturbingly, the echo of Sackboy’s panicked wailing when you accidentally walk him off a cliff.
This might not be the most headline-grabbing title in the PS5’S launch line-up, but that doesn’t mean it’s not well worth a few hours of your time.
Matt Tate