Monday, February 9, 2009

My First Rant: Little Big Planet

OK, so for my first rant, I decided to choose a game that everyone seems to like. Well, at least the people who have played it liked it. Anyway, I fell into this hype and had to try it out. So what was my first thought? ADORABLE. I was lovin' it. The sack boys were adorable and I loved the controls and the level design. I also loved the content online, there are some really awesome users out there creating levels. Unfortunately I soon ran into one of my biggest pet peeves in modern gaming. Limited Lives.

I know what you may be thinking. "Limited Lives? This guy is a bit of a pus." My response: naw. In this day and age, something like limited lives should be an option for the hardcore crowd, not the default so that everyone has to suffer. Especially for a game like LBP which was aiming for a mixture of Hardcore and casual gamers. (yes, Hardcore is capitalized and casual is not). Why must I replay parts of games that I've already passed, just to get back to the area that I'm having trouble with? This game was going great at first. It has periodic checkpoints so if you die you don't go back very far, which was nice. UNTIL I FOUND OUT ABOUT THE LIMITED LIVES FOR EVERY CHECKPOINT. So now I get to the first challenging part of the game and what happens? I die a few times, but no worries, I just spawn back at this nearby checkpoint. Oh wait, I just died a couple more times and I have to start the WHOLE LEVEL OVER. Some of these levels are really long, and like I've said, most of it is a cake walk. So now, I have to traverse this whole level over again just to get stuck at the same spot? Why? Why is this practice still around today? If I've passed a certain part of a game, Why should I ever have to do it again? The game knows I've done it, so why do I need to prove it again? Just let me keep trying the part that I'm stuck at! If I'm just stuck at the tunnels of fire, why do I need to go back and jump on the buffaloes again?

What if the real world was like this? If you fail to graduate your senior year do they send you back to kindergarten? naw! You've already learned that crap! That would be ridiculous!

Like I said, I'm sure there are people who like this whole idea and see it as a challenge. That's why it should be an option. I don't see it as a challenge. How is doing something that I know I can do over and over again a challenge? It's just tedious busy work! So many games do this and it pisses me the hell off. Wait till I tear into GTA 4 and the way it's missions work.