Puppeteer - PlayStation 3

With its stunning presentation, wonderful art style and delightful theatrical flourishes, Puppeteer has upstaged many big name titles this year to become one of my favourite games of 2013.

Essentially, it’s a side-scrolling platform caper, but there's so much style packed into this dark, twisted pantomime that Puppeteer often feels like a completely different beast. The game follows the adventures of Kutaro, a young scamp whose soul is taken by the evil - and wonderfully named - Moon Bear King and poured into the discombobulated body of a wooden puppet.

What makes Puppeteer so special is that all the action takes place on stage in a quaint theatre, where an unseen audience whoop, cheer and applaud valiant deeds, and gasp and squeal in terror as the Moon Bear King and his minions wreak havoc. It's a quite brilliant touch and helps give Puppeteer a truly marvellous atmosphere.

Because of the game's setting, Acts are introduced by the parting of red velvet curtains, while background sets shift and change on the fly with a handmade charm not seen since Sackboy bumbled his way on to the PlayStation 3 back in 2008.

Kutaro leaps through the gorgeous sets collecting shiny trinkets and evading all manner of devious critters. But while the platforming antics are fairly standard fare, Puppeteer throws in a few neat ideas to mix things up.

The first is Ying Yang, a bedraggled feline Who the player controls via the right stick. This magical flying cat can interact with the backdrops, allowing the player to uncover secrets, snuffle out hidden golden shards and free the children who have been imprisoned by the grizzly Moon Bear King.

Kutaro also gets his little wooden hands on Cerberus early in the game - a pair of enchanted scissors which enables our puppet hero to cut through environments and slice up troublesome foes. But that's not all, as you make your way through the game, Kutaro uncovers more knick-knacks to help him on his quest.

As if this wasn't enough for Kutaro to contend with, the cheeky rapscallion has lost his head and is forced to collect makeshift noggins as he scampers around. Each of these imaginative objects is imbued with special powers and experimenting with them and watching the accompanying animation is another of Puppeteer's visual charms.

The game packs in a lot of content and there are plenty of reasons to go back and revisit the levels once you've initially polished them off. There are heads to collect and fabulous picture books to unlock, complete with wonderful paper-style animation and narrated brilliantly by Stephen Greif, who gives a blinding performance all the way through this rip-roaring adventure.

Collected heads can also be viewed, each one featuring a lovely little vignette and the models can be spun and manipulated for a closer peek at the exquisite art style. Puppeteer is also the first game since Batman: Arkham City that I played through in 3D and it truly shines. The depth of the theatre sets look splendid, while objects and characters are thrown around the screen making making it a visual treat from start to finish.

It's a spellbinding title that has me completely smitten. Even with the imminent launch of the next generation of consoles and the promise of bigger and better games, this magical title will definitely be in my top 10 come the end of the year... oh yes it will!

Look who's coming to LittleBigPlanet...

It's hard to believe, but LittleBigPlanet is just over a week away. And if the thought of dressing up your Sackboy in all manner of weird and wonderful costumes wasn't enough to get you excited, check out these playable characters.




Yes, Metal Gear Solid's Solid Snake and Final Fantasy's Sephiroth will be making an appearance in the final game.

With the beta now over, I am suffering from LittleBigPlanet withdrawal symptoms and next Friday still seems a long way away. I can't wait to get hold of the finished version.

LittleBigPlanet - Beta

The website Eurogamer ground to a halt on Tuesday night, as word spread they were giving away 5800 beta keys for the PS3's showpiece title LittleBigPlanet. After much ranting, raving, liberal swearing and desperately hitting the refresh button every few seconds, I finally got a key and I'm now in the beta.

Of course some money grabbing buggers were quick off the mark, and put their beta codes online - charging around $100 a pop.

As I sit here typing with a mug of tea and a packet of Hob Nobs by my side, my download is at 61 per cent and a night of fun lies ahead. Who cares about my pounding headache or the stomach cramps I've been suffering from all day? This is LittleBigPlanet, folks. And, seeing as the beta doesn't finish until October 12, I'll be amazed if I play anything else over the course of the next few weeks.

I'll report back when I've had some quality time with my most anticipated title of 2008...

LittleBigPlanet - PS3

IT’S been 17 months since Sony and Media Molecule unveiled LittleBigPlanet to the general public. Its blend of ambitious user-based content and sumptuous looks have made this game top of people’s most wanted lists since then...myself included.

So you can imagine how thrilled I was, when last weekend, I was lucky enough to get my hands on the highly-anticipated game at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival, and I haven’t stopped smiling since.

LittleBigPlanet allows players to express their creativity by creating new levels in real-time, build objects such as cars and rockets from scratch, shape objects and landscapes and decorate your own levels in any way you want and then share them with the PS3 community.



I was first taken through a couple of pre-made levels that will ship with the game this October by one of Sony's reps. The graphics, as you can see, are stunning, with the game’s lead characters - Sackboys - exuding charm and personality with every move.

Swinging on windmill sails, leaping over fire, dodging scary ghosts, flying around with the aid of jetpacks and using teamwork to reach new areas, were just some of the things we experienced during my 45 minutes hands-on.



Then it was time to check out the creative side of LittleBigPlanet. The first thing you’ll notice is how well laid out and easy to use the menu system is. A simple press of a button calls up the menus. Then it’s just a case of highlighting your chosen object and you are instantly able to place it into the world, scaling and rotating to suit your needs.

The first thing I did was give my Sackboy a cowboy hat, a goofy smile and a rather fetching moustache and then we got down to business building a car from scratch.

First we took some wooden blocks, sculpted them into a rough car shape, and added wheels. Next, we fixed a rocket to the back and added a grip point - which acted as the car's accelerator. While it was all very basic, the scope is there to create something truly spectacular with a little time and effort.



Once we were happy with the final look - not forgetting to add a classy tiger skin pattern to the chassis - we jumped on board and held on for dear life, as the tiger car lurched forward at some speed.

Of course, we had failed to attach the rocket properly and as a result, the car was forced off the ground and somersaulted a few times, sending our Sackboys flying through the air.

Next we created a towering statue, complete with moving fiery arms. A picture was then taken of my face using the Eyetoy camera and slapped on to the statue’s head for a neat finishing touch.



We were able to create these objects in just a matter of minutes and LittleBigPlanet is as involved or as simple as you want it to be.

If you want to recreate your favourite level from a Mario game, you can. If you want to create a sprawling, epic level incorporating hidden exits and objects, you can. If you just want to play through the game's 60 levels and never touch the creative tools, you can. Or if you just want to mess about for 10 minutes creating a mechanical see-saw with your friends, you can do that too.



Everything you create can be shared online and you can be rest-assured that some members of the community will pull out all the stops and deliver some jaw-dropping creations.

The first thing I plan to create is a sprawling rollercoaster/ghost house, complete with terrifying drops and fabulous special effects, while a toppling dominoes-style level is also at the top of my list.

There’s only two months to go before everyone gets the chance to play this PS3 exclusive title, and I’ll be at the front of the queue come launch day.

Here's a video of part of the level I played through: