RIP, LBP

On April 19th, The servers to one of my favorite childhood experiences, LittleBigPlanet, were shut down indefinitely. As it is something that left a profound impact on my life and especially my childhood, I felt the need to go back and take a look at some memories and write some thoughts down about this game. A lot of LBP players have already done the same thing as I write this. Sharing memories, photos, and obviously a sense of grief together. I know I may be almost a month late to sharing my sentiments, but it's better late then never, I guess.

So let’s go back to the summer of 2008… I, as a young boy was watching TV (probably Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network) when a certain game caught my eye during the commercial break.

I don’t know what it was about the commercial. It aired a bunch of times on TV and every time I saw it I was completely fixated on it. Maybe it was just how it looked, the graphics were unlike what I had seen before on the PS2 I had. The colors, the way everything moved, it was just so mesmerizing to my young self. At the forefront of it all, though, is a little stuffed knit character we’ve all come to know and love: Sackboy.

Ten-year-old me was blown away. Somehow. I will not lie when I say this: LittleBigPlanet made me WANT a Playstation 3. I knew I had to get a PS3 eventually, natural progression through generations and all, but seeing Sackboy jump around in that commercial made me relentlessly beg my parents for the game. I think many others share a similar memory. Come Christmas of 2008, my parents gifted me a PS3 and a copy of LittleBigPlanet. That, and Sonic Unleashed, but who’s asking?

LittleBigPlanet is a game I will say ‘changed’ gaming for me. This would have been the first time I took a generational leap between consoles, and I felt it. The PS3 was so much more different than what I was used to. And this was the game that let me experience this new generation. It was even the first time I've ever played online with other players, bought digital items, or uploaded content. I love the PS3, and I'm glad LBP was there to take my hand into the next generation.

Its extensive level editor and online community were the biggest draw of the game. Every player could make a level and put it up online for others to play as much as they want. Every day I would log in to the LBP servers just to check out what cool new levels were online for me to play. I think I was genuinely addicted to this game when I started playing it online. I met some of my closest online friends here as well.

A screenshot from one of my first levels I made. It was a "mall" level where you could "purchase" items from the creator they could use in their own levels.

LittleBigPlanet 2 came out a few years later and it remains one of my favorite games of all time. I remember first seeing the trailer on the LBP website and being overwhelmed with excitement. Looking back at that trailer is so surreal. I think when I first watched it back in the day I actually cried. I might even cry watching it now!

LBP2 expanded the creation suite of the original in many ways and it was so exciting to see the type of things people would make. Things got more complex and more entertaining to create. I have a sneaking suspicion that the game’s simple block-based coding tools made me interested in programming, which I would end up pursuing as a career. Although, I was definitely too lazy to make anything of note.

I managed to dust off my old PS3 and import my profile to see some of the old things I made. Some of it is a little embarrassing, but it’s the type of thing you can expect from the mind of a 12-year-old. Sadly, a lot of my content is inaccessible due to missing some of the DLC i can’t download anymore. But I can still look at some things even if I cannot use them.

I told myself these levels were intentionally bad to mask how low-effort the levels actually were.

I spent many, many hours online playing with friends, checking out the awesome creations from fledgling game designers and like-minded kids like myself. I can’t get online to revisit these experiences, sadly, due to the servers being brought down.

LittleBigPlanet 3 being announced was also somewhat of a big moment for me. Seeing the series continue was fun to see. I played the karting game (which was awesome, by the way), but was expecting a new LBP to be a flagship PS4 title. While I’m not the biggest fan of LBP3, I still appreciate it for being the vessel for the series to persist. I may have grown out of LBP by the time 3 came out, which may explain my lukewarm reception to it.

There were some new creative and cool things to do in 3’s new engine. However, I did not get the chance to make anything for it. The motivation for that seemed gone. I still remained online for several years playing levels online with some friends. My profile for LBP3 was corrupted 3 times and lost everything each time, so I can’t really go into the game to find some old memories like I could with 2.

Sackboy and the LBP franchise have been around the block at this point. After 3 came out the series lay dormant until Sackboy: A Big Adventure (should have been called A LittleBig Adventure...) came out as a launch title for the PS5. While I do like the game, there's no level creator, no community content, and a complete departure from the original franchise. Thats where the Sackboy lays now.

Of course, I wouldn’t be making a blog post about this game if it weren’t for the current situation. In 2020, hackers took over the servers for LBP and made the game unusable. After working for quite some time, the servers for LBP 1 and 2 were taken down permanently and 3 was left up on the PS4 for posterity’s sake. Sadly that only lasted for a couple of years before being attacked by hackers again. Then in April, the servers were brought down permanently as well, leaving no form of LBP left. Its sad. There are archives left over from all this, but the servers were brought down so suddenly that a lot is missing.

Even though what we had is now gone, I’ve made incredible memories along the way. I met some amazing friends online and played some amazing games. Some were good, some were bad… but the sentiment is all that matters. Here’s a small collage of random photos of my friends and me.

I'm glad I managed to pull these photos somehow. A lot of other images were online but are lost now, which is a little disappointing.

Maybe it's a little pathetic to get emotional over a 15-year-old children’s game, but you’ve gotta know the impact a game like this can have on me. I went through some tough times in my life during childhood. LittleBigPlanet and online gaming with my friends was something that helped me through alot. I think back a lot to this song from the first reveal trailer: I can’t hear this song from the trailer without my mind instantly transporting to LBP2, all those memories start rolling back to me. And I KNOW there are others who feel the same way, you’ll see people in the comments of the music video saying the same thing.

It's a pretty song that I happen to love. And I think it ends up being a nice song to put the bow on all we've come to know from the franchise.

Gaming was changed for me, from this game forward. I don’t know where the series will go from here or if it’ll ever return, but wherever it goes or whatever happens, I’ve got LittleBigPlanet to thank for a lot. They won’t take that away from me no matter where it goes.

So rest in peace, LittleBigPlanet… Thanks for everything, and I hope to see you again soon!