LBP Control Sometimes "Annoys" Media Molecule Boss

LittleBigPlanet

We seriously doubt this will hinder the massive hype machine generated over the past few months, but it's still interesting on a number of different levels (get it?).

During a recent interview with Eurogamer, Media Molecule co-founder Mark Healey admitted that controlling LittleBigPlanet's SackBoy in certain areas can get "annoying," although the team could step up to tweak the control scheme after the game launches. Early feedback for the promising cooperative-based platformer has been 99% positive, but that 1% of negativity has typically focused on the SackBoy controls, particularly when operating in the "2.5D" perspective. Healey refers to this as the "Z axis movement:"

"The Z [axis] movement is an incredibly hard thing for us to get right. There's times when it annoys me actually, but we can work on that if we want, and refine it. But on the whole, we got to a good place with it I think, because we wanted to cater for my mother and someone that's a hardcore player, so it was hard to get the balance there."

However, even though this isn't a downloadable title (and don't believe any rumors you hear that it'll be available on the PSN), Healey did say LBP has been designed with future updates in mind. In other words, even if things aren't entirely perfect upon release, the team can make changes "post-release." And besides fixes, they can also add enhancements to make the experience even more entertaining. Added Healey:

"There's definitely room for improvement and we've got the channel to be able to do that as well. I'd really love to be able to do backflips and all kinds of things with my Sackboy, and there's no reason why we can't add that and refine that."

LittleBigPlanet is a mammoth title in a mammoth month, and we have every confidence that it turns out to be stellar. And it's always good to get responses from the developers themselves, just to see what those "post-release" plans might entail. Some guys just figure it's all over once the game is out, but not Media Molecule; they're gonna keep working, you can bet on that.

Related Game(s): LittleBigPlanet

10/7/2008 Ben Dutka

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