Mario’s been chomping mushrooms and picking fire flowers for more the 20 years now, but after his third Super outing, his wardrobe became a little dull. Sure, the cape and winged cap were neat, but neither had the allure of the Tanooki Suit or the Frog Suit. However, both New Super Mario Bros. Wii and the Super Mario Galaxy games gave our favorite plumber a long-desired makeover. Keeping in that spirit, we present our dream designs for his next interstellar (or terrestrial) adventure. Saving the princess is hard work, but there’s no reason why you can’t look good in the process.

Kappa Suit
(Tailor: Nicolo)

Mario once again takes inspiration from a Japanese folklore creature with the Kappa Suit! Unlike the Tanooki Suit, this water-sprite-inspired garb grants our hero water-based powers to help him excel in those pesky swimming stages. In addition to granting Mario 360 degree turning abilities while storming through the soup, the lily-pad-like bowl that sits atop the suit is capable of shooting streams of water at enemies and is particularly effective at putting out charging bob-ombs. As the Kappa is an extremely polite creature, to access the Kappa suit, Mario must bow (duck) in front of kappa statues, which will release the power-up to Mario to aid him on his quest. Failing to do so, however, might result in kappa-enemies attacking Mario from the depths (they love to feed on children), so mind your manners!

Bugman Suit
(Tailor: Tony)

In an ancient time, before there was Bowser, Mario was harassed by a particular massive ape. In their first two encounters, Mario dodged barrels and fire while climbing girders to reach the lovely “Pauline” (who we all know is really just a palette swap for Peach). But in their third head to head, Mario had apparently gone missing, replaced by the suspiciously similar “Stanley the Bugman.” This guy attacked his enemies with deadly bug spray. After years of turning his back to chemical warfare, Mario has found it necessary to wield the spray gun, but this time, he wields it in the name of more than just his greenhouse; he fights for the sake of the galaxy!

Bob-omb Suit
(Tailor: Kaz)

With great power comes great volatility. The Bob-omb Suit allows the players to generate bob-ombs that detonate after a short period of time. There is a targeting reticule on the ground in front of Mario showing where the bob-omb will be thrown. (They can also be left behind Mario by holding an alternate button.) If Mario is hit while wearing the suit, he will begin to countdown to his own explosion. In order to stop the countdown, he’ll need to take another hit from an enemy.

Matryoshka Suit
(Tailor: Tom)

After obtaining the fabled Babushka Mushroom, Mario will adopt a distinctively wooden and rounded appearance.  Each press of the B button will allow him or the last copy created to pop open and launch a smaller version of himself.  Up to five successively smaller dolls will follow Mario and can be assigned to swarm enemies -finally, revenge for the tiny anti-jump goombas in Super Mario Bros. 3! - and access switches or items in areas too small for regular Mario to enter.  In addition, similar to Pikmin, they can band together in a chain to form bridges or prevent Mario from falling off the edges of cliffs.  As Zangief would say, “Russian folklore is always number one!”

Bunny Suit
(Tailor: Justin Hemenway)

Nintendo has this pesky habit of introducing cool Mario power-ups – the Hammer Bros. suit, the Tanooki Suit, the Metal Cap – and then promptly locking them up in subsequent sequels. Well, the Bunny Suit served the plumber well on his first moon walk back in Super Mario Land 2, so it only seems right to bring it out of the vault. For those of you unfamiliar with the old school Game Boy’s sickly green charms, the Bunny Suit allowed Mario to glide through the air by flapping his ears. For the 2010 model, the suit will also allow him to run much more swiftly, making some of those tricky purple coin challenges a little less daunting.

**BONUS**

Starman Suit

Just in case the Bugman Suit isn’t obscure enough for you, this silver oldie from Earthbound will tap into Mario’s telekenetic potential. As long as Mario avoids shield-casting insects, he’s basically invincible. (Rest assured, this one is suitably rare.)

Bob Hoskins Suit

Poor Bob Hoskins can’t catch a break. After the “Mario Bros.” movie nearly killed his career, the real deal is back to finish the job. If you find Mr. Hoskins bumbling around, you can “wear” him to gain all of his mystical “powers.” Enter goombas by “Walking the Dinosaur,” use Bertha’s boots to fly to great heights and blast away Bowser’s castle with your trusty Super Scope. With the Bob Hoskins suit, the possibilities are endless.

WarioWare D.I.Y. is a tricky little game. While past entries were praised for their approachability, the hours of tutorials and dozens of switches in this latest edition can make anyone’s head spin. That’s Tony and Justin are here to help. The guys may not be experts – RumbleTek Inc. has only released 11 hits so far – but they’ll help you get your first few ideas off the ground.

1. Don’t be afraid of the music editor – Unless you’re already a composer, I think everyone’s first instinct will be to click on the little maestro in the corner and let him handle all of the tunes. It’s a cool a feature that is still plenty customizable, so I’m glad it’s there. Even so, give yourself a little credit! You’re not tone deaf, and you only need to come up with four to eight seconds worth of music. Experiment a little – move notes around, learn how to stack notes to make chords and try all of the different instruments. As someone who has used both methods, I can tell you that manual composition is much more satisfying than automatic. Also, the maestro is never going to be able to reproduce Super Mario Land music or the Don’t Wake Daddy jingle.

2. Make wise use of the background – If you look at any of the packed-in microgames through the MakerMatic 21, you’ll notice that most stationary elements are usually painted directly on the background. Considering that you can only create so many objects per game, you should ask yourself which parts need to be animated and which do not. If you have a character that’s prepared to throw…I don’t know…let’s say a Hot Pocket, you can probably get away with just animating his arm and designating the body as background.

Also, if you find that people are having a hard time differentiating the background from the foreground, you might want to consider changing the background outlines from black to shades of gray (or deleting them altogether).

3. Share! – Swap friend codes, visit online forums and check out contest winners. I think the easiest way to spark your imagination is to see what other people are doing first. This point may seem obvious, but Nintendo has seemingly gone to great lengths to make sure this doesn’t happen. A WarioWare D.I.Y. community will take time and energy to build, but anyone who has spent time with the GBA original or Twisted can tell you that the extra shot of creativity is well worth it.

4. Do every single tutorial – Unless you’re a computer programmer, or have that background, you have no idea how deep this rabbit hole goes. Sure, you can create an amazing game where a dude takes a dump by tapping on his pants. (I know because I’ve done it!) But you can also create really complex games if you take the time to understand the tools at your disposal. You have random number generators, if-then-and functionality and more Boolean than you could ever want (which I suppose is just “true or false”). The thing is, they package it all in a very comprehensible way, but it all takes time to learn; so do those tutorials. And when you’re done, do the challenges, too! It’ll take about four hours, but it’ll be well worth it.

5. If you can’t figure out how to do it yourself, steal it from someone else – In any good community, not only will the end product be shared, but the tech behind it will be shared, too. Nintendo has taken the time to make some really cool games, but they’ve also left them wide open for you to go in to see exactly how they work. If you can’t figure out how to give something gravity, then check out any of the WarioWare games that have someone jumping in them. You’ll find the answer is much easier than you could have ever expected.

6. Just do it – So your idea is dumb. Remember my aforementioned poop game? Yeah, I certainly am not a creative mastermind…at least, not yet. But like anything, creativity can be fostered by practice. So whatever your idea is, don’t discard it. It is still your idea – now you have to create it into something that you can be proud of. And when you’re done, be proud of it. You spent a fair amount of time making the AI work, getting the art just right and making the music set the mood. So tear down that apprehension and make that Faygo Chug Simulator you’ve always wanted.

It’s unfortunately a rare treat to have the five of us together in one room. If only we could have a couple more days.

If there was a running theme for our PAX East experience, it would probably have been Pokéwalker addiction. Many Elekids were captured this weekend – and none were shared with Justin.

Justin poses for his Photo Dojo debut. When in doubt, NBA Jam voice samples are a big hit. “Boom Shakalaka!”

Tony teaches Nick how to play Split Second by making lots of stuff explode.

Sackboy struts around near the Manticore Theatre. Let’s hope he kept an eye on that zipper.

We spotted lots of folks wearing Blue Bomber knit hats. They’re apparently all the rage on Etsy.

The art at the A.P.B. booth looked cooler than the game itself. Hopefully, players get a bit more creative with character customization when the game ships.

Tony takes on one of the tougher Picross 3D puzzles. For many of us, it was the secret “game of the show.” May can’t get here soon enough.

Say hello to the newest Smash Brother, Picross 3D‘s horrible, deformed duck creature.

For Mother 3 fans: the clay models used for Fangamer’s Handbook.

The sweet looking game that The Behemoth doesn’t want you to know about!

The Behemoth’s timeline, featuring more wonderful artwork. Between Shank, Captain Smiley and BattleBlock Theater, the back corner of the exhibition hall was the place to be for gorgeous cartoons.

Bowser feasting on some poor nerd.

PAX East or not, we weren’t going to go for a full weekend without a multiplayer fix. In this particular shot, we’re probably steering past ham sandwiches in Excitebots.

Making friends in the Sheraton lobby through the magic of the Microsoft Surface

Where there are nerds, there’s Magic. (Friend-of-the-show “Jard” is on the right.)

Audio-visual splendor from Anamanaguchi during Saturday night’s batch of concerts. We were trying to pick out recognizable sprites on the screen, but no such luck.

The last prop from the Metroid Metal performance in captivity behind a merch booth.

Tony and Tom chilling on two of the hundreds of beanbags lining the hallways. This is how germs spread, people!

Justin leaves a sasquatch-sized crater in the adjustable mattress.

Tom puts one more virtual quarter into his favorite game ever before heading to the airport.

When Mega Man 10 was announced a couple weeks back, the Rumble Pack crew rejoiced. MM9 was such a huge success, both creatively and financially, that it made total sense to go back the retro style once more. But Capcom didn’t stop with just a new game announcement. Alongside the titular Blue Bomber and Proto Man stood Sheep Man, a wool-covered baddie who would look more at home in Harvest Moon if he didn’t have two lightning rods sticking out of his back.

Not that Magma Man and Concrete Man were particularly inspired, but at least they were threatening. This robotic farm animal seems like a throwback to oddballs like Search Man and Dust Man, and we’re curious to see if the other Robot Masters follow suit. While we wait though, we’ve decided to beat Capcom to the punch. After the jump, we’ve included five of our best barrel-scrapers, ready to charge into baaaaah-ttle with their sheepish brother.

Inventor: Tom
Robot Master: Waltwhit Man
Stage Theme: Civil War Battlefield
Stage BGM Name: “I Sing The Body Electric”

Waltwhit Man appears as a grizzled old man with a cool hat and giant white beard. Instead of the usual Mega Man stage intro and jingle, his is an unskippable dramatic reading of the poem “Behold This Swarthy Face.” His main attack is shooting Leaves of Grass at you.  Just like the real Walt Whitman, small robot birds live in his beard and enter the playing field every time he takes damage from Mega Man’s buster cannon, making it increasingly difficult to navigate without taking damage

His stage combines all of the worst aspects of the disappearing block platforming puzzles from earlier Mega Man games – in order to mimic his free verse style, there is no set pattern to the way the blocks appear and disappear.  It is also full of Civil War-era cannons and weaponry.  Sharp-eyed viewers will be able to spot robotic versions of his contemporaries Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge throughout the level, somewhat annoyed not to have their own stages because their names lack the word “man.”

Inventor: Tony
Robot Master: Hipster Man
Stage Theme: A rundown bar the caters to people who only drink Gin Fizzes and features only bands that no one has ever heard of
Stage BGM Name: “Ironically Detached”

The stage itself is rather simple – just some hopping over 8-bit tables with enemies that look like bums or Ziggy Stardust. The key is the completely aggravating indie rock music for the stage performed by “The ChedderFunk Experiment.” The music is so irritating that the player becomes nauseous, unless he or she so happens to be a hipster. If the player is detected to be a hipster (via the Wii Vitality Sensor), the music changes to 50 Cent’s “In Da Club” and the stage is repopulated by Guidos and Bros.

The battle begins with Hipster Man sitting down in the corner of the stage, with a mixture of beat poetry and a Shakespearean sonnet playing over the speakers. Mega Man will proceed to take one notch of damage per second until he hits Hipster Man. This causes him to let out a shrill shriek that will stun Mega Man – and likely the player. Hipster Man snorts a line of coke and then proceeds to leap all bat-shit crazy around the stage. (The A.I. pattern is based off of a random number generator.) Hipster Man’s primary attack is a Trash Beam, in which the projectile is an empty Pabst Blue Ribbon can, an empty can of Baked Beans, dirty sneakers, rotten fruit and other assorted detritus. As Mega Man gets hit, the trash will attach to him for several seconds. Hipster Man’s weakness is the Soap Bubble Beam acquired from Hygiene Man.

Inventor: Nicolo
Robot Master: HDTV Man
Stage Theme: pointlessly detailed high-tech environment
Stage BGM Name: “8-Bit UHF”

HDTV Man has a wide-screen, flat-screen TV for his head, which is much bigger than the stand on which it sits (his torso), with his “buster” being a giant HDMI cable that feeds from his back. Every blast he shoots is a hyper-detailed 1080p energy shot, but he can also shoot a blast directly from his screen – the brightness of which dazzles poor 8-bit Mega Man, and leaves him stunned for a few seconds.

As for his personality – he’s a pretty cocky jackass because he’s popular with all of the other tech-savy Robot Masters. In order to fight him, you have to pay 300 bolts to cover the high “price of entry” that is the HD stage.

Inventor: Kaz
Robot Master: Paper Man
Stage Theme: Residential Neighborhood
Stage BGM Name: ”Something Closely Resembling the Paperboy Theme”

Paper Man appears to be a robot with the severed head of the main character from the arcade hit Paperboy (but not quite to avoid infringement). A robot with severe mental problem, he thinks he’s the titular paperboy “all grow’d up,” but he was merely a robot designed to spit out newspapers to passing people. Unfortunately, he delights in hurling papers at terminal velocity. Watch out – if you get hit by one, you’ll be tortured by his trademark three-frames-of-animation attack, which is hard to avoid in its simplicity.

His stage progresses from delightful suburban housing to a torturous landfill-based obstacle course. It’s almost impossible to finish…so it’s the perfect stage for a Mega Man game. All the stages are filled with your favorite enemies, including errant wheel, RC car, dog, tricycle/motorcycle…thing and everyone’s favorite enemy, “break-dancer,” who fiendishly gets in your way while trying his damnedest to self-fellate. Paper Man’s only weakness is the all powerful Game Genie Man’s power, but since he’s sitting out until at least part 11, you’ll have to cross your fingers that you get it from the next guy.

Inventor: Justin
Robot Master: Potpourri Man
Stage Theme: A blending of a Pier 1 Imports sales floor and my grandma’s bathroom
Stage BGM Name: Randomly selected from past entries

Dr. Wily actually recovered blueprints for Potpourri Man from the year 20XX. The concept was borrowed from “Poopouri Man,” a superhero designed by Justin and Kaz at Nicolo’s wedding who would randomly conjure up new powers while defecating. Needless to say, the world wasn’t ready for such an intense character, but the mad doctor saw his raw potential and attached a scented pine cone to his head.

Unfortunately, Potpourri is still very much a prototype. His body is a giant mason jar, which houses a fresh “Spring Breeze” mix. For Potpourri Man, this mix is comprised of mostly terrible powers from prior games in the series. Lead Bubble, Top Spin, Leaf Shield – all of your old “favorites” are here. In tight spots, he’ll sometimes cower under his wicker basket, hoping that the Mega trouncing will stop.

Welcome all to our biggest feature yet. While not all of us here at the Rumble Pack are huge platforming nuts, all of us can appreciate the talent and joy that goes into an excellent user-made LittleBigPlanet level. So to celebrate one year of Popits, Paintinators and pulling our friends into bottomless pits, we’ve compiled an LBP blowout. Follow the links below for…

Building Upon a Solid Foundation: An opinion piece from Justin on why the game still matters and how to build sales momentum in year two.

Our Own Favorite Levels: We promise you won’t see any of the usual genre cliches here.

An Interview with Joe O’Rourke (LiBiPl.net): Joe talks about the loyal LBP community and why the game’s groundbreaking level design tools have captured its imagination.

And as always, let us know about your favorite levels, multiplayer moments, costumes or whatever else is on your mind on our message boards! The game’s all about sharing, after all.

“It all began ages ago, when man’s ancestor picked up a shard of a strange
red rock… Its power, which was beyond human comprehension, cultivated
dreams… In turn, love and hate were born… Only time will see how it all
ends.”

                -Belthasar

For all of the endless praise and message board worship lavished upon Chrono Trigger, the initial setup is fairly simple, at least initially. You have an intrepid young group (including a mute hero and a tomboy princess), a brooding villain, and a mysterious force that could destroy the world. However, for a game that employs so many role-playing archetypes, it still has its own unique charm over a decade after its 1995 release. In the following series of essays, the five of us discuss why Chrono Trigger has remained such a highly sought-after classic. Is it the Toriyama artwork? The lively battle system? The time travel gimmick? Perhaps the charm lies beyond these details.

You may be asking yourself why we chose to base our first Rumble Pack feature on this particular game instead of the many other classics in Square’s SNES oeuvre. Where was this essay collection two months ago when the DS update was released? Well, for one of us, this is his first time playing through Chrono Trigger, and we felt it was important to remind readers what it was like to play the game with fresh eyes. Besides, this is one of those few games that has been universally embraced by the hardcore gaming community, so think of this as getting to know us better through a common gaming touchstone.

Click on illustrations to be taken to corresponding essay:

As I simultaneously play through DQ IV and last year’s Lost Odyssey, I find it striking how similar the game play and pacing are between the two titles. Ditto for most of the other turn-based throwbacks, like Blue Dragon and Sonic Chronicles. To be fair, the Persona series and others have shown that there’s still some life in the subgenre. Going back through my catalog of PS2 RPGs however, I find that they’re usually just chores to play. Too often, I still find myself grinding away at oversized farm animals and “playing for the story,” which in the end usually limps along to some anticlimactic conclusion anyway. Even recent successes occasionally fall into the same obvious traps – all of them, except Chrono Trigger.

After getting acquainted with the characters and world at Leanne Square, you’re suddenly attacked by a gang of green, hydrocephalic imps. However, whereas most of its peers at the time (and to this day) would move the action to another screen, Crono immediately unsheathes his sword and holds his ground. The imps try to strafe around him, but our silent hero is able to maneuver through the forest arena as well. All of this fancy footwork happens automatically, with no actual input from the player. This is instantly more engaging than the dodge ball-inspired inspired lineups found in the Final Fantasy series.

Better yet, these skirmishes never last very long. Crono and company are well-stocked with MP, to the point where any problem can be solved with a powerful Double Tech like “Ice Sword” or “X-Strike.” Grinding is also kept to an absolute minimum. By capping the player’s abilities early (HP maxes out at 999, for instance), you’re encouraged to move swiftly through each dungeon. Some may complain that this makes the game a bit too easy, but I’d take the Chrono Trigger setup over some grueling trudge without hesitation. Besides, there are enough challenging bosses, like the bat-faced Giga Gaia, to keep most players on their toes.

The breezy, accessible nature of the game goes beyond the battle engine though. Much like Back to the Future, Chrono Trigger makes time travel comprehensible for the masses. The story is more adventure than it is science fiction. The time periods may change, but Masato Kato’s writing never confuses in the way that it did with Chrono Cross. There are some startling revelations throughout, mostly dealing with Magus’ relation to Lavos, but nothing as convoluted as Cross’ trek through “Chronopolis.”

As with Back to the Future, the central villain remains the same, despite the frequent time jumps. In this case, Lavos is the game’s (Biff) Tanon line, making life miserable at a handful of key points throughout history. Carrying out this strained analogy even further (because I love talking about BttF almost as much as I do about Chrono Trigger), Magus would be the game’s Principal Strickland. Lavos took something very dear from Magus, causing him to lash out at Frog and others in an effort to undo the past. This is similar to the disrespect Biff shows toward Strickland, which turns him into a bitter man that constantly chides the McFly boys (and points a shotgun at strangers in alternate 1985).

Moving on before this derails any further, Chrono Trigger does a great job of constantly introducing new environments to the player. Veterans can always rest assured that the comparatively lame prehistoric chapters will never last longer than a half hour or so, unless you really want to hang out on the hunting range. You always have the option of backtracking, and there are a bunch of side quests to do before you board the Black Omen, but no section of the game ever outstays its welcome.

I guess that’s the main thing I take away every time I play through a new save file or go back through New Game + – Chrono Trigger is as tight an RPG as you’ll ever find. You can complete it in roughly 15 hours, give or take, which is a far cry from the padded epics lining Japanese store shelves these days. Every element game is handled as succinctly as possible, while retaining a healthy sense of humor. And works more as a charming experience than as a challenge. The modern, dreary grind-fests could learn a thing by going back in time.

To put it briefly, Chrono Trigger was one of the late, great SNES RPGs. It represents one of the strongest collaborations of Japanese game-design talent ever seen, and was released at the height of the install base of one of the most popular game consoles to ever grace either side of the pacific. Is it any wonder why, with all of that talent, (Hori, Toriyama, Mitsuda, Uematsu and Sakaguchi) we have what is regarded as one of the best, nostalgia-soaked RPGs ever made?

I don’t think so.

What might surprise you, however, is that this JRPG-loving, Dragon Ball super-fan had never seriously sat down to play through the game until just recently.

It’s not as if I haven’t tried. In fact, Square’s masterpiece has long-since been the test-pilot for practically every SNES emulator Magic VCR™ I’ve ever tried to shove onto a computer. My experiences were roughly the same each time:

“Tick. Tock. Pendulum. Wake up Crono! Millenium Fair. Foot-racing freak-show. Eat that guy’s lunch. Chug soda. Hooray. Now which game should I try?”

So when I received a copy of the “enhanced” DS port for Christmas, I was 2-parts excited, 1-part nostalgic and 1-part wary that I’d never make it through to one of those fifty or whatever ending sequences people keep raving about. It’s not enough that I’ve come to learn almost every nuance of history surrounding Chrono Trigger that’s available*, but with my friends telling me it’s one of their all-time favorites and even Jeremy Parrish halting from his usual game-remake loathing to admit the inflated, SquareEnix-taxed price tag was well worth it, well, I couldn’t really escape it.

It was high time it got the boot from my hall of shame list. Radiant Silvergun, watch your back.

And wouldn’t ya know it, 6 hours in, I’m more than happy with my gift. Never did I think I would be so content with a direct SNES port, but hey, if there was one game to directly port, this was it (screw you, Final Fantasy Chronicles). But rather than sit here and regale you with how much I appreciate every second that was spent on this epic, time-defeating (literally) jewel of entertainment, I want to focus on what about the game truly catches me off guard.

Two things really.

1. How critics love the game’s artwork despite its famous creator.

This seriously baffles me. There’s absolutely no end to the misguided prejudice that flows from the lips of critics that caught one episode of DragonBall Z, scoff at the thought of manga, yet absolutely love all that is Chrono Trigger. It’s made all the more ridiculous when you take a second to compare a few of the characters in both works. Crono and Goku could be brothers. Lucca and Bulma are the same character. And if imps and saiba men don’t look the same to you, well, it’s glasses time, son. It seems as if, at least on these shores, Toriyama’s artwork in the gaming realm is often a minus on the game reviewer’s scale of RPGs. Too child like? Too generic? Maybe. But if that’s the case, get off your high horse and stop playing JRPGs in the first place. Toriyama’s style is one of the most original and intrinsically Japanese components to ever be included in an eastern RPG. If you’re going to mock Blue Dragon’s character design, you had better not give Chrono Trigger a free pass.

2. There’s no end to the media-ties that Chrono trigger has created.

Maybe it speaks to the uber-popularity that the game has come to see over the past 14 years, but I simply can’t sit down to play without a comparison to some other damn song or tv show popping up. Maybe you’ll understand why when I see this:

it reminds me of this:

Or when this guy shows up:

, I hear this:

Or even seeing this:

, Makes me think of this:

(Ask for the links and I will oblige)

Seriously, the world has done wonderful and awful things to Chrono Trigger.

But despite all of the outside references and influences that the game has had on other culture (and vice-versa), I’m still finding myself enthralled by what I think is the core experience.

For a chrono-virgin like me, I guess only time will tell.

*Like, for example, that Mitsuda demanded to do the game’s composition, less he quit. He landed it and ended up giving himself stomach ulcers from laboring over the work.

- Artwork by fan favorite Akira Toriyama!

- Unleash the power of the Epoch to travel to the end of time… and back!

- Over 60 hours of mind-blowing gameplay!

- Multiple endings mean the story never ends!

Since the rise of the RPG in the western world, marketing divisions of software companies have forever been parading out similar claims formatted as bulleted lists on the back of game boxes.  One game will supposedly keep you enchanted for hundreds of hours while another will blow your mind with a new exciting spin on the classic turn-based battle system.  It wouldn’t take any seasoned gamer long to figure out what game the “back of the box” blurbs above are describing.  However, there’s something different about Chrono Trigger: a game that holds a special place in the heart of almost everyone who has played it. What sets it above its contemporaries?  What makes it so memorable that it barely takes more than two notes of the introductory music (or a literal swing of a clock’s pendulum) to send you back to a place where a 15″ color TV and grubby gray Super Nintendo controller were the truest definition of happiness?

You could cite any number of things: the active time battle system that allows you to see your enemies before initiating combat with them, the aforementioned double and triple techs, the memorable characters and unique time-travel based plot, the gorgeous music and graphics, etc. but at the risk of sounding like the back of a box – nothing more than an attempt to “sell” someone who hasn’t played the game yet or heard of it before. Suffice to say, all of us on The Rumble Pack have played this game at some point in our lives. Instead of telling you what an amazing game it is or why we should treasure it as a classic, I’d like to share some of the reasons the game is so memorable to me. Surprisingly enough, most of them are small details that seem dwarfed, even insignificant compared to the grandiose claims made above. The point I’m trying to make is that there is a lot more to some games than one can describe with a list of features, an assessment of how good these features are, and a letter grade or number.

[Note: contains a fair amount of spoilers, mostly minutia, and is not intended for those who have not completed the game.]

1. The Millenial Fair

It’s a known fact that institutions like this tends to destroy me when it comes to RPGs.  I’ve gambled away my last gold coin in the casinos of Dragon Quest more times than I can count, and as far as I’m concerned Final Fantasy VII comes to a satisfyingly happy ending the moment you reach the Golden Saucer.  There’s something about visiting these places that sets them apart from being just another town or village to upgrade your equipment at, and I can’t stop until I’ve done everything there is to do. I feel like I’m doing my characters a favor, letting them relax from beating up hobgoblins for a few hours to guzzle some sodas or get laughed at and subsequently japed by a floating clown face.

The fact that I could get all of this over with at the beginning of a game instead of the middle makes me owe Chrono Trigger a debt of gratitude – otherwise I don’t know if I ever would have completed it. To put it simply: I barely remember the whole reptite subplot or the fact that Schala was Magus’ sister… but I’ll be damned if I can’t sing Gato’s song on my death bed and distribute 15 silver points (later revealed to be dollar bills with my face pasted on them) with my final breath.  Honestly, the best part about the entire fair, I daresay entire game, is eating that old man’s lunch.

The lunch that launched a thousand ships…

            To put it into perspective, there was a fountain in the original Final Fantasy that, when “spoken” to, said something like “COME! HOW FILTHY YOUR FACE IS.”  (Which as a kid, delighted me to no end… was this supposed to be the fountain chiding me in the booming voice of an aquatic god or merely the reflections of my own apparently filthy-faced party of three warriors and a monk? No other inanimate object in the game spoke to you like this, and in a game where most of the dialogue consisted of “WATCH ME DANCE” and then a twenty second long unskippable jittering of pixels, this was a mystery worth considering.)  I would talk to that damn fountain at least a dozen times every time I visited the village it was in. Well, to me, that guy’s lunch held the same allure. Often while traveling through time, I would purposefully make a pit stop in 1000 AD just to eat it. Which bring me to…

2. The Trial and Subsequent Prison Escape

…the fact that there were consequences for eating that lunch. As a kid, this shocked me.  Typically when playing RPGs, as the hero your behavior consists of barging into as many residences as possible, smashing every treasured family heirloom and clay pot you come across, jumping into unknown beds fully clothed in your dirt-caked leather armor, and stealing absolutely everything that wasn’t bolted down. Which, other than that one bald shopkeeper in The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening (who MURDERS YOU if you steal from his shop… talk about scaring the bejesus out of a 8-year old kid) most NPCs seem to be completely chill about. But in Chrono Trigger, when you are tried for bogus charges of kidnap, the fact that you acted like a dick comes back to bite you. I loved playing through again and again trying to see all of the different testimonies leveled against you by other people at the fair or to try and get a not-guilty sentence. It still kills me that this feeble old man would haul his ass all the way to the courthouse to testify for your execution for eating his lunch, bag and all.

The only consolation being that, as a dear colleague of mine once said: “After you escape from the prison, the game pretty much becomes a no-holds-barred lunch munch adventure.” Case in point, my countless pit stops in 1000 AD I’m sure Crono found difficult to explain to his comrades were completely justified to me. The rest of the busting out of prison sequence is especially memorable for the bridge battle against the tank dragon, which takes place on a 2D plane instead of an overhead view. Like I said before the list, nothing startling by today’s standards or even those of yesteryear, but these are the things that really stick with me 12 years after playing.

I half expected Dr. Wily to pop out of this thing after you defeat it…

3. Robo’s 400 Year Wait

            RPGs have a way of trying to make you feel for the characters which sometimes works and sometimes does not.  It’s a given that, during the course of a long game, you will grow to like certain characters and not care about others.  It’s a matter of personal experience, but I was never particularly attached to Aeris or some of the other obvious love interests/tragic figures these games try to scrape off on you.  But man, do I remember Robo. Even though I never really used him in my party (let’s face it… he was kind of shitty…shh, don’t tell him) I thought he had some of the best story scenes.  My favorite being when he agrees to stay in 600 AD to help replant a forest while your party travels into the future, agreeing to meet up with him later.  After he leaves the party, he appears on the world map, chugging away and clearing space for a forest to be seeded.  Then it’s just a matter of jumping through the Epoch to 1000 AD to re-collect him.  Now, to the player, Robo only leaves your party for a few minutes. But I could never help but imagine the implications of his 400 year wait… did he ever wonder if Crono and the gang would get sidetracked or just plain forget about him?  (One can’t help but think of the scene from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy where the robot Marvin is forced to wait until the end of time itself to meet up with the main characters again.)  Plenty of RPGs are full of omnipotent or immortal characters who have lived for a very long time and who are very eager to tell you all about it, but Robo carries with him a sort of quiet grace. He was given a job to do and he did it.  When you do finally come for him, now battered, rusty and enshrined in an overgrown temple, a touching scene follows where he gives Lucca a piece of pressure-hardened amber he created over a hundred years, which always implied to me he never lost faith that his friends would come back for him. Perhaps I’m reading too much into it, but I’ll take this over a hundred Aeris-bucket-kicks anyday.

4. The Fake Save Point

I would love to see some kind of callback to this in a current-gen RPG, I just love how cheeky this concept is. Your battle-weary party slogs through the sewers and finally, spotting the hopeful glint of a save point in the distance, makes a break for it. But the second you touch it, a bunch of monsters pop out and rape you instead. Brilliant! I like the ways you could interpret this – either the enemies are clever enough to set a trap for you and bait you in with a decoy save point (as in this case) or, pushed by positive natural selection in an RPG universe, a monster eventually evolves to resemble a save point that lures in weary travelers.  It’s taking the concept of a Mimic Chest just one step further, I love it.  I guess that would be kind of like an animal that evolves to perfectly resemble a Taco Bell and waits off the side of the highway for hungry drivers to pull over… OH GOD WAIT, what if there was a monster that evolved to resemble that old man’s lunch at the beginning of the game and…okay, sorry, I’m done.

5.  Crono’s Clone and the Titular “Chrono Trigger”

            Character deaths are nothing new in video games, but few games have the balls to outright kill off the main character, which might as well be “you” in general.  Especially for players who always name the main character after themselves.  But the fact that you can go back in time and replace Crono, moments before the fatal blow strikes him, with what basically amounts to a mannequin made of straw, a bucket, and an old spiky mop is hilarious.  It’s like in those really cheesy B-movies where it shows a character about to get hit by a car or something and then cuts away to a soft cloth dummy being hit instead.  It’s literally one of the oldest tricks in the book and Lavos falls for it.  Not only that, but it completely pats you on the back for being enough of an idiot to waste the first half of the game testing your luck in Norstein Bekkler’s Tent of Horrors.  For  me, a great personal victory, as I was afraid the only thing I would have to show for this “hard work” was a house stuffed to the brim with cats.

The game also gets huge points in my book for the title actually meaning something.  I know there are plenty of straight-forward game titles (Elevator Action, Mega Man, Duck Hunt, etc.) but it always irks a tiny part of my soul that I never found out what The Illusion of Gaia really was or why there are now thirteen Fantasies that cannot logically be Final.  Shit, I never even really understand what The Secret of Mana/Evermore was supposed to be.  That the mana tree was still alive?  That a dog, when transformed into a toaster, is capable of wreaking havoc in ways not previously thought possible?  Hell if I know.

A very real man (not a dime store mannequin at all) being destroyed in a manner most brutal.

6.  Jerky: The World’s Most Precious Natural Resource

            This is one of my favorite “out of the box” solutions to be featured in an older game.  The setup: you place something called the Moon Stone in a spot of eternal sunlight in the distant past, then travel forward into the future to re-collect the now fully powered Sun Stone.  The problem: it is now gone, somehow falling into the hands of some town Mayor who attempts to hide it, ignoring the fact that his house is pouring out enough sunlight to build hydrogen into helium at a temperature of millions of degrees.  The solution: BEEF JERKY + TIME TRAVEL.

The solution to all life’s problems… that’ll be $10,000 please.

            Yes. Instead of traveling back in time far enough to before the mayor was born and nabbing the stone or fooling him with some whimsical Robo-induced distraction long enough to find it in his house and grab it, you instead travel back and give his ancestors beef jerky.  Apparently this beef jerky is encrusted with precious jewels or something, because it sets you back 9900 GP, roughly the cost of 990 tonics.  If each tonic heals 50 HP, the jerky should presumably heal almost 50,000 HP when eaten.  A metaphorical “spicy meatball” indeed.  But his ancestors, so moved by your act of jerky-giving, promise to teach the value of sharing down through posterity. The result? When you travel forward in time again to meet the mayor, he happily hands over the stone. For keepsies.

7.  Catching the Gold Rock

            This is a quick one, but it always makes me smile when I think about it. In the Denadoro Mountain area, there are these enemies on the map that throw rocks at you to initiate combat.  However, if you visit after Frog receives the upgraded Masamune (a completely arbitrary requirement) you somehow become enough of a bad ass to catch them instead of being pelted mercilessly.  Apparently some baller-rich baddies live in this area and are fans of “making it rain”: not content to throw regular pebbles they instead hurl rocks of solid gold that allow Marle, Robo, and Frog to team up and do the Grand Dream triple tech.  2D RPGs have somewhat of a tradition of allowing limited interaction outside of the battle screen (a pre-emptive “SHUT UP” to anyone who mentions Final Fantasy Mystic Quest) and this is a notable exception which results in a most pleasant surprise.

8.  The Developer’s Room

Speaking of thins I’d love to see again in a current-gen RPG, not only did Chrono Trigger have over one million god damn endings* but if you were enough of a pimp to defeat Lavos at the very beginning of a New Game+ (or in the Ocean Palace when you are supposed to lose to him) you are taken to a secret area where you can speak to all of the people who worked on the game.  I love to see things that pay tribute to underappreciated staff who work hard but don’t garner the same fan following as the big wigs like Mitsuda, Kojima, Uematsu, Miyamoto, Sakaguchi, etc.  They really went the extra mile by literally placing themselves in the game to wish the player well, a strengthening of the bond between creator and player that isn’t often seen and a reminder that teams of real people work on these games we love so much.

Oh Keisuke, you kidder!

* Okay, only a baker’s dozen of endings. Plus the new one they added. Still, that’s a lot.

The Rumble Pack: You started up LiBiPl.net long before the game’s release. What was it about the early footage that inspired you to start the blog?

Joe O’Rourke: I’ve always been an avid gamer, but nothing about the current generation of consoles had really grabbed me until I saw the GDC 2007 demo of LittleBigPlanet. I’d played with level editors from Doom to Source, even done a tiny bit of 3D modeling; so to see a game where objects could be created as real-world materials with great visual fidelity and reasonable physics, while the game is running and not in a separate tool, just blew me away. The art style was very appealing as well, which became more and more of an additional draw as time went on.

RP: Early reports of sales numbers were initially disappointing, even though I think they’d qualify in the “pretty good” range at this point. But in terms of your own site numbers, have you seen a pretty steady influx of new readers? Do you think the LBP name is still relevant to the average PS3 owner.

JO: Based on Sony’s statements leading up to the release, I didn’t see any way they wouldn’t be disappointed by the sales (which, given the platform and lack of gore, were still pretty darn good); it’s worth noting that Media Molecule was profitable immediately due to their low overhead. As far as my site goes, it’s been downhill since before the release, but that doesn’t surprise or disappoint me. LittleBigWorkshop launched, LittleBigPlanet Central resurfaced, Media Molecule hired excellent community managers, the podcasts started – all of these things made sites like mine less necessary, which is fine.

RP: Your site also mentions that you’re a game design hobbyist too. Are you satisfied with the tools included with the game? What are some additional tools you’d like to see in LBP‘s second year?

JO: The tools were definitely made more accessible since the early demos, which has a huge upside and a slight downside; infinite depth granularity has its problems, but I have to agree with those that say four layers for four players might’ve been better. For the future, though, I’d love to see some creation incorporated into gameplay, as had been planned at one point. It’s difficult to do well, but if anyone can tackle that particular design challenge it’d be the folks at Media Molecule. The other thing that excites me for the future is the demo of wand/sphere/thingy LBP integration that was shown at TGS, which looks like an awesome cooperative (particularly parent/child or gamer/nongamer) experience.

RP: What would you want the PSP version to bring to the table? Do you think it will inspire the same strong community as its console older brother?

JO: The ability to create levels while waiting in line, riding the train, et cetera should be a huge boon to the more mobile among us. I’m not sure how the community will shake out, though. There’s an opportunity to use the PSP’s online features to great advantage, having an in-game portal to LittleBigWorkshop and such, or queueing up levels via browser to be pushed down to the PSP, but I’m not sure how much of that sort of thing is being worked on. I guess we just have to wait and see.

RP: How do you feel about the DLC that’s been released so far? Were you initially hoping for more than costumes when you started the blog so many years back?

JO: It’s difficult to complain, when LBP’s seen more DLC than just about anything short of Rock Band and SingStar. Back before release, I think a lot of us expected most of the DLC to be level packs, but in retrospect that’s kind of silly given that it’d be competing with their own user base. I like the costumes and stickers, but for those that don’t there’ve also been the paintinator, creator pack and music pack (hopfully more to come). I think the Metal Gear Solid pack was such a game-changer, so soon after release, that players want that sort of thing on a more frequent basis than is reasonably possible.

RP: What do you think makes the LBP community so enduring/enthusiastic?

JO: Creation is marvelously addictive. The LBP fanbase is like an artists’ commune with thousands of residents: every day you can see wonderful things being created, and make your own visions into something to share. And it’s not all within the game, as I’m sure you’ve seen. From Sackboy fanart to music videos to whatever you’d call my DevFace vandalizations, there’s a real creative energy that drives the whole community.

RP: And lastly, do you have a favorite level or two?

JO: It’s so hard to pick favorites! In the story mode, I’d have to go with “The Darkness.” That’s the one that made me stop playing, go to the computer and email Media Molecule just to say “this is awesome.” From the pre-release Beta, I loved “Johnny Cash in Folsom Prison.” BasketSnake always does wonderful character contraptions, but this is still my favorite. As far as (somewhat) more current stuff, I loved “Inside the Mind of an ‘H4H’er” by wexfordian. So meta, but also great design and visuals. And some of my favorite levels in the current Beta…oh wait, I can’t talk about that, can I?

Be sure to check out Joe’s LiBiPl.net for the latest LittleBigPlanet news.

LittleBigPlanet was supposed to change the way we play video games. Unveiled at the 2007 Game Developers Conference, the DIY platformer made a wonderful first impression thanks to its accessible creation tools, a built-in community and the particularly adorable mascot Sackboy. But much like the fellow GDC champ Playstation Home, LittleBigPlanet‘s hype never really translated in big commercial success when it was released last fall. A little more than one year later, LBP remains mostly forgotten by the mainstream crowd. Not a deserving fate for a game that I absolutely believe is a modern classic — and one that I think can be reversed with just a few tweaks and a little luck.

I remain hopeful because by its nature, LBP is constantly evolving. Following the tradition of other genre staples like the Super Mario Bros., the goal here is to simply get to the end of each level by running, jumping and swinging past anything in your path. Much like the burlap-covered hero, nearly everything in LBP has real-world texture. The game had a stitched-together look that hearkened back to the LEGO forts and building blocks of youth. But what really set the game apart is that you could take all of sorts of these ingredients —wood, glass, carpeting, sports equipment, and so much more— and make cohesive levels to be shared online with friends and strangers. And while I’ll often go a month or two without playing the game very much, I’m constantly blown away by the gaming craftsmanship on display.

For instance, there’s a series of levels inspired by Electronic Art’s Dead Space, in which Sackboy has to explore a derelict space station infested with multi-limbed monsters. The first act features a stalled-out elevator, atmospheric lighting and an anti-gravity chamber ripped straight from the source material. When the LBP came out a year ago, such a feat never seemed possible, but now, such results are almost commonplace. Some levels forgo interactivity altogether, such as the “Cause and Effect” series. Here, the creator, “Triple Tremelo,” sets out to impress with technically masterful Rube Goldberg devices. And there are hundreds of other levels of similarly high quality.

Sounds pretty cool, right? So why has it not taken off yet? I think much of the problem is that the game’s tools are not as easy to use as advertised. As shown in the debut trailer (see above), you can create a stack of tennis balls or a skateboard ramp in a matter of seconds, but if you want to create anything more intricate than that, prepare to be frustrated for a very long time. Because there are three different planes to walk on this game (versus old-school Mario’s one) there’s a degree of obfuscation that’s really difficult to reconcile. Gluing things together usually involves a series of pins and switches that just won’t make sense for the first-time players. And most first-timers will also be last-timers if they’re not having much fun.

One idea would be to streamline the tools so that players are only operating on one plane initially. Anybody playing on a modern console understands the 2D side scroller, so why not cater to them initially before moving them onto the more difficult stuff. The engine is versatile enough that you can still make some pretty attractive and functional stuff without including that pesky extra dimension.

I think another potential answer would be to offer more detailed tutorials than what’s offered in the Story mode. For some reason, developer Media Molecule decided it would be best to set a clear division between pre-made levels pressed to the disc and the more creative stuff, which seems like a major mistake in retrospect. The logic here was probably to ensure that the game remained swiftly paced, but I don’t think players would have minded a brief bridge building exercise every so often.

Perhaps Media Molecule could have taken a cue from an even bigger sales-bomb, Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. While Banjo the bear is too dated to resonate with a modern audience, the game’s garage was a worthwhile innovation. For every challenge, players were required to build new vehicles, either from existing blueprints or from scratch. Early in the game, you’d be able to get by with just four wheels and a motor, but later sections required some ingenuity. LBP could employ a similar learning curve. It may be too late for the disc-based content, but there’s always DLC, right?

Maybe not, if the current LBP store is any indication. When the game was first announced, we were promised new levels, some of which would be developed by some of Sony’s other acclaimed developers. What we’re getting right now is costume packs from Judge Dredd. It’s not that we haven’t seen any major additions since launch. The Metal Gear Solid pack included a paintball gun that has significantly changed how LBP is played, and at some point, a water pack —complete with snorkels— should create ripples in the community. But the major DLC releases have been too far apart, with hardly any new levels from the game’s creators. Sony’s missing out on an incredible marketing opportunity too. Your average gamer might not be interested in the cute box art and cheery music, but I think some involvement from the God of War or Killzone 2 guys could potentially sway him or her. There’s a portion of people who would rather just plow through a few obstacle courses instead of sitting down in a virtual sandbox, and this would be an easy way to cater to them.

I don’t know if streamlined tools, better tutorials or these higher profile updates would be the answer, but what I do know is that the game does not need a sequel anytime soon, and it seems that the developers agree. The foundation here is solid, a new PSP version will have people talking about the title again and the recent PS3 price cut means that plenty of new shoppers will be scouring the shelves for older titles soon enough. (I think it’d make a great pack-in game too, but I guess Sony thinks otherwise.) But Sony and Media Molecule need to reassess how they’re selling the game. LittleBigPlanet has sold modestly throughout its first year, but it still has the makings of a blockbuster.

We’ve compiled our own personal favorite stages below. We acknowledge that these may not be the “best” that the game has to offer, but they represent an exponential leap in quality over the launch levels and in many cases are absolutely stunning. Be sure to visit our boards and let us know if we missed your own picks.

Justin’s Pick: Lost Tomb of Anubis by Nattura

One of the joys of playing community levels in LBP is that you’ll often find gems where you least expect them. Take the generically named “Lost Tomb” above. How many lost temples/tombs/castles/caves do we really need? It’s thematically right behind fire and ice levels in the platforming cliche handbook. But when you first boot up Nattura’s creation, you’re immediately made a little uneasy by an introductory trek across the desert. Your little Sackboy is just a silhouette running past howling “winds” and crumbling pyramids, with sand dunes weaving up and down. There’s a lonely atmosphere that’s more in step with Ico or Shadow of the Colussus than the bright, cheery worlds Media Molecule gave us, even though it’s in keeping with the story mode’s world culture motif. Once you get into the actual pyramid proper, close inspection reveals that the walls are rather sparsely decorated, but you’ll probably be too lost in the gloomy lighting and somber music selection to care. The level design never provides the same thrills, and it’s definitely on the easy side, but like the best LBP levels, it’s about the experience.

Nick’s Pick: Run Sackboy…Run! by superskag

Perhaps it’s the unbridled yet often intimidating creativity found among the LBP community that has kept so many of its fans from creating their own levels. But for all the tangled webs of wires I see that power super complicated, mood setting stages, there’s levels such as “Run Sackboy…Run!” which, despite the unfortunate title pun, recaptures everything fun and innocent that LBP represents at its best. The level itself is a fast-paced obstacle course, running no longer than two and half minutes at its max yet capturing almost every enjoyable play mechanic found throughout the main game – you’ll swing, jump, fly, slide and yes, run, back and forth across a myriad of different surfaces, watching amusing sticker placements in the clouds as you hover by and never crossing too frustrating of a gap on your journey toward a point-hemorrhaging finish line. The use of the race-timer is perfect – you’ll either attempt to screw over your simultaneously racing friends or stick it to everyone else on the leader boards (I clocked in myself at rank 37,722). Either way, it’s hard to deny the simplistic brilliance of this mini gauntlet – it’s a Sackboy speed-run, and man, can that little guy move.

Kaz’s Pick: Lost in the Pacific 1, 2 and 3 by SJEPAP

A trilogy? Yes, amongst the pantheon of one off race levels and paintball gun arenas there exists LittleBigPlanet creators still trying to produce “normal” content for the game. I have to admit, it had been quite a while since I’d last braved the content of LBP. I wasn’t expecting to find the greatest content since the last time I waded through trophy level after trophy level was so lackluster.

Did I strike gold? No.

That doesn’t mean that these levels don’t have merit. In fact, the only thing holding these levels back is the still frustrating multi-plane platforming of LBP itself. It’s most interesting to see the progression of the creator as each level was made. I’m not sure the time between levels but the consistency of style and steady improvement of lighting and level design is readily apparent. I loved the creative workarounds for water and I liked the throw away motif and story despite itself. (Also of note: the nifty credits and title screens.)

Coming back to LBP has really made me wish there was a stronger integration between LBP and the PS3 itself. I’d love to see developers’ picks and top rated levels advertised on my XMB. It’s be a nice reminder to dust off my copy of LBP and reward these creative people with hearts and stars.

Tom’s Pick: Pet Sackboy by Hymanator

After coming back to LittleBigPlanet for the first time in quite a few months, I was pleasantly surprised to find more user-created levels designed to follow my own style of playing the game. I’m all for challenging platformers, but the controls in LittleBigPlanet never seemed tight enough for me to want to attempt the trickier challenges made by users. To me, LittleBigPlanet is less of a game and more of a showcase for creativity. I prefer a level that is simple to traverse and lets the controls take a backseat to the theme, allowing me to enjoy the tricks the user has employed to make their level special.

In “Pet Sackboy,” your Sackboy starts off in a plastic hamster cage complete with wheel. After busting out, you are free to explore a house with the occupant away, getting into all kinds of mischief. The music is suitably cheeky, and it’s a lot of fun to climb about and activate the various giant-sized furniture and appliances. Furthermore, there are lots of little details like soda bottles and cereal boxes complete with user-made labels. Each object in the house acts much like you expect it to and is well made within the confines of the game: the microwave zaps your Sackboy to a crisp, the sink rewards you with bubbles for pushing a sponge in, the toaster launches you through the air to the top of the refrigerator, the recliner undergoes a leisurely transformation, and the TV springs to life when you step on the remote control. The level makes good use of space and it’s never difficult to tell where you should go next, a problem I experienced with several of the other user-created levels I’ve tried recently.

Overall, it’s difficult not to smile when imagining a Sackboy scurrying around your house and getting into trouble while you aren’t home. While it won’t blow you away with atmosphere or dazzle you with technical wizardry like some other levels, it’s a cute idea that’s well executed and won’t take much of your time.

And while Tony’s busy with medical school interviews and travel, we didn’t want to exclude him from our Sackboy family. Look for “him” on the article hub.