This is part two of my multi-article review of LittleBigPlanet. For the first part, all about the first few hours in the game, click here.

Once you’ve breezed through all of the tutorials that LittleBigPlanet has to offer (probably a wise thing to get them out of the way immediately, as so to save you the trouble later on) the first thing many of us will do is jump straight into the Create mode and create everything out of nothing. For a few of us, it might actualy happen, but I’d be willing to bet that the majority of us will try and come up with something but emerge with nothing.

This is where LBP’s single-player Story mode comes into (pardon the pun) play, and the game’s logic of making you play through it starts to make sense. Part two of my not-so-little review begins after the jump.

The story of LittleBigPlanet goes something like this: on the titular celestial sphere, each part of the word is managed by one of several ‘Creator Curators’, who oversee the creation of everything in their particular part of the world. Unfortunately, a rather greedy little so-and-so known as the Collector is nicking everything and keeping it for himself.

The ending, while I wont spoil it (despite it being a little loose, which is somewhat excusable given the game’s lack of backstory), puts forward LBP’s message that you’re here to make things, share them with people, and then play with whatever they’re sharing with you too; it’s one great big fat platforming social network doohickey with “Web 2.0″ slapped all over it.

Which, of course, brings me to what I believe is the entire point of the game’s  Story mode. It’s not really there for you to cavort about in, indulging in some classic side-scrolling platforming action before turning it off and playing something else. The way I see it, the Story mode is Media Molecule’s way of sharing ideas with you, in the way you share ideas with everybody else when you make levels and vice versa.

Think of yourself as an artist, whether it’s a ‘classical’ artist like a painter or a ‘modern’ artist like a songwriter, or a film director. What you’ll find amongst these types of people is that they all have inspirations they draw upon and reference in their pieces, and you can see these references in their works. Playing the Story mode, then creating things, works a little like that.

The 50-odd levels and challenges are chock-full of all kinds of contraptions from which to take inspiration from; from merely using sticker-shaped cutouts to point out hidden secrets to creating magnificent climbable dragons made from giant, spinning pieces of felt, Media Molecule have made sure that you’ll not be short of ideas when you decide to dip your toe into the vast ocean of the Create mode.

What’s wonderful is that creation potential isn’t just maximized over time, it’s positively encouraged. The ability to invite friends into your game at any time, at any point in any level, means that help is always at hand if you’re looking for that one elusive material you need to carve your giant mechanical elephant but just don’t know where to start. Picking up a new item during a co-operative session gives it to all players involved rather than simply one of you, so there’s really no way to lose out when it comes to obtaining absolutely everything.

LittleBigPlanet, then, is never really a single-player game. Since the Story mode is merely a showcase of inspirational ideas rather than a proper solo experience, there’s no excuse not to get a together with friends to get the last of those goodies and start creating, which I’ll touch upon in huge, huge detail in part three of the LittleBigPlanet review.

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