Platformer · 2020 · Sumo Digital · local · online
Sackboy: A Big Adventure
A knitted doll jumps through a world of fabric, buttons and zips.
What it is about
A villain called Vex harnesses the inhabitants of Craftworld into a machine, and Sackboy sets off to get them out. Everything in this world is built from fabric, wool, buttons and zips, and you can see the seams.
This time you jump in three dimensions rather than sideways as in the LittleBigPlanet entries before. Added to that are a grappling hook, a boomerang and sections that move in time with the music — familiar songs the whole level bobs along to.
Up to four people play on one picture. A few levels are explicitly built for more than one and cannot be done alone; in all the others you can pick each other up, throw and shove.
Our verdict for couples
Everyone runs on one picture, and the whole character of this game follows from it: race ahead and you drag the camera along and the other one out of frame. You can also pick each other up, throw and shove, and the two together mean a simple platformer with two players constantly goes off the rails. A few sections explicitly need more than one person — there, one has to hold while the other jumps. Dying costs nothing; the checkpoint is seconds back. If you want something that works after a hard day and still gets loud, this is the place.
Pros
- A few sections explicitly need two of you
- Dying costs nothing; the checkpoint is seconds back
- Four people fit on one picture without it getting confusing
Cons
- Whoever races ahead pulls the other out of frame
- The time trials demand considerably more than the rest
- The story is trimming and stays that way
Suitable from
Casual
- Conflict potential
- Spirited
- Cosiness
- Cosy
- When you can stop
- After 15 minutes
- How long it lasts
- 15–40 hours
What other co-op fans say
Eighty-three percent approve, and several people write explicitly that they played it as a pair. The praise goes to the music sections, where the whole level moves in time, and to the friendly tone left over from the LittleBigPlanet entries before it. One objection concerns exactly the multiplayer sections: anyone trying them alone or with strangers barely finds anyone online any more. On the sofa that is no problem — but it is why some people never finish the game.
- “I played this with my girlfriend, and we had yards of fun with it.”
- “The music levels are absolutely stellar too.”
- “so much of the collectibles are trapped in multiplayer, but no one is playing”
Summarised by machine from 60 Steam reviews, not written by our editors. The quotes appear verbatim in those reviews.
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