LittleBigPlanet Karting

“*Commandeer that kart and make it your own. Quickly, young sackling, put the pedal to the metal! We know you'll take this mission seriously.*”
―Narrator
***LittleBigPlanet Karting*** is a kart racing game for the PlayStation 3, centered on user-generated content, as part of the *LittleBigPlanet* series. The game is developed by United Front Games and San Diego Studio, who had previously developed the 2010 user-generated content kart racing game *ModNation Racers* for the PlayStation 3, in conjunction with series creators Media Molecule. The game was published by Sony Computer Entertainment and was released in November 2012.

## Gameplay

*LittleBigPlanet Karting* is a racing game in which the players race against each other in a go-kart across a variety of themed tracks, with the primary purpose to come in first place. Throughout the course of the race, players can pick up weapons that have special abilities such as projectiles, heat-seeking projectiles, EMPs, and grenades. The player can use these weapons to attack and slow down competitors. Weapons can be fired both forwards and backwards and can even cancel out seeker missiles when fired in reverse. Players can also pick up boost items such as Autopilot and Fast Forward.

### **Create mode**

*LittleBigPlanet Karting* features a level editor, similar to the *ModNation Racers* editor. *LittleBigPlanet Karting'*s create mode uses the same concept of *LittleBigPlanet*, featuring a menu similar to LittleBigPlanet's popit menu to access objects and materials, plus other tools. It also features Play, Rewind, and Undo options to test your creations, undo an unwanted action, or redo something that you accidentally undid. You can choose "Create Track and Arena" from your popit menu to create an arena or track, and also specify what texture(s) you want the track to be made out of. Terrian allows you to create lakes, ditches, and landforms in complex shapes, plus change the terrain material.

The Tools Bag contains themes, sound effects, music, and various tools to use in your level. The Goodies Bag contains Materials, pre-built objects from story levels, objects obtained from the community and objects created by the player using the Capture Object tool. Stickers and Decorations contains Stickers and Decorations collected during story mode to use in your levels, as well as pictures that players can take using the in-game camera tool or the PlayStation Eye Camera. It also contains stickers collected in community levels and taken with the Snapshot Camera. Global Controls allows players to change the lighting, water, fog, audio reverb.

### **Interface**

*LittleBigPlanet*'s trademark Pod is the game's hub, though it has been expanded into a large, cardboard spaceship, with which the player travels between the game's various modes. Inside the Pod, the Sackboy can be customized, as can the cart, frames, wheels, and paint. Any in-game object can be turned into a weapon, or objects can be "painted" into the game for more talented and patient artists.

## Reception

*LittleBigPlanet Karting* has received generally positive reviews from critics. Aggregate review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave *LittleBigPlanet Karting* 73.62% and 73/100 respectively.