It’s crafty fabric cute vs. crafty fabric cute. But do they score well where it really matters? On charm? General good game design? Multiplayer? Longevity? Cost?
LBP2’s style is admittedly more of a refined cute charm than Kirby’s sickly sweetness, it does feel a bit more adult. In terms of good game design, while LBP has always had a plethora of game mechanics that seem impressive – it now seems to have too many to count in LBP2. It tries to be everything including the kitchen sink – the problem with this is…well there are other games I could play. But regardless, the game is still well designed, the art is great and even the annoying 3 levels system has been improved a bit over the 1st game.
One of the big features of LBP is the level creation suite – allowing anyone to make their own game. The problem I have with this is that a lot of the time the created levels just aren’t the same quality as the full game, and it takes a long time to find anything worth playing. I had a brief try of the level creator – but I’m not really that interested, I wanted to play the pre made game.
LBP2 was £40, and unfortunately as I’ve mentioned above I was convinced by neither the level creator or the user levels. This means that to me, I’ve spent £40 on a pretty short game, that basically demonstrates how to use each new game mechanic (then says ‘there you go, entertain yourself’). I won’t play it that much more, after finishing the main game, then going back to replay it a bit to get extras.
Both games have multiplayer, LBP2 has 4 player and Kirby has 2 player. Considering I only ever really play multiplayer games with my boyfriend – so 2 player, that puts them pretty much on the same level. I don’t play LBP online with people I don’t know – why would I?
On the other hand, Kirby aims for a very cute – almost too cute – look in terms of art.The advantage it has, to me, at least, is that is tries to be just a platformer, and the Wii does do platformers very very well. (Though the problem with this unfortunately is that the only games really worth having on your wii are platformers). It’s very simple but still really interesting. The art style works really well, with all the mechanics of things being/turning into thread working really well. It’s lovely to watch. It feels very much less complicated to begin with, but I suppose it depends if simple is what you want.
Kirby, as a wii game costs about £20. It’s half the price, for about (I’m assuming) the same length of game, as the levels are pretty short and to the point, which makes it feel more worth the price.
Two points that are becoming increasingly important to me are longevity and cost. They kind of go hand in hand. Is there enough game there to justify the price you paid for it? Because I appreciate that these games are trying to be new and entertaining and that putting a value on things is difficult – but when more and more next gen console games are being priced higher and higher, I have to ask – is it really worth it?
In conclusion, it probably amounts to personal preference. Do you want a fun simple cute game? They both are. If you don’t think you’ll spend hours pouring over some personal creation, or playing lots of levels by random people then I would honestly not recommend LBP2 – it’s not worth the money. If you are going to take the time creating content and playing user content then I’m sure it will be worth it – but only because the player has made it worth it for themselves. You can get just as cute and charming an experience on the Wii (the Wii, for crying out loud! I barely ever buy games for it) for much less.
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