Sackboy: A Big Adventure Review
Sackboy: A Big Adventure Review
Sackboy: A Big Adventure is a game that went from a title I had no desire to play until the day I bought it and now that I’ve finished it, it’s a game that I will forever cherish. I’ll explain the circumstances that led me to buying it but after completing the game I was left looking back on an incredibly charming, yet flawed, experience that I loved because I played it with my brother. Sackboy is a real treat on your eyes and ears but the gameplay falls a bit flat. The gameplay is still enjoyable but as with previous LittleBigPlanet games, how the game controls and feels is the most flawed aspect of the game. Honestly, even if Sackboy: A Big Adventure was a completely failure of a game from top to bottom, I would still be happy with my time spent in the land of Craftworld because it was an experience I shared with my brother. My brother and I live together yet playing this game led us to spend more time together than we have in years. Before I can talk about the time my brother and I spent with Sackboy: A Big Adventure, I need to lay the foundation as to why I decided to purchase I game I had no interest in or knew anything about and why mental health plays a key role in this story.
On a Tuesday evening in a western Pennsylvania Wal-Mart in early January, I found myself browsing the PS5 games in said Wal-Mart. Ultimately, the reason what drove me to make a trip to my local evil retain chain is mental health. No, I don't mean that I am mentally ill for shopping at Wal-Mart (that train of thought just came together accidently) but because of both mine and my brother's mental health issues. Ultimately anxiety is what led me on the path to purchase a PS5 game about a little knitted sack creature saving the world from a flamboyant jester, set on enslaving all the inhabitants of Craftworld and forcing them into slave labor. I bet you didn't expect a game set in the LittleBigPlanet universe to touch on cute adorable creatures forced into servitude did ya? To take yet another step back, I have laundry list of metal health issues I've suffered with all my life. It's taken a lot of therapy, medication, and a recent psychological evaluation where I was diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder, major depressive disorder, and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactive Disorder to finally start to feel happy and healthy for maybe the first time in my adult life. In addition to ADHD, depression, and anxiety I've also battled with drug and alcohol addiction for the better part of the last decade. If not for the most recent ADHD diagnosis, I wouldn't have ever had the motivation or concentration to write this review and share this story of bonding between my brother and I. The most important role my mental health issues play in this story is a specific symptom of anxiety called cognitive distortions. If you aren’t familiar, a cognitive distortion is an irrational thought pattern that can cause or amplify racing, catastrophic thoughts. Through my own experiences with cognitive distortions, I was able to help my brother get through a troubling cognitive distortion of his own.
A personal example of a cognitive distortion I had is an incident that happened years ago when I was picked a scab in a, let’s say, very tender area and the bleeding wouldn’t stop. So instead of thinking about what I could do to stop the bleeding, I instead my mind thought about the show Scrubs. Specifically, the episode where Brendan Fraser’s character cuts himself shaving and mentions that his cut wouldn’t stop bleeding. His doctor friends hear Brendan Fraser’s comment which leads to an eventual leukemia diagnosis that ends up taking his life. This is where the mind can go if you suffer from these cognitive distortions. A scab that I may or may not have picked from a “private” area wouldn’t stop bleeding so I thought I had leukemia. It’s insane to think that I believed a train of thought this ludicrous and farfetched to be true but that’s how your mind can work if you suffer with anxiety. However, there is an incredibly effective exercise you can use if you are suffering through a cognitive distortion. The most important thing to do is get all the distorted thoughts out of your head and written down onto a piece of paper. From there you address each induvial worry and challenge said worry with the pure unadulterated truth. In my example of “I’m bleeding and it won’t stop therefore I have leukemia” I was able to challenge this distorted thought with such truths as: I’m not a doctor, so I can’t say for sure if I have leukemia, I’ve only been holding a towel against my wound and then looked up other ways to clot a wound, I gave myself a hard deadline of if I didn’t stop bleeding in 20 minutes, I would go to the emergency room, etc. After going through this list, realizing that this isn’t a life threating wound, looked up some other ways to stop bleeding, and took a few good deep breaths I was able to get the bleeding under control. Now years removed from this incident and with the help of two therapists, I am equipped to not only stop these distortions when they come up but also prevent them from happening in the first place. Now this is where my brother’s issues with anxiety come into play.
My brother used chewing tobacco for 10+ years and recently decided to stop because he was worried about his teeth. From the chew and a severe lack of trips to the dentist his teeth aren’t in the best shape. For a few days he was noticeably struggling mentally but also putting in a lot of work to change his diet and other healthy lifestyle changes. However, if you’ve never been addicted to nicotine (something I struggle with as well) trying to quit can be incredibly hard, especially since he’s never tried to make a valiant effort to quit chewing. Eventually he was struggling mentally so much he laid on the recliner one day for hours on end, something I’ve never seen him do. Now if he was laying on his bed, that’s business as usual. In retrospect it seems so obvious why he was struggling but at the time I wasn’t sure exactly what was causing him so much pain, even though he was asking odd questions like how much dentures cost and what would it be like to have all your teeth pulled. The top blew off of his mental and physical struggles when I heard him start to apologize to our Mom that he had ruined his teeth and needed to get dentures. After I heard this my heart immediately broken into roughly 10,357 pieces because the reason he was struggling so much mentally because he had put himself into this mental prison about his teeth and was convinced his teeth were destroyed. In his mind, getting dentures was the only solution. I felt bad eavesdropping but I knew exactly what he was going through because I had gone through the same thing myself. He had a textbook case of a cognitive distortion and I had to use my experience to help him. I immediately grabbed a notebook and a pen and apologized for eavesdropping. I told him about cognitive distortions and I asked if he felt comfortable sharing his specific worries, I might be able to help. He agreed to share and he started listing all the distorted thoughts he was obsessing over. He thought his teeth were completely rotted out. He thought he would have to get dentures. He thought and thought and though until it led him to the horrible and terrifying mental state he was stuck in. I wrote all these distorted thoughts down and started asking him some questions. First one being, are you a dentist? The answer was unsurprisingly no. I said okay well how can you know if you need dentures if you aren’t a dentist? A ridiculous question for sure but when combating cognitive distortions, you need to lay out as simple and basic truths as possible. Then I asked the last time he had went to the dentist which he couldn’t remember. That led to item number one on his tooth to-do agenda, go to the dentist. Now going to the dentist wasn’t something he could do at that very moment so we started breaking down his distortions even more to find some more immediate mental relief. I asked him if his teeth hurt, if they were loose, could he wiggle them, etc. The answers were all no. You could see it in his face that the truths about this situation were settling in and thought that he needed dentures which he 100% believed five minutes ago was starting to seem a bit silly. The distortions were dying. My brother was slowly yet surely using the truth to put down all of the distorted thoughts.
We spent more time breaking down all of his worries about his teeth and various different ways he could improve his dental health. Brushing two to three times a day, chewing gum, staying away from pop, these were all things that were easy to do and could lead to some immediate results. All this time I was writing down everything he was worried about and the warm, wonderful truths that obliterated those distortions into smithereens. Afterwards, he finally felt good enough to get up from the recliner, started moving around, and eventually went back into his room, his normal base of operations. It was a wonderful feeling, using the techniques I learned in therapy to help someone I love with a problem that I have personally faced myself. An hour or so later, I went into his room to check in on him. He was watching wrestling and when I asked him what he was up to for the rest of the night he said, “I’m just watching this because there’s nothing else to do”. I countered that with, “motherfucker you have a PS5! You definitely have something else to do.” He’s wanted a PS5 since launch day and I finally found a PS5 bundle on GameStop that arrived only a day or two before this fateful night. In this moment, standing in the doorway to my brother’s room, him coming off of an incredibly stressful, miserable day, I had the idea that maybe we could play something together on the PS5. I mentioned this to him so he booted up his PS5 and started going through his library. Eventually, he came across Rocket League which has split screen co-op so I turned on the 2nd controller and we played a few games of Rocket League. Now for a quick sidebar. Because GameStop sucks shit, they were selling only PS5’s in bundles. I was able to get my hands on a bundle that came with Demon’s Souls, NBA 2k21 (which I was able to return for store credit thanks to the kindness of a local GameStop employee), and an extra controller. Looking back now getting that bundle was the best result of a shitty business practice I’ve ever experienced. The rest of this story couldn’t have been possible without that second controller and I sincerely doubt either of us would have bought an extra controller if it wasn’t included in the bundle. I want to personally thank GameStop for being the scummy company that they are because if not for that extra controller, the rest of this story wouldn’t be possible.
We both had a great time playing Rocket League and I like to think that we both had a happier night because of playing a game together. This got me thinking though, I wonder if there’s another co-op game we could play together. Despite living together for our whole lives, besides when I went to college, we don’t hang out much at home. I love both my brothers dearly and we talk all the time but we don’t necessarily spend a lot of time together while at home. I decided I would go to Wal-Mart after work the next day and look at their PS5 games to see if there were any co-op games that my brother and I could play together. He doesn’t have much contact with his friends because of the pandemic and I could say the same thing about myself so I decided spending more time with each other would be mutually beneficial. And that is what brought to looking at Wal-Mart's barren selection of PS5 games. Like most console launches, there aren’t an abundance of games and the PS5 and Xbox Series S|X have even less games at launch since the Nintendo 64. My options were limited but luckily for my brother and I, Sackboy: A Big Adventure was one of the PS5 launch games (it’s also available on PS4 but screw that, he paid $500 on a new machine, might as well use it!). I said fuck it, $60 is a small price to pay to help out my brother. I bought the game, took it home, and surprised my brother with a new game for his new system. Platformers aren’t really his cup of tea so I wasn’t sure if he would even like it but he seemed into it so later that night we tried it out for the first time and we were both shocked and delighted how much fun playing Sackboy: A Big Adventure was and thus we began our journey to save Craftworld from Vex, the previously mentioned jester who kidnapped all the inhabitants of Craftworld, sans Sackboy and a wise old sage named Scarlet.
The beginning of Sackboy starts with a cutscene for a story that doesn’t matter or was very interesting. I don’t think many people play LittleBigPlanet for the story but I do appreciate that they tried. At the very least, the story does a good job of driving the adventure forward and is a good excuse for traveling to the various locations in Craftworld. Sackboy’s story is purely an excuse for Sackboy to travel to different locations within Craftworld to save his friends. At least I think they are his friends. Hey if not, then good on you Sackboy for sacrificing yourself to save a bunch of strangers. The various locations have their own themes, very common platformer trope levels such as an ice or space level but where Sackboy differentiates itself from other platformers the touch of LittleBigPlanet magic where you are a tiny creature in a large world. This adds an extra bit of charm to each world and the game exceeds at making the areas you traverse varied and interesting and also is packed with tons of details that expand outside the areas you can traverse. In the jungle level you’ll see monkeys pop out from behind background objects, you’ll ride on ziplines that carry Sackboy past towers, you’ll see spaceships flying around when in the space world. It’s a detailed and beautiful world that rewards the player for exploring the levels just to see what marvelous details you can find. Almost every level has its moments where you will be treated with clever, cute, and inspired visual design. The second half of the world building pie in Sackboy: A Big Adventure is the music. Boy oh, boy is the music straight up bonkers in this game.
The music in Sackboy: A Big Adventure is a combination of original scores, licensed music, and weird covers of licensed music. The original scores are fitting for each world you visit and does a worthy job of immersing the player in each uniquely themed world. Here is an example of a track by Lena Raine of Celeste fame, titled Traveling if you wish to get a taste of the original score. The original music is charming and is fitting for a game with adventure in the title. The licensed music is where things start to get really weird. To get this out of the way now, no game set in the LittleBigPlanet universe is complete without a track from The Go Team. It’s fitting, necessary, and as I mentioned before, expected. However, when you first come across the level where Uptown Funk plays throughout the whole level I damn near lost my mind. I was holding the controller both confused and elated, looking at my brother while a true sense of dumbfoundedness. It was the first time, and hopefully the last, I’ve been dumbfounded by Uptown Funk. I expect to hear a The Go Team song in a LittleBigPlanet game but a Bruno Mars song? Not a chance. My brother and I finished the level, both dumbfounded, and I thought what other odd and unexpected licensed music will be in this game? As we continued on through the game each new world had one or two music levels. The way Sumo Digital – Sheffield melds music with gameplay was very reminiscent of the music levels in Rayman Legends. Sadly, the level of excellence doesn’t quite match the masterful blend of rhythm-based platforming in Rayman Legends but I still applaud the development team for trying something downright bizarre and unexpected. Other highlights of the licensed soundtrack in Sackboy: A Big Adventure include bangers such as: Let's Dance by David Bowie, Helena by Foster the People, and Toxic by Brittany Spears. Both the licensed music and original score of Sackboy: A Big Adventure come to a marvelous crescendo with a jovial, masterful, and completely out of freaking nowhere cover of Material Girl by Madonna that uses string instruments and a church choir vocal harmony. It’s incredible. Truly incredible. I didn’t think any song could top the shock, surprise, and delight of the Uptown Funk level but Material Girl pulls it off. It’s so perfectly fitting for the underwater world Kingdom of Crablantis and hearing this cover was far and away my favorite moment in the entire game. It’s just that good.
If you are so inclined, here's a playthrough of the Material Girl level via a random YouTube video.
Sadly, the gameplay of Sackboy: A Big Adventure doesn’t quite hit the high notes like the game’s soundtrack does. I certainly enjoyed my time playing Sackboy but I couldn’t help but feel the controls and overall gameplay were by far the game’s biggest weakness. For me, the joy of playing the game relies too heavily on playing with a second person. While I was fortunate enough to playthrough the entire game with my brother, I think I would have gotten quite bored if I was playing through the game by myself. There’s simply more options and variety to the gameplay if you play with a second person. There are dedicated co-op levels that you can’t even attempt without a co-op buddy. Thankfully the game does allow for online co-op in addition to split screen and you can even search for a random person to play the co-op levels. But without the joy of sitting side by side with my brother as we threw each other onto platforms we couldn’t otherwise reach or while sliding down a giant water slide where we were able to take different paths to get all the collectibles I wouldn’t think nearly as highly of the game. That being said, the co-op isn’t perfect. Certain levels (I’m looking at you autoscrolling levels) require the players to make somewhat difficult jumps which becomes harder in co-op because if two players cross each other mid jump, one player will bounce of the other’s head and can veer off in an unintended direction. It’s an incredibly frustrating experience to lose your last life and have to retry a level because you just so happened to jump at the same moment as your co-op partner. Despite the flaws with co-op, I couldn’t imagine playing through the entire game on my own. That being said, I really did have a blast playing the game even despite its faults I attribute a large portion of that enjoyment to the game’s variety in level design and mechanics.
Variety is both a strength and a weakness of the game’s gameplay. Craftworld’s various worlds and levels have the default isometric 2D/3D levels that while not great, still felt leagues better than the controls in the original LittleBigPlanet games. The camera perspective of Sackboy: A Big Adventures mostly works when the camera is at an isometric angle but falls completely flat when presented for the 2D levels that are reminiscent of those first three LittleBigPlanet games. Other level design lowlights include a handful of autoscrolling levels. I’m not going to give autoscrolling the levels the satisfaction of any more attention. They are the worst. If I could I would cancel autoscrolling games into the video game shadow realm with the like of escort missions. As for the gameplay variety that is much more enjoyable, you’ll come across the previously mentioned music levels which are a fantastic from an audio and gameplay perspective. The music levels add a nice change of pace to the default level designs. Some other interesting gameplay variety includes tools such as a grappling hooks and jetpacks, a Super Monkey Ball esq bubble that you can jump in and out of at will, levels that you must race through as fast as possible to get the best rewards, etc. All the different level types in Sackboy: A Big Adventure help the game not feel boring or stale but variety alone isn’t enough to elevate gameplay that remains simple and a bit too boring at times. As for the more stock levels, you are rewarded with secret items and areas the more you explore each level and even the world map. As previously mentioned, exploring not only nets you additional visual treats to devour but also give you more items, costume pieces, and bells, the currency for buying additional costumes in the game’s shop. I certainly struggle to explain exactly why the gameplay of Sackboy: A Big Adventure both falls flat but was still enjoyable. It’s almost like eating a slice of pizza that has toppings you don’t like. Still edible, still enjoyable even, but you know it isn’t nearly as good as it could be.
I will always look back fondly at my time spent with Sackboy: A Big Adventure. Sure, the game has its flaws and without the experience of playing with my brother I know for certain I wouldn’t be singing its praises nearly as much. I did my best to put into words how much this game means to me because it helped my brother through a difficult time in his life and this silly, cutesy, jovial game brought us closer together. This game changed our relationship for the better. Although our time in Craftworld is over our new strengthened brotherly bond powers on. We’ve since started playing another co-op game, one based off a popular Netflix show that I might write a review of after we finish it. I appreciate Sackboy: A Big Adventure not only as a game but more so I appreciate what it did for me personally. The experience of enjoying a video game and spending time with someone you love is something that truly makes this medium special and while there’s certainly better games out there, Sackboy: A Big Adventure was there for my brother and I when we needed an escape the most. For that, Sackboy: A Big Adventure cements itself as a game that I can proudly say changed my life for the better. Not bad for a video game about a little burlap person going on a whimsical adventure while trying to stop a David Bowie wannabe villain from enslaving the world to power his evil machine.