NEW Little Big Planet Preview-"The Next Big Thing". Doubters please enter.

[jman8]

makingmusic476 said:

Gnizmo said:

talkingparrot said:

Gnizmo said:
I want you to do me a favor before you go into a long arguement in this thread. I want you to go read every review you can find for Okami. I want you to look up the sales info on Okami next. Hopefully after that you will realize why some people are saying you shouldn't expect this game to be super huge just yet.

 

I want you to go do me a favor.  I want you to go find me one commercial of Okami.  Tell me one store that had Okami as a demo.  Find me preorder specials for Okami.  Show me promotional items for Okami.

 

Oh wait, you can't.

I have seen a thousand and one commercial for Warhawk and Ratchet and Clank as well and lets just glance at the sales numbers for those. A good game does not automatically mean huge sales. Just wait for it to be released and see how it does. Quircky titles are known for being critical smashes but commercial let downs. I don't have anything agains LBP but going over the top and hyping it as the next Mario is just ridiculous right now.

 

Warhawk doesn't really have all that much casual appeal.  R&C has some, but not that much, and it's not exactly the top of the heap in terms of platformers.  Also, neither games were advertised near as much as this LBP will be.

LBP, unlike most games, has a great combination of both casual and harcore appeal.  It's easy on the surface, but provides great depth for those who look for it, somewhat like Super Smash Bros., but far more so.  Not to mention, it's looking like it will be a critical success the likes of Bioshock.  Combine these factors with an insane marketing budget (Sony has stated this is their biggest release of the year - even bigger than Resistance 2), and you have the makings of a great success.

There's a certain combination of factors that makes titles like Animal Cross sell so damn well, and I think LBP has all of this, plus even more, as I believe that LBP caters to the hardcore just as much as the casual, while a title like Animal Crossing or the Sims catered more to the latter (not to say that that's a bad thing, as I think the Sims is a great series - haven't played too much Animal Crossing, though).

 

Exactly. I'm glad you weighed in on this b/c I was about to write nearly the same thing except probably not as well you have conveyed it. LBP seems to have the right combination of innovation, gameplay accessibility, charm/character, critical appeal, and huge publisher backing (i.e. huge marketing budget) to become something transcendent. 

Personally, I think LBP will be this generation's Halo or Grand Theft Auto or Goldeneye or FFVII. This is that one game that comes along a few times per generation that captures people's imaginations b/c of just how fresh and well-executed the experience is.