Sackboy: A Big Adventure

Sackboy: A Big Adventure is an upcoming platform game developed by Sumo Digital and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment for the PlayStation 5, part of the Little Big Planet franchise. It follows Sackboy and features 3D platforming as opposed to 2.5D in previous entries. It was announced at the PlayStation 5 reveal event in June 2020.

• Advancing Boss of Doom: The Giant Befuddler from "Just a Phase" is a giant Phase Light — and the floors are made of materials that either appear or disappear when in the radius of such a light. The creature chases Sackboy down until it accidentally slams into a wall that appeared because of its abilities.
• Advancing Wall of Doom:
  • "The Abominable Showman", a giant Yeti seen at the end of "Ready Yeti Go", which chases you down in a similar manner to the boulders from Crash Bandicoot.
  • The level "Escape Velocity" has a few advancing laser grids forcing you to pick up the pace, lest they One-Hit Kill your Sackboy.
  • The co-op stage "Double Down" has both Sackfolk descending down a chasm together while a laser grid comes from above. If it catches either player, it speeds up to make short work of the other.
• All the Worlds Are a Stage:
  • The final world mixes in aspects from several of the worlds preceding it. Several setpieces come back, such as all three powerups; The Soaring Summit's moving platforms with faces (now on cycles instead of player-sensing) and yetis; The Colossal Canopy's tides, sticky Gloop, rotating platforms, and timed fire panels; The Kingdom of Crablantis's Phase Lights and bubbles; and The Interstellar Junction's touchscreens, Velociporters, teleportation panels and lasers. Several levels combine these aspects together in different ways not showcased in the prior worlds.
  • Multitask Force, the last co-op level, borrows from several of the co-op levels before it, using their setpieces in short, trial-like rooms to get Keys for a door. The bottom-left door uses the snow globe, tightropes and player-sensing moving platforms from The Soaring Summit which were a focus of the co-op level "Snowman Left Behind"; the bottom-right door uses the heavy animal and weighted crate platforms from The Colossal Canopy's "Weight For Me!" and the timed dropping platforms from the world in general; the top-right door uses the carryable Phase Light from The Kingdom of Crablantis and the concept of having one player use it to create platforms for another, which was a mechanic of "Squid Goals"; and the top-left door uses the floating bubbles and the electric eels that debuted in The Kingdom of Crablantis, as well as the timed tongue platforms one player can activate for another, which were among the puzzle elements used in The Interstellar Junction's co-op stage "Lead The Weigh".
  • The very last stage of the game incorporates multiple things from prior levels, including (in no particular order) tightropes, Sixaxis-controlled moving platforms, spike rollers, timed tongue platforms, bubbles, the "flytrap" platforms that bite Sackboy if he lingers, batteries, turrets, and Phase Lights.
  • Amusing Injuries: Honestly happens to Vex at the end of the level.
• Antepiece: Most levels indicate how things will work early on in the stage, but the music levels in particular tend to show off the rhythm-based aspects early to let you get a feel for how to move with the song, as well as how the enemies and stage elements do so as well.
  • "Beat The Heat" contains fire traps that activate with the beat and enemies who pause to dance to the trumpet notes of the song playing, "Jungle Boogie". In the first room, there's a safe path in the middle and fire traps on both sides of the path. You're not required to interact with these panels, but there's a shiny Dreamer Orb that can only be reached by jumping to a high ledge from these panels. The room after this contains enemies on both the left and right of your party, as well as in front, and you land in this room right before the trumpet notes play, showing how all of them stop in place to dance. While both of these aren't mandatory to interact with at the first encounter, later sections mandate platforming on groups of fire traps in a row and knowing when to get out of the way, while the enemies get placed on platforms that rotate, to throw off attempts at Goomba Stomping unless you adjust accordingly.
  • "Flossed in Space" showcases platforms that move in and out of walls to the beat of "Houdini" by Foster the People. The first of these are tucked in nooks between platforms, so you can just jump over them initially. Meanwhile, the background of the room contains floating enemies that slam the ground to the tune, which can be observed safely from the foreground, unless you want to get on their elevated platform to climb up to a Dreamer Orb. Eventually, the wall platforms will begin moving in and out in different ways, while other terrain with Velociporters attached will also begin slamming like the enemies, with this terrain varying between helpful and unhelpful.
  • "One Track Mind" has platforms which electrify to the beat and charging enemies who charge much faster than the normal versions, both shown off in places where you can safely observe them (the square of electric panels has a safe spot in the middle and the charging enemies only move back and forth on a single path), which come before segments where you'll be forced to deal with lengthier shocking floor sequences or shock floors you have to land on, and enemies charging in other patterns that aren't just back and forth.
• Anti-Frustration Features: Unlike most other games (which normally require level completion to keep any items found), completing the level is not necessary for the player to keep any Dreamer Orbs or prizes they have found in that level.
• Ascended Meme: On August 20th of 2021, a familiar face returned to LittleBigPlanet... Sacknana from the PSP game. While a costume returning isn't a meme on its own, the emote that the costume comes with is specifically the dance that Sackboy does in this popular gif where he wears the Sacknana suit.
• Battle Boomerang: The Whirltool is a boomerang that resembles a fan with three blades. Its high speed, beefy range, and homing capabilities let it make short work of enemies.
• Blowing a Raspberry: Sackboy can do this with the "Silly" emote from the Emotions Emote Pack
• Bonus Dungeon: The Wonderplane, a bonus world with 5 stages, unlocked after defeating Vex and saving Craftworld. The Uproar barriers here need many more Dreamer Orbs than the ones for merely progressing through the story, and each of the three powerups comes Back for the Finale, having their own individual stages which each must be beaten to unlock the final level.
• Bonus Stage: Zom Zom occasionally sets up a stage inside a magic lamp when you beat a level. When you hit the lamp, Sackboy is taken inside for a 30 second minigame where Collectabells are summoned throughout the room for your characters to collect.
• Boss Subtitles: A banner displaying a boss' name will show up in their introductory cutscene.
• Bowdlerise: The version of Anamanaguchi's "Pop It" used in the game is instrumental, likely because the full version has the word "bitch" in it.
• Breaking Old Trends: This game is notably the first platformer entry to be in 3D, doesn't have any form of level creation and doesn't feature Stephen Fry as the narrator.
• Checkpoint Starvation: The final Knitted Knight Trial, the Ripsnorter, which can't be unlocked until the postgame, puts together all 15 of the other trials, with no checkpoints in between them. If Sackboy dies, then it's all the way back to the beginning to run it again.
• Color-Coded Multiplayer: Each player has their own colors associated with them in gameplay; player 1 has blues, 2 has oranges, 3 has greens, and 4 has pinks, and these are used throughout the game.
  • Most player-specific HUD elements and UI are color-coded accordingly, such as:
    • The players' names.
    • The tabs at the bottom of the screen which show the order of the players.
    • The costume selection bars before entering a level.
    • The interior and trim on each player's Collectabell wallet.
    • The timer for how long a Sackperson has to get back onscreen before being picked up by the Assistance Copter (in normal levels) or dying (in co-op levels).
    • The scores for each player on the Scoreboard and at the end of Zom Zom's bonus stages.
  • Meanwhile, the colors are used in gameplay proper as well, for things like:
    • The Sackperson themselves, who will take on their color if they're damaged, replacing the slight red tinge used in single player.
    • Each players' individual powerup, as well as its functions (such as the Clawstring's tether, or the Plasma Pumps' energy projectiles and landing indicators).
    • The flares used to summon the Assistance Copter, as well as the light emitted by the Copter itself.
• Continuity Nod: Signs in The Interstellar Junction namecheck past games' locations: Craftworld from 2, Carnivalia from Vita, and Bunkum from 3.
• Crate Expectations: Crates are commonly scattered around levels in various forms, containing Score Bubbles and occasionally other things. There's small and large ones which tend to be two-toned in stripes and can be broken with any attack, though larger ones take two hits to break. There's also brown crates with colored stripes which are reinforced and need stronger things to break them, like an explosive or the Plasma Pumps' enhanced offensive powers.
• Cute but Cacophonic: Sackboy himself is the most adorable character. However, his voice sounded like a little girl, though.
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!:
  • Unlike in other LittleBigPlanet games, letting go of a moving sponge won't fling you with realistic momentum. In this game, you'll want to jump off of such things to get the distance you seek.
  • The Clawstring, unlike the similar Grappling Hook introduced in LittleBigPlanet 2, has no reeling mechanic, and thus functions more like the Grappling Hook as it worked in Karting.
• Disconnected Side Area: Each of the first four worlds has a Flower Cannon that shoots you to a small plateau on a different world, with a sampler of levels to play and no way to reach the mainland that comprises the rest of the world.
• Dude, Not Funny: N.A.O.M.I. immediately falls out Sackboy for trying to seek her boyfriend, Vex.
• Emote Animation: New to this game are Emotes, which replace the emotions when you aren't in Acting mode. Each d-pad button can have an animation and emotion assigned to it, and pressing that button in gameplay will have your Sackboy do whatever you put on it. These range from simple poses, to dances, to things that require two players to pull off.
• Good Colors, Evil Colors: Vex and things associated with him are all a vibrant red, blue, and green.
• The Goomba: Grunties, small froglike red, blue, and green creatures who waddle around and approach Sackboy when he's in range, attempting to headbutt him. They go down in a single slap or stomp, and moves like the Roll take only one hit to stun them. In later worlds, they gain strength in numbers by stacking on top of each other, but they're still weak individually.
• Goomba Springboard: In addition to Sackboy's increased jump height on his own, bouncing off of enemies now gives a bound that's a bit higher than that height (owing to using the enemy as his platform). If he's equipped with the Plasma Pumps, this will also recharge the fuel for his Hover, allowing for platforming over large chasms without touching the ground.
• Goomba Stomp: Unlike in the mainline LittleBigPlanet games, Sackboy no longer needs to stomp on a Creature Brain to damage his foes. Just jumping on them in general will suffice.
• Guide Dang It!: There's a Prize Bubble in the level "Jumping to Conclusions" which is inside a box that only appears in a particular room sometimes, in place of an onslaught of Grunties. The fact that this is the only puzzle of such a sort in the game, often completed by accident, has spawned multiple guesses as to how to spawn the box; don't break the boxes in the rooms preceeding it, do a Pacifist Run or speedrun of the first half of the level, don't get spotted by the Grunty in the prior room, immediately turn around and reenter the door you just came through in the prior room, and such. The common denominator likely to occur under all of these circumstances, and thus seemingly the cause of whether you get the boxes or the enemies, is whether you killed or spared the Grunty in the room before — let it live for prizes, kill it for mooks.
• Grappling-Hook Pistol: The Clawstring behaves similarly to the Grappling Hook of the past games, being a device worn on Sackboy's hand that shoots a grabbing claw when activated. Unlike the Grappling Hook, it can automatically pull grabbable things into Sackboy's hands, though it's lost the ability to extend and retract while swinging.
• Ground Pound: The Nosedive has Sackboy smash into the ground head first, which can activate things on the ground or get his head stuck in cracks, which give things when he breaks free from them. When he's equipped with the Plasma Pumps, it becomes the Smashdown, a Ground Punch with an area of effect, which is also capable of breaking reinforced crates, just like the normal Blast the powerup also grants.
• Healing Checkpoint: Reaching a new Checkpoint in a level after Sackboy has sustained a hit will restore him back to having two health. Other sections that count as checkpoints, such as entering a door or boss area, will also heal him.
• Jump Jet Pack: The Plasma Pumps give you a rocket-propelled double jump and the ability to hover in the air with more mobility, control, and time than just the Flutter can give. It can be activated at any time as long as you haven't run out of boosting power, which refills when you touch down somewhere safely (whether that's landing on the floor, bouncing off the head of an enemy, or grabbing onto a sponge), and the boost can even be canceled and continued later.
• Jump Scare: The post-credits scene shows a dark background. However, a floating disembodied head of Vex pops up shouting "Sweet Nightmares, Sackboy!" at the camera before laughing evilly and later disappears before fading to black. Here's a video. Wanna see?
• Leaning Tower of Mooks: Grunties eventually begin stacking atop each other in later worlds. This makes it hard or even impossible to stomp them, but doesn't render them immune to slaps and other attacks. They'll occasionally throw the top Grunty off of the stack as a projectile, after which they'll get up and fight as normal.
• Level Goal: Scoreboards, as in the rest of the series. These ones are painted blue as opposed to just being a basic material, but serve the same function of finishing the level and counting up the scores of the players.
• Marathon Level: The Ripsnorter, the final Knitted Knight Trial, by virtue of it being all 15 previous trials stitched together back-to-back. Completing a run will take you almost 10 minutes at best.
• Musical Gameplay: Each world except the last has a level where setpieces, platforms, enemies, and other things are synced up to a song, such as "Treble in Paradise" in The Soaring Summit, which syncs with "Uptown Funk". Similarly to in SSX 3, the song will delay parts until you reach certain sections.
• Musical Nod: In the postgame, the music played in the first stage of the bonus world is a remix of The Gardens' theme from LBP1.
• New World Tease: In The Soaring Summit and The Colossal Canopy, you can find Flower Cannons that respectively shoot you to the third and fourth worlds, The Kingdom of Crablantis and The Interstellar Junction. However, you're limited to a Disconnected Side Area in each one and can only play a small amount of levels exclusive to that area. (The cannons in the latter two worlds shoot you back to the first two, for reference.)
• Offscreen Start Bonus: Every world has at least one level where a Dreamer Orb is hidden directly behind the start of the level, just out of view of the camera.
• Ominous Obsidian Ooze: The Uproar barriers on the world maps take the form of dripping black goop that cascades off of the sides of the platforms.
• Parasol of Pain: Whoever finds a cocktail umbrella in a level can use it as an effective melee weapon.
• Parasol Parachute: In certain levels, a cocktail umbrella is hidden. Whoever picks it up can use it to get a very floaty double jump and a glide afterwards by opening it.
• Plot Coupon: Dreamer Orbs, blue spheres which function similarly to how Green Stars work in Super Mario 3D World; they're a major collectible, featured in a limited quantity in each level, and a certain amount have to be collected to dispel barriers that halt your progression on the world maps.
• Precision-Guided Boomerang: The second the Whirltool leaves your hand, it practically becomes a sentient being. It'll home in on Score Bubbles, Collectabells and enemies as long as you send it in their general direction, and of course it has no problem flying back into your hand when all is said and done.
• Production Foreshadowing: When SABA was ported to PC, all of its DLC costumes came with it, including Ratchet, Clank, and Rivet from the Sony-exclusive Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart. Six months or so later, it was announced that their game would be ported to PC as well.
• Projectile Pocketing: The Whirltool can snag Score Bubbles and Collectabells from a distance for you.
• Recurring Riff: There's a six-note riff throughout the game. It's most prominent as the jingle that plays when you collect a Dreamer Orb, but it can be heard in most of the songs specifically composed for this game as well.
• Recurring Traveller: Gerald Strudleguff, first met in The Soaring Summit's level "Have You Herd?". He's going around observing nature and taking notes, and he keeps appearing off to the side in several levels, always with a Dreamer Orb to hand over to Sackboy.
• Remixed Level: Every world has at least one level where you play through a section of one of the world's main levels on a timer, doing a speedrun to get up to three Orbs.
• Rise to the Challenge: "Water Predicament" ends on a section where water rises from below, rather than the Tide Level it's been up to this point, requiring you to use elevators to get up to the ending.
• Rolling Attack: The Roll is a new addition to Sackboy's moveset, done by pressing Circle repeatedly (which can be changed in the Settings menu to holding Circle instead). It's not the strongest of Sackboy's offensive options as it merely stuns enemies, but that opens the possibilities of hitting them afterwards, or lifting them and throwing them off of the level.
• Running Gag: Gerald Strudleguff, a Recurring Traveller who keeps popping up in every world with Dreamer Orbs he gives to Sackboy... but not before misidentifying the collectibles as something else. He finally uses the name everyone else has been using in his last appearance.
• Score Multiplier: There's a collectible 2x Score Bubble which appears in most levels, either as a pickup on its own or from a box or balloon. When grabbed, it temporarily turns bubbles and score numbers from white to pink, and doubles the points received from anything that gives them.
• Second Place Is for Losers: If at the end of a mission Sackboy gets a silver, he will be very angry.
• Shamu Fu: A handful of levels have a fish hidden in them, which Sackboy can pick up. This strengthens his melee blows, allowing him to defeat enemies who would otherwise take two slaps with just one, or deal damage instead of merely stunning enemies with the spin.
• Shoryuken: One of Sackboy's new moves is the Slapjump, done by pressing Square followed by X. When used, Sackboy spins while leaping into the air with one fist out, performing a rising attack that can break higher objects and attack foes.
• Socialization Bonus:
  • There are several co-op levels scattered throughout the worlds, which mandate "a friend or three" before you can even enter them. The setpieces contained within are things that an individual Sackperson couldn't complete by themselves, such as reaching high areas by throwing a friend up to them, or having to coordinate the use of two Whirltools to activate switches in succession or at the same time.
  • Several trophies are tied to playing with multiple players, such as dancing with another player, winning the gold trophy and hitting someone else with it, and completing the aforementioned co-op levels.
  • Some of the Emote Animations, such as the Secret Handshake default emote, only function in multiplayer, where one player has to begin it and another has to approach them and press an emote button so that they can pull it off together.
• Source Music:
  • Implied to be the case in most levels. When you enter any of the secret side areas, the music of the main level vanishes entirely, and when you go near the door to return, you can hear the slightly muffled level's music.
  • The level "Treble in Paradise" is one of few levels that overtly shows this; a radio at the very beginning can be heard playing the opening riff of Uptown Funk, the song that plays throughout the rest of the level.
• Spin Attack: By pressing Circle quickly followed by Square, Sackboy does the Spin, twirling with his arms outstretched to break things, stun enemies, and slow his fall speed if in midair. If Sackboy is carrying one of the handheld items that are present in certain levels, such as the paintbrush or cocktail umbrella, the spin is upgraded from merely stunning enemies to dealing damage in a large radius around him.
• Sticks to the Back: When not in use, the Whirltool clings to Sackboy's back, even if he's in the default outfit and has nowhere it could attach. Other handheld objects like the fish and paintbrush will stick to Sackboy's back if he carries something.
• Suddenly Speaking: Downplayed. Sackboy was completely mute in every other LittleBigPlanet game with two very minor exceptions (a faint whine when drowning, and a held grunt for the duration of the Hold to Retry! animation). In this game, Sackboy doesn't regularly speak, but he's more vocal on the whole, shouting or grunting when executing his moves, or letting out brief lines like "Uh-oh!" when narrowly dodging hazards.
• Super Drowning Skills: Unlike the main LittleBigPlanet games, water is a hazard, dealing one hit of damage and bouncing Sackboy upwards.
• Tide Level: Water in this game moves on intervals, and since Sackboy can't swim, this requires you to get on either platforms that are above the water level or platforms that rise and fall with it. "Water Predicament" is the first instance of such a level, but later ones include more absurd variations like the water tilting diagonally back and forth.
• Time Trial: The Knitted Knight Trials are a set of 15 unlockable levels that reward you with up to three Dreamer Orbs based on your time in comparison to the par times. Each world also has a level where you run through a portion of another level while on a timer, with a possible three Orbs as a reward for these as well.
• Took a Level in Badass: Sackboy has a greatly expanded moveset compared to the other games, where he can typically only run, jump, grab, and slap without the assistance of powerups. His jump goes much higher and he can extend it by fluttering in the air; his slap, which was nominally just a move done to other players as a joke, is now extended into his main attack against enemies, in addition to the possibility of doing it in the air to extend his airtime as well; he can dive and roll into enemies to stun them, as well as also being able to get even more airtime by diving forward in midair; and he still has a few other moves, such as a Ground Pound, a Shoryuken, a Spin Attack, and the ability to lift and throw objects and enemies without a set of Grabinators.
• Use Your Head: The Nosedive move has Sackboy do a Ground Pound, head-first. The Roll also begins with a head-first dive which, like the rest of the move, can be used to stun enemies.
• Winged Soul Flies Off at Death: Similarly to Crash Bandicoot. When a Sackperson dies, they become a translucent blue winged spirit wearing their outfit and flutter away.
• Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: You've defeated Vex for the third time in the final world of the game, Scarlet's ready to congratulate you on a job well done, and... once you hit the world map, Vex's voice comes from nowhere, telling you that getting rid of him won't be that easy, and the giant wall behind the "final" stage disappears to reveal two more level badges; the first is a normal stage, which when completed unlocks the real Final Boss level. The game even lampshades it, as the level after the fake final boss is named "Jumping to Conclusions".