Sackboy: A Big Adventure turns LittleBigPlanet’s side-scrolling mascot loose in three dimensions, and six years on it still holds up as the rare spin-off that justifies its own existence. Sumo Digital built it, Sony Interactive Entertainment published it, and it landed in 2020 for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. A Windows port followed in October 2022, the first time the LittleBigPlanet series touched PC. By February 2022 it had sold more than 1.2 million copies worldwide. Our score: 8.5 of 10.
Trailer, via PlayStation Europe.
A Sackboy Who Can Finally Move in Depth
For years Sackboy moved in two dimensions. LittleBigPlanet built its name on a side-scrolling angle, and the character’s whole identity was bound up in that flat plane. Sackboy: A Big Adventure breaks the frame.
The game is a platformer first. It uses a range of perspectives and full 3D movement, and it puts players on world maps that open onto a multitude of platforming levels and bonus content. Clear a stage and new ones unlock. That loop is familiar, but the movement underneath it is not.
Sackboy’s move set is expanded from previous entries. He can slap at will, roll around, nosedive, pick up objects and flutter jump. Chain those moves together and you get combos that carry him across distances a single input never could. Every level leans on interactable objects that demand at least one of those moves to get past. The design teaches the kit by making you use it.
The Clawstring, the Whirltool and the Plasma Pumps
Powerups do a lot of the heavy lifting. The Grappling Hook returns from LittleBigPlanet 2 under a new name, the Clawstring, and lets Sackboy grab objects from a distance. The Whirltool is a boomerang-like device you throw to defeat enemies and break objects. The Plasma Pumps let him hover in the air and fire energy blasts.
Three tools, three different jobs. The Clawstring is about reach, the Whirltool about offense and demolition, the Plasma Pumps about staying alive in open air. That is a clean split, and it keeps any one gimmick from wearing out its welcome.
What matters more is how the tools sit inside the 3D space. A grappling hook in a side-scroller is a straight line. A grappling hook in three dimensions is a question about where you are aiming. Sackboy: A Big Adventure understands that difference, and the levels are built to make you feel it.
Vex Rips Through the Sky Over Loom
The story starts in Craftworld, in the village of Loom, where the Sackpeople are enjoying their lives. Then Vex arrives. He is a near-mythical being born of chaos and fear, and Richard E. Grant voices him. Vex rips through the sky and starts sucking everything up with his machines, enslaving the Sackpeople to build his Topsy Turver.
That device is the engine of the whole plot. It would turn Craftworld from a fantastical land of pure imagination and innocent dreams into a torrid, barren eyesore of nightmares. Sackboy avoids enslavement, steals the plans to the Topsy Turver, and escapes into a rocket.
From there he travels Craftworld with an elder sackperson named Scarlet, voiced by Dawn French. His job is to stop Vex from gathering the final materials he needs to finish the machine. Along the way he solves the problems Vex caused and gathers Dreamer Orbs.
Dreamer Orbs and the Twist That Lands
Dreamer Orbs are the collectable objects scattered through every level, and they are not optional. All levels contain them, and they must be collected to progress. That decision gives the platforming a spine. You are not just reaching the end of a stage; you are sweeping it.
Then the story turns. Vex ambushes Sackboy and steals his Dreamer Orbs, revealing that he manipulated him into gathering them to fuel the Topsy Turver. The collectible you spent hours chasing was the villain’s fuel supply all along.
That is a genuinely good piece of structure. It reframes the busywork as dramatic irony, and it costs the game nothing to do it. Encouraged by Scarlet, Sackboy heads for the center of Craftworld, where Vex intends to replace the Tree of Imagination with his machine.
A Knitted Knight at the Center of Craftworld
The finale holds up. Sackboy confronts Vex, rendezvous with Scarlet, and learns her plan to destroy the machine. Vex knocks her unconscious. Sackboy ventures into the Topsy Turver, confronts Vex once more, defeats him and destroys the machine.
Afterward, Scarlet knights Sackboy as a Knitted Knight. Peace returns to Loom and Craftworld.
The legend framing from the opening pays off here. The prophecy from deep within the ancient order of the Knitted Knights, Craftworld’s legendary protectors, said only the brave, fearless, chivalrous and gallant could save the day. Sackboy earns that title by the plainest possible means: he finishes the job.
Solo, Co-Op, and Why the Chaos Works
Sackboy: A Big Adventure runs as single player, multiplayer or co-operative. You can go it alone or team up with friends for collaborative, chaotic multiplayer fun. The game supports third-person, bird’s-eye isometric and side views across its levels.
That mix of perspectives is the smartest thing Sumo Digital did. It lets a single game hold the flat, readable sightlines the series was built on and the depth a 3D platformer needs. Nothing feels bolted on.
The Numbers Behind Sackboy: A Big Adventure
- Release: 2020, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5
- PC port: October 2022, first LittleBigPlanet series debut on Windows
- Developer: Sumo Digital
- Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
- Sales: more than 1.2 million copies worldwide as of February 2022
- Critic aggregate: 8.5/10 across 10 outlets
- Modes: single player, multiplayer, co-operative
- Cast: Richard E. Grant as Vex, Dawn French as Scarlet
How It Stacks Up Against LittleBigPlanet
| Feature | Previous LittleBigPlanet entries | Sackboy: A Big Adventure |
|---|---|---|
| Platforming | Side-scrolling | 3D movement, multiple perspectives |
| Perspectives | Side view | Third person, bird’s-eye isometric, side view |
| Move set | Base set | Expanded: slap, roll, nosedive, pick-up, flutter jump |
| Powerups | Grappling Hook | Clawstring, Whirltool, Plasma Pumps |
| Collectibles | Not specified in our source | Dreamer Orbs, required to progress |
| PC release | None | Windows, October 2022 |
The table shows the real argument for this game. It is not a retread with a new camera. It rebuilds the movement, the powerups and the collectible economy around three dimensions, and it keeps the series’ identity intact while doing it.
The Whirltool is the clearest example. A boomerang in a side-scroller is a timing puzzle. A boomerang in 3D is a spatial one. Same object, different game.
The Dreamer Orbs are a double-edged choice. Requiring them to progress gives every level a reason to be searched thoroughly, but it also means a player who misses one is stopped cold. In our view that is a gate, not a challenge, and it is the one place where the design mistakes thoroughness for difficulty.
The 1.2 million figure is respectable without being a phenomenon. Whether a spin-off that swaps a series’ core perspective can match the mainline entries at retail is an open question, and this game’s sales alone do not settle it. As of February 2022 it had sold more than 1.2 million copies worldwide, and that number reflects a game that found its audience rather than one that conquered the market.
Sackboy: A Big Adventure is the best argument yet that this series did not need to stay flat. The move set is deeper, the powerups are distinct, and the twist with the Dreamer Orbs turns a collectible grind into a story beat. The Knitted Knight payoff lands because the game earned it. The orb gating is the flaw worth naming, and it does not sink the thing. What this game gets right is harder than it looks: it moved a mascot built for two dimensions into three without losing what made him worth following. Score: 8.5 of 10.
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