A LittleBigPlanet game has many moving parts, and LittleBigPlanet 3 showcases what can go wrong when they aren't quite properly aligned, despite a valiant attempt. New developer Sumo Digital created an enormous puzzle-platformer with equally enormous scope for creation and an enjoyable single-player experience; however, it is undermined by unimaginative co-op and a number of game-breaking bugs.

First things first: for anybody worried that the absence of original LittleBigPlanet developer Media Molecule might mean an absence of the series’ signature charm, fear not. From its title sequence - narrated by the reliably delightful Stephen Fry - onward, LittleBigPlanet 3’s style is a wonderful brew of humor and effervescence, and its central message of ‘play, create, share’ is thankfully continued, in both tone and structure.

There is more emphasis on story this time around, though. All the supporting characters in LittleBigPlanet 3 are now voiced, and cutscenes tell of an animated attack on the ‘magnificent moon of wonder’ planet called Bunkam that has sucked away its inhabitant’s creativity. While I was initially wary that more traditional video game storytelling might feel out of place in a world that has always delighted in the surreal, I found LittleBigPlanet’s simple narrative unobtrusive and fun, and its characters idiosyncratically weird.

Individual story levels in LittleBigPlanet’s seven- to eight-hour Adventure mode are beautifully designed. Where LittleBigPlanet 2’s aesthetic is all neon and electricity, the look this time around has been modeled after the stage and screen. Levels take place in abstract renditions of ‘50s monster movie sets and ballet performances, marionette theaters and workshops, all with that familiar LittleBigPlanet overlay of an artsy design magazine and a killer soundtrack. The three new story-mode hubs – explorable, sprawling worlds in their own right – are just as gorgeous; the Eastern European-Christmas-themed Ziggurat Hub is one of the more romantic places I’ve ever visited in a video game.

Although LittleBigPlanet 3 still occasionally suffers from the same floaty controls bucking up against some level designs that demand very precise platforming, these story levels – and optional ‘challenge levels’ – are imaginative enough that I could (mostly) forgive the issue. It’s thanks to a handful of great new additions that gameplay is more frenetic than in the past two games; the Portal-esque ‘Velociporter’, for example, can send Sackboy from the background to the foreground in a blink; while new powerups such as ‘Boost Boots’ and the teleporting ‘Blink Ball’ gun open up new ways to bounce across the screen.

LittleBigPlanet 3’s cuddly new characters add a unique dynamic to gameplay, although it’s disappointing - and surprising, considering the pre-launch marketing - how little they are actually used. While Swoop (who can fly and grab), Oddsock (who can run fast and bounce off walls) and Toggle (who can switch between being heavy and light) each get to headline a level upon introduction, they are only intermittently used elsewhere in Adventure mode. Seeing how much fun playing as these characters is, this feels like a missed opportunity.

Limited use of the broader cast extends to cooperative play, as LittleBigPlanet 3 curiously insists you and your co-op partner(s) have to play as the the same character in individual levels. I found only one instance where this was not that case, and that particular level was so cleverly orchestrated, utilizing all skillsets in a frantic race against the clock, I am dumbfounded there weren’t more like it. Even more confusing is why that standout level would be hidden away, where many people might miss it altogether.But the most damning aspect of Adventure mode, and LittleBigPlanet 3 as a whole, is the number of bugs I encountered while playing it. Across two PlayStation 4 systems, my (already patched) game encountered frequent frame rate stuttering, crashed multiple times and glitched out so I couldn’t respawn after dying. I fell through levels into floaty purgatory twice, and some of the plentiful loading screens became stuck. Twice during a boss chase, my co-op partner and I were left stranded after spawning mid-way through the level, because the level hadn’t reset itself. Again, this is with the zero-day patch installed.Fortunately, perhaps because it operates at a much slower pace, I had no such issues with LittleBigPlanet 3’s Creation Mode. Here, Sumo Digital has stood on the shoulders of giants, leaving Media Molecule’s (relatively) accessible, yet hefty LittleBigPlanet 2 toolkit intact, and adding a handful of significant upgrades that promises greater sophistication in level-building.You can now create in 16 layers. Weaned on LittleBigPlanet 2’s comparably simple three layers, I found this initially daunting and awkward, but after a few hours of playing in level creator I got the gist – if not the hang of – the new depth of field. It’s telling that despite hours’ worth of mortifyingly terrible attempts at creating a decent-looking level with proper depth, I want to go back and play with it some more.

Elsewhere, the ‘Blaster Handle’, which allows you to imagine your own power ups, has enormous potential, as does the quietly revelatory ‘Popit Powerup’. This tool is responsible for LittleBigPlanet 3’s Popit Academy: 12 platforming levels designed to teach you Creation Mode basics. These levels essentially blur the line between ‘create’ and ‘play’ by tasking you to solve puzzles using your creation toolkit. They are fun and cleverly designed – in fact, I enjoyed a handful of them more than some of the Adventure mode levels – and suggest a paradigm shift for how we could play user-generated levels moving forward.

Such additions promise to open up LittleBigPlanet’s world significantly, and as we know from the nine million-plus user-generated levels included from previous games on the disc (that’s an impressive amount of ‘DLC’), there will be no shortage of people to take advantage of them. It’s exciting to watch as a new LittleBigPlanet game is let loose into the wild, and wonder how it might be pulled apart, put back together, and blown up in the future.