By Tom Mc Shea, GameSpot

By Tom Mc Shea, GameSpot
By Tom Mc Shea, GameSpot

We get a first look at Little Big Planet 2's forays into other genres.

The first Little Big Planet ushered in the age of easily creating and sharing tools for consoles, but though some enterprising designers forced their creative visions beyond the game's boundaries, it was still primarily a platformer. Sony showed off new footage of Little Big Planet 2 at its press conference, and it looks to go far beyond even its ambitions progenitor.

Today we got a look at some of the other genres you can easily create levels for in LBP2. You can design your own real-time strategy, role-playing, puzzle, and racing game, as well as 2D shooters. You can also test them out in a simple competitive mode, which we got to quickly see. A puzzle game was whipped together that separated the playing field into four separate columns, each controlled by a different player. This game was built purely on dexterity, forcing players to quickly tap the highlighted button before their competitors.

Other multiplayer minigames included a top-down arena battle in which you needed to push your opponents out of an electrified ring and a 2D shooter in which players had jetpacks strapped to their backs and shot missiles at their opponents. Other genre types were shown off in a single-player setting. There was a 2D side-scrolling shooter reminiscent of Gradius; a light gun game that looked an awful lot like Duck Hunt; a top-down boxing match; and a top-down shooter that was similar to Ikari Warriors. There was also an RTS within the single-player campaign, and one boss fight ended with a psychedelic shooting section that would make Jeff Minter proud.

Little Big Planet 2 looks to be overflowing with variety and fun. Stay tuned to GameSpot to see our hands-on impressions for this cool-looking game.