The LittleBigPlanet series has always had customisation at its heart, and that’s still the case in Sackboy: A Big Adventure, the titular character’s first solo venture, and first bold step into the world of 3D platforming. While you can no longer place stickers on the level geometry itself, you can still express yourself by dressing Sackboy up in a range of colourful costumes.
These are earned throughout the game, either by finding their individual pieces in levels or purchasing them from Zom-Zom’s shop, and they capture the game’s hand-crafted vibe perfectly. Here, in no particular order, are ten of the best outfits you can don on your Big Adventure.
10 Yeti
Assembled from pieces earned throughout the game’s first world, the Soaring Summit, the Yeti costume is a brilliant take on the classic creature. Featuring white cotton wool fur and blue skin, as well as a pink motif across the ears, nose, mouth, and toes, it creates a strong colour palette that works perfectly.
The highlight here, however, is the horns; twisting and pointed, these are cleverly represented in the costume as curled pieces of cardboard, their inner lining visible from certain angles. It’s a great take on a cool costume, particularly given the significance of Yetis in the game’s opening world.
9 Alien Lifeform
This is one of the more complex costumes in the game, transforming Sackboy into something almost entirely unrecognisable; something alien, one might say. Not only does it add green tentacles around Sackboy’s arms and head, but it adds a whole conical spaceship round his legs, complete with joystick controls and extra arms.
More arms appear round the back of the costume, resting on the back of the spaceship base, while two extra eyes next to Sackboy’s own really amp up the alien feel. It’s a very effective costume, and one that matches the Interstellar Junction, the world in which it’s found, well.
8 Rock Monster
One of the full costumes found within the game’s musical levels, in this case Crablantis’s David Bowie-based Choral Reef, the Rock Monster costume presents a pleasingly literal take on the concept, transforming Sackboy into a demonic performer complete with a guitar.
The inclusion of spiked armour, including a chest piece that channels Dark Souls 2’s infamous Smelter Demon, puts the ‘metal’ into ‘heavy metal’, while the hair, horns, fangs, and eye makeup call back to famous rock looks from the past. It’s a monstrous look that can put fear in the heart of the baddest of bosses.
7 Console Kitty
A clever meta look, the Console Kitty costume transforms Sackboy’s head into a screen within the screen; a modern tamagotchi with an emotional range only a few pixels wide. It’s one of the few costumes that completely obscures his head, most featuring a mascot-style face opening, and as such it stands out in Sackboy’s cluttered wardrobe.
The other details, such as the headphones, radio antenna and chest-based D-pad, complete with a pixelated heart, add a tonne of character to the outfit, while the bold pink colour scheme ensures you’ll never lose your character in a chaotic multiplayer session. It’s a cool costume that oozes purrsonality.
6 Sunken Pirate
Pirate is a long-standing staple of the dress-up box, making regular appearances at Halloween and costume parties since time immemorial. Sackboy’s take on this iconic outfit is infused with a briny deep-sea flavour, with so much detail that you can practically taste the salt in the air around it.
The seaweed beard and moustache combo, along with the starfish eyepatch, are evocative enough on their own, but the pièce de résistance is the hat: a colossal creation, so big that it doesn’t all fit on the game’s wardrobe screen, that contains an entire ocean’s worth of writhing, thriving sealife.
5 Mecha
The Mecha costume perfectly captures the childhood pastime of building your own battlesuits, its cardboard wings, gloves and helmet all giving off that rough-edged sheen that conveys both shoddiness and quality in the same glance, the shiny gold and silver paint juxtaposed with the visible cardboard edges next to them.
Recalling Toy Story with its extended wingspan, the costume’s neon green sword and too-cool shades bring things together wonderfully. The final touch, two batteries lodged in the back, serving as a makeshift jetpack or power source, caps off this mechanised masterpiece marvellously.
4 Hammerhead Shark
Sometimes it doesn’t take a load of props or details to make a costume great. This idea is illustrated perfectly in the Hammerhead Shark costume, a simple two-piece affair salvaged from the depths of Crablantis.
The game’s handmade feel is on full display here, and you can literally see the two individual pieces of the costume coming together. The large stitches, googly eyes and large button on the chest, along with the well-textured blue felt, come together to make this costume simultaneously feel like something you could make yourself in an afternoon, while also looking great on-screen.
3 Dragon
An imposing costume available for purchase in the Centre of Craftworld, Vex’s corrupted domain, the Dragon is appropriately menacing for the stage of the game in which it appears. With its bright red skin and button eyes that somehow manage to feel cold and unyielding when paired with the cardboard fangs below, the Dragon turns Sackboy into one fearsome beast.
What really elevates it are the small additional details, however: the smoke that constantly billows from the costume’s nostrils, and the ripples of light that periodically pass over the scaled belly, creating the impression of flickering flames nearby.
2 Vex
Sackboy’s greatest rival becomes one of his greatest costumes following his defeat at the end of the game. The Vex costume is unlocked when you jump back in to tackle the post-game Wonderplane challenges, and it manages to capture his malevolent charm perfectly.
The dangling bells on the end of the jester-cap head are a nice playful touch, but other than that this costume is Vex all the way: just as scary when shrunk down as he was full-size. That the design still manages to intimidate in this more compact form factor is testament to its strength, and makes this costume one of the best in the game.
1 Sumo Wrestler
This is one of the last costumes you unlock during A Big Adventure, assembled from pieces found during the surprisingly difficult Wonderplane levels. It seems like an odd choice at first, until you realise that it’s actually a clever nod to the game’s developer, Sumo Digital.
Its status as an endgame easter egg is enough to earn it a place on this list, but the costume itself is well-designed to boot. The inflatable fat suit body is both humorous and adorable, while touches like the belt, hair and eye makeup bring enough authenticity to the costume to prevent it from being a mere parody.