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Play, Create and Share are words that PlayStation fans have become very fond of in the last two years. Games like LittleBigPlanet and ModNation Racers both have gamers not only playing the games, but creating and sharing their own levels online with others across the world. EA has decided to get in on this trend with Create, bringing its own unique style to the create genre that is fun for gamers of all ages.

Create is an almost questionable title for this game, as it's more of a physics-based puzzle game than creator as the name implies. You're placed in a preset level and tasked with varying objectives to complete: one level has a car on one side of the level and the finish line on the other with a gap in the centre on a 2D plane. Players will have to place a ramp in front of the gap and place a rocket behind the car, the rocket propelling the car fast enough to jump the gap and cross the finish line. Some great physics are instantly noticeable, as the angle and position of the rocket will change the car's speed and could even lift the car off the ground if placed wrong. This is just one example level very early in the game, as later levels see players flying balloons and spaceships or even rolling boulders down hills as they progress through the worlds. The game even offers online modes for gamers to create their own challenges to play and share with the world as well.

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Packing a whopping 14 themed worlds with 10 levels in each world, the game will keep players busy, and completing levels earns "sparks" that in turn unlock more levels and worlds to progress further into the game. Some of the levels have multiple sparks that can be obtained by achieving high scores or by using as few objects as possible to complete the level. In the later levels of the game, some of the challenges can get quite hard and many times frustrating, as finding a way to navigate the multiple hindrances can be only minute changes in the placement of objects. Some of the harder challenges have players building their own moving platforms by constructing the frames, placing wheels and hinges appropriately and usually require the task of getting an object from one point to another. Creating a tank-like frame with multiple wheels and trying to climb up a hill can be a blast and experimenting with different designs to clear the objective can be quite challenging but never feels impossible.

To increase the difficulty for older gamers, and to acquire all the sparks for levels such as this, the amount of pieces to build your contraption is limited and finding a creative way to complete the task with limited pieces is fun on the easier levels, but later on this task can be downright infuriating. Puzzle game fans might enjoy this challenge but it's a test of patience that's not for everyone. Unlocking the worlds doesn’t require collecting all the sparks in each world, so progressing through the worlds shouldn’t be a problem for someone looking for a more casual play through.

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Worlds are prebuilt and are void of colour initially giving gamers an empty palette to decorate, and extra sparks can be earned by using Create Chains. These are completed by decorating the worlds by painting surfaces, placing stickers and objects, and the more sparks that are earned, the more decorations and objects become unlocked for use. Once thoroughly decorated the worlds can become graphically impressive and become quite animated, with creatures and moving objects populating the stages.

Create makes great use of an intuitive control scheme that works best with Move. Create uses a cursor and menu system that resembles using the mouse and keyboard set-up on PC. The Triangle button brings up a circular menu that is categorised to separate the different objects in the game: once the desired object is selected, it can be placed as-is or rotated by twisting the Move controller. Once the object is placed, you can bring up the menu to flip, scale or rotate the object even more if necessary. Rotation is performed by holding the Move button on the menu's rotation button and moving the controller left to right, and scaling objects is similar, only the controller is moved up and down to increase or decrease the size of the object. Once objects are placed in the level, the T button can be used to grab and move objects at will, and the Start button will put the level into action. If objects aren't where desired once the level is put into play, pressing Start again will pause the level and adjustments can be made as desired.

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This cursor/menu set-up makes finding the desired items for use quick and easy and accessible to gamers of all ages. The DualShock controller gets the job done here, but Move has a significant edge. It's not perfect though, as calibration issues can occur if the camera loses sight of the controller, but recalibration is quick and easy and this was never a major issue for us. This style of game is one that really plays to Move's strengths and hopefully the future holds many titles that put Move to use in ways such as this.

Conclusion

Create is really more about playing than creating. Playing through the challenges up until the later worlds is loads of fun and will have gamers of all ages entertained for hours. Online challenges add even more levels to play and create for further enjoyment and will more than likely grow larger over time, but although completing challenges can be very rewarding it’s a shame that later levels become more frustrating than fun. Create is a unique and fun game for all ages to play, but for many that fun will be short-lived.