Sony today announced a rather unexpected and terrifyingly adorable new game, LittleBigPlanet. Officially labeled as a "community-based" game, LittleBigPlanet is essentially a physics-based platformer, though such a description fails miserably at capturing the sheer amount of scrambling, swinging and holding-on-for-dear-life going on in the gameplay footage. Developed by Rag Doll Kung Fu masters, Media Molecule, the game encourages players to help each other over obstacles, interact with objects (often fruit-like in nature) and grab onto everything -- including each other.

Four-player pushing and pulling aside, LittleBigPlanet also highlights user-created content, allowing players to design characters, objects and levels to share online. Given the grab-happy, emergent gameplay, downloadable custom levels should enable players to constantly discover new ways to aid or injure their pudgy little avatars. An earlier Sony presentation demonstrated some intuitive controls, with the manipulation of analog sticks and motion controls resulting in all manner of jumping, wiggling and waving.

"Quirky" and "endearing" are not two adjectives that have recently been linked to Sony, but it's good to see the opportunity to do so finally presenting itself. LittleBigPlanet's stunning graphics, charming characters and strong online component make it a great example of what the PS3 is really capable of. And it's got a 2-D perspective (that's half the Ds the system is capable of) to boot!

A trial version of LittleBigPlanet is expected to arrive on the PlayStation Network this fall, with the full version following in early 2008.