Sackboy returns in new PlayStation mobile game next month

Ultimate Sackboy victory screen dancing — Ultimate Sackboy – there was another Sackboy mobile game but that shut down years ago (pic: Exient)

A LittleBigPlanet mobile spin-off is coming in February, from Lemmings studio Exient.

Much as it’s gradually come to embrace the PC market, Sony has been planning to get back into mobile devices for a while now.

However, while a good handful of first party titles have seen PC releases, such as God Of War and the Marvel’s Spider-Man, things have been relatively quiet on the smartphone front.

That changes very soon, though, as a LittleBigPlanet spin-off is scheduled to release for iOS and Android devices in just a month’s time.

Titled Ultimate Sackboy, it’s described as a free-to-play running game where Sackboy and his fellow sackpeople compete in the Ultimate Games, ‘the most prestigious – and craziest – obstacle course tournament in all of Craftworld!’

You need to swipe the screen to help Sackboy dodge, jump, and slide past obstacles and reach the finish line before your opponents. Think something like Temple Run but with an end goal and you’re competing against other players.

Winning races and completing daily challenges earns you gold and other such prizes, and you can unlock all manner of new cosmetics for Sackboy.

Ultimate Sackboy gameplay running through obstacle course — Ultimate Sackboy – seems like your typical free-to-play runner (pic: Exient)

Pre-registration is already available on the Google Play store, with the game scheduled to release on February 21 worldwide.

In development at Oxford studio Exient (which is also responsible for the mobile Lemmings game), Ultimate Sackboy has actually been available in certain markets for a while, as part of a closed test, and only got an official trailer this past September.

It looks perfectly fun and harmless, although there’s no telling how its monetisation will be handled.

At the very least, this shows an openness from Sony to lend its IPs to outside studios rather than keep any mobile projects internal.

Although last year it did buy Savage Game Studios to work on a triple-A live service action mobile game. There’s no word on what that game is though or whether it will make use of an existing franchise.

As for Sackboy on consoles, the latest entry was cross-gen title Sackboy: A Big Adventure for the launch of the PlayStation 5. But since then there’s been no sign of a sequel or a return for parent franchise LittleBigPlanet.

Ultimate Sackboy launches for iOS and Android on February 21.