LittleBigPlanet Vita Bigger Than PS3's LittleBigPlanet 1 And 2

LittleBigPlanet Vita is bigger than both the series' PS3 outings, according to Executive Producer Pete Smith.

"LittleBigPlanet [Vita] is bigger than LittleBigPlanet 1 and LittleBigPlanet 2," Smith told NowGamer at the PS Vita Experience event last week. "It's got the full toolset from both games, it's crazily big. And then we've got all of the sharing that you previously had, plus a whole set of new levels. That is gigantic on a handheld device. Smartphones can't compete with that. They just can't."

Sony demonstrated head-to-head PS Vita/PS3 cross-play at the event, but despite a Vita/PS3 co-op demo level-sharing and creation won't be cross-platform when the PS Vita and LBP Vita arrive.

"At the start we thought long and hard about that, because initially we were thinking we could maybe port the game.  The more we started playing about with things, the more compromises we found we were going to have to make," explained Smith.

Backwards compatabilitiy would have been too big and issue, as well as all of the PS Vita's bespoke features, he added. "What if you're making a Vita version on PS3 and it's got rear touch? How do you test that? What if I've created it on my Vita and it's got front touch but it goes up on PS3? It's not a port of the PS3 - LittleBigPlanet Vita is its own game."

PS Vita launches in the UK on 22 February 2012.