Japanese Akihabara District
To do:
- Include the "Giant Sackboy" holding a sign featured in a promo video; it features the mini city concept area but with moving cars. (maybe sackboy was meant to be large here?)
| Japanese Akihabara District | |
|---|---|
| Game: | LittleBigPlanet |
Japanese Akihabara District, also referred to internally as Japanese Shop Window, was a scrapped theme intended for the original LittleBigPlanet. Intended as a secondary Japanese theme to the Islands - and potentially a tertiary theme to Japanese Tsukiji Market - Japanese Akihabara District was designed around Kaiju, anime, electronics, and culture surrounding the Akihabara shopping district in Tokyo, Japan.
History
Alongside Japanese Tsukiji Market, Japanese Akihabara District was designed around specific areas of Japanese culture, with a greater focus on the metropolitan areas of Tokyo. Present in its internal name, Japanese Akihabara District's development was influenced by the real-world shopping center of Akihabara, Tokyo. Concept art for Japanese Akihabara District's visuals took inspiration from otaku culture, a combination of video games, anime, and electronics. Designs for the theme's gameplay suggest that the kaiju genre was to act as a gimmick in one or more of the theme's levels.
Renders created by developer Kengo Kurimoto depict elaborate dioramas of Akihabara and the greater Tokyo area, crafted from boxes and bottles that players would travel through. As players would be larger than the dioramas, they would be able to destroy city environments using the game's physics, paying tribute to the kaiju genre. Other concepts showcase players being able to control kaiju-designed contraptions and use them to fight each other in multi-player scenarios.
Alongside Japanese Tsukiji Market, development for Japanese Akihabara District was discontinued around the middle of LittleBigPlanet's development cycle, with an extensive list of assets left over. While certain stickers and materials were inherited by finalized themes such as the Metropolis and the Islands, a significant amount remained unused in the final game. A background environment exists for Japanese Akihabara District, depicting a view of the district through a window; this may have been the origin of the theme's internal name of Japanese Shop Window. Japanese Akihabara District's interactive theme music would later be released for the Mm Music Pack 1 under the name Wise Owl.
Aspects of Japanese Akihabara District's theme derived from video games and electronics which would later be inherited by the Higginbotham's Mind theme in LittleBigPlanet 2.
Costumes
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Assets
Materials
Stickers
Concept art
Henshin scale.
City scale.
Sketch.
Mech fight.
Boss fight.
