n Craftworld, in the village of Loom, the Sackpeople are enjoying their lives when the villain Vex rips through the sky and begins to suck everything up with his machines in order to enslave the Sackpeople to make his Topsy-Turver machine to take over Craftworld with his evil Uproar. Sackboy manages to avoid being enslaved and steals the plans to the Topsy-Turver, escaping into a rocket. He uses the plans to travel all around Craftworld with the help of an elder sackperson, Scarlet and tries to prevent Vex from getting the final materials he needs to finish the Topsy-Turver and take over the world, solving many of the issues Vex caused and gathering Dreamer Orbs along the way.
Players control Sackboy on world maps which give access to a multitude of platforming levels and bonus content. As Sackboy completes each stage new ones unlock allowing him to progress further. All levels contain collectable objects called Dreamer Orbs which must be collected en-masse to progress to the end of the game. Sackboy’s move set is greatly expanded from previous entries and players can now slap at will, roll around, nosedive, pick-up objects and flutter jump, to name a few. Moves can be chained together to create combos that allow skilled players to travel greater distances. Each level in the game employs a series of interactable objects that require at least one of Sackboy’s moves to progress. Sackboy also has access to multiple stages where he can use new powerups. The Grappling Hook, now called the Clawstring, returns from LittleBigPlanet 2, allowing Sackboy to grab onto object from afar, the Whirltool is a boomerang-like device that can be thrown to defeat enemies and break objects and finally the Plasma Pumps allow Sackboy to hover in the air and fire energy blasts.