Little Big Planet 2 golden

In September, Little Big Planet fans were disappointed by the delay of the adorable platformer's sequel to January 18 in North America. Now, they can put fears of a further postponement behind them--according to developer Media Molecule's website, the game has now gone gold and will ship out as (re)scheduled.

More important to gamers outside North America are the new release dates for the game in various territories. Mainland Europe will get the game on January 19, followed by Australia and New Zealand the day after. The UK will receive the game, which will support the PlayStation Move controller, on January 21.

Currently in closed beta, Little Big Planet 2 expands upon the triple-platinum first game's creative options. Instead of just being able to create levels in a game, players will now be able to craft entire genres of games, such as top-down racing games, multiplayer shooters, and role-playing games.

A trailer (viewable below) shows that Little Big Planet 2 players will be able to link various levels to create lengthy games and create intelligent non-player characters. As outlined in GameSpot's most recent preview, this latter feat will be achieved via in-game "microchips," which will let players program NPC behavior and even create machines.