To control their Sackboy character, the player moves by using the analogue sticks, jump with varying degrees of height depending on the pressure applied to the action button, and grab onto objects to either move or swing on them. In addition to regular left-and-right movement, and despite the 2D look of the game, levels consist of three levels of depth—the foreground, middle ground and background—and maybe traversed between either automatically by the game itself, or by the player's command. The player can opt to emote their Sackboy by applying varying degrees of delight, fear, sadness, and rage, control each arm independently through the analogue sticks, slap other players by jerking the arm movement with the analogue sticks, and use the Sixaxis motion-sensing functionality to animate the character's head and body.