Overall: Very rarely can you sum up an entire game into a three-word phrase, but I think I've managed to do it this time. Beautiful Katamari: Rollin' crap up. Usually such brief summaries are requisite to puzzle games, like Tetris: Stackin Blocks. Or older game like Asteriods: Shoot Rocks! But please don't let the short misnomer deter you because never has rolling crap up into a ball been so entertaining.
For some reason there is something oddly addicting about adding things to an object to see just how big you can make it. I'm sure we all at some point had a rubber band ball as a kid. Pee-Wee even had his giant foil ball. This is a lot like those except without the chance of popping yourself in the eye with a weak rubber band or getting sent to jail for indecent exposure at an adult theater. Yes, 360 owners now have a way to indulge themselves in the Katamari series that Playstation owners have been enjoying for years now. Gameplay: For those of you who are uninitiated in the realm of Katamari crap-rolling, it's a fairly easy concept. You start with a little ball (presumably made of ticky-tack covered with super glue) and begin rolling it around in an effort to collect stuff. At first you'll be grabbing tiny things like toothpicks and coins but by the end of the game you will be ripping countrys, continents and even planets from their foundations to add to your conglomerate m@!%#*! of oddities.
The plot behind Katamari games have always been asinine at best. You play the prince of all cosmos, an acorn sized son of the King of all cosmos. The basic plot has always been the King does something that destroys half the universe and it is your job to roll up big balls of stuff for him to turn into new planets, stars, satellites and such. Honestly the plot doesn't really matter because the King is about as coherent as a sugar-deluged kid with ADD who accidentally dropped some acid. Very quicky you will byp@!%#*! the plot all together to get more gameplay in.
Each level has a time limit, size goal and side goal for you to accomplish. Usually you get about 2-7 minutes to do all the damage you can. The goals vary from stage to stage. When you are rolling up a new saturn your job is to collect as many ring-shaped objects as possible. The sun you roll has to contain lots of objects with 'energy'. So on and so forth. At the end of the level you get a point rating that factors in your size and how well you collected what was asked of you. Graphics: Graphically the game is very, very mediocre for a 360 game. It may be on par with what you would expect out of a Live Arcade game, but for shelling out 40 dollars it doesn't seem like they did much to upgrade. All the objects in the game look like they were built from legos and smoothed over with a bit of wax. Animation is practically nonexistant and it seems that none of the 360's advanced power was utilized for anything special such as extend draw distance or more onscreen objects. Of course to Beautiful Katamari's defense I will say that the quirky graphics are kinda what adds the charm to this very Japanese game. Sound: The soundtrack is where this game really shines though. From J-Pop to Acid Jazz, if you looked at the soundtrack on paper it would make absolutely no sense and seem like a mish-mash of non-compatible styles... but for some reason in game it works together well. Unfortunately the sound is metaphorically crapped on by some very harsh, repetetive and obtrusive sound effects. The worst part of it is you will eventually start rolling things into your katamari that are making these sounds hand have to listen to them over and over until you roll enough more stuff to bury them. Suggestions: So is this game worth buying? Depends really. Have you played any Katamari game before? If you have I would give a definate 'no'. Being a Katamari veteran I burned through the entire game in about 2 and a half hours. There is a little replay value if you factor in trying to max all your point values for every level but the game gets very repetetive while doing this. There is an online multiplayer aspect but it is weak and not much fun at best. You do a 1 on 1 challenge to try to roll things up and can ram the other player to knock collected objects off of them. While this sounds fun in theory your katamari doesn't actually grow so the gameplay seems rather restricted. They could have made it more fun by having a 4-player arena for a Hungry Hungry Hippos type of gameplay but alas, this didn't happen.
Of course if you haven't played Katamari this may be a fun game to indulge in. Being only 40 dollars may make it worth it as new players will have a bit more of a learning curve and in turn get some more playtime out of it. But even still most may find it better as a rental as it is still an exceedingly short game no matter how you look at it. Either way, whether you buy it or rent it Beautiful Katamari is worth checking out for the sheer quirkyness of it.
Overall: Katamari Damacy series have been seen on Sony consoles (PS2/PSP) in the past and this is the first "Next Generation" edition of the game, on a non-Sony console. It hasn't been a very smooth jump. Being a fan of the previous games, I have some serious issues with this game, but that doesn't mean I hate it.
Number of Cousins and Presents have increased. Other than collecting cousins/presents, there's really not that much for the average gamer to come back again and again to this game. Gameplay: Same old, Same old. You get a katamari. You get a set of rules to p@!%#*! the level. You roll. Simple gameplay.
The game has multiple areas (which are just taped off areas of the larger world) and each area has a different set of rules. Let's say, you need to collect as much ocean life as possible. Or roll up expensive objects. It's pretty much the same thing for every level, except one.
There is a level where you need to roll up Hot things. You p@!%#*! the level by reaching 10,000 degrees. Rolling over cold items, lowers your temperature. It's a great change of pace from the other generic "roll till your this size" maps, but the problem is: There aren't enough of these maps.
In the previous games, there were levels where you rolled up expensive things and instead of size score, you had a money value score. Or where you had to roll up the largest "Bear" in the city (you had to dodge a lot to avoid picking up small bears, such as toys or dolls)
It doesn't feel like the polished the story/solo player mode that much, because this is the first game with online support. It's not really that fun either. You and 3 others roll around picking up one object, and you can smash into each other to make them drop the items. eh. Online leaderboards is a nice touch, adding world scores to the mix.
One major problem that cripples this game is Downloadable Content. When you buy the game, you recieve 100% of the content on disc, but you only have access to about 80% of it. You need to PAY to unlock the rest of the content on disc. And Bandai-Namco added achivements into the game to include DLC. So you're not able to get a lot of achivements without buying the DLC. It's a slap in the face. Graphics: Visuals for the series are very noticeable. If you see a screenshot of the game, you'll know exactly what the game is. Problem is, you might have trouble pointing out which version it is.
They haven't really been upgraded for next generation, and it doesn't run smoothly at all times either. It's kind of disappointing.
If you enjoy the bright, pastel colors of the series, this is more of the same. Sound: The Katamari series has been known for their excellent soundtrack, and this game offers more of the same. Pretty good layout of japanese music is found everywhere in this game.
But other than music, there's not much else for audio. No one really talks. People might yell a bit when you roll them over, but most things make sounds when you roll them over. And the only one who closely gets to talk is the King of all Cosmos. But he speaks like a DJ scratching a record. Suggestions: Katamari will always be the same. A simplified game of rolling up objects to see how large you can get. And I think with this version, we've gotten as large as we can. I don't possible think that there will ever be another version of this game, without it just being copy&paste anymore.
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