Beautiful Katamari

I bought a copy of this cheap online, it arrived last Saturday morning, at which point I immediately put it into my machine and had a go. Katamari Damacy is probably my favourite game of all time, you see, so I wanted to play my copy of the latest game for Xbox 360 as soon as possible. Then about 30 minutes later, I stopped because I had to leave and catch a train. I returned Sunday night. Worked all Monday. Somehow by Tuesday, I had finished the game. Even though I was also playing Space Giraffe and trying some Live Arcade demos.

Wow, this game must have lasted me about 5 hours maximum. It's the shortest full-price game I've played in a long time. Though I didn't get great scores on some of the stages, so I could go back... but that won't make it much longer.

There are lots of levels that are only available if you buy them separately and then get them with the download service. They cost 200 XBL points each, which works out as about £1.70 each, which seems cheap but that soon adds up! I really think those stages should have been built into the game, especially as it's so short. I bought two of the levels, though, just to see. I super-cleared one of them on the first try, so that wasn't much good value for money.

It's better than the PSP Katamari game. It's still far worse than the first one, and the second. But then again, the first game is made out of love, diligence, and good level design, and each following game has had a little less of all of those qualities each time. At least, that's my observation.

The online play is quite nice, I briefly tried it, but there's barely anyone playing it online anymore since it's now an "old" game.

Beautiful Katamari - officially announced

Remember I mentioned there were rumours floating around about a new Katamari Damacy sequel?

The Magicbox has reported that Famitsu magazine reports that (yeah, I know, I know) Namco-Bandai have actually announced it, with screenshot pics published in Famitsu magazine. Follow the Magicbox link! Take a look!

Pretty, isn't it?

Even though the games have been rolling downhill since the 1st one, I'm still a big fan of the series. Even though the screenshots make it look no different than a polished-up version of the PSP game, which was the worst one by a long way. (But I blame the limitations of the system - PSP is too small for Katamari and the console lacks the appropriate control system)

I hope the soundtrack is as good as on the first game! And the attention to detail, and... well, everything that's lacking from the later two games.

I guess I'll have to actually buy either a PS3 or 360 when it comes out, depending on price and which port is best, which controls are best... whether I'll need to get an import console... whether there are any other games on the console worth playing...

Shame it's not coming out on wii, since it sounds the funnest of the 3 new consoles, but then, it would posibly be forced to use unsuitable controls (and we already found out that's bad via the PSP version)

Is this game really going to be a console seller? I don't know, but it's a Katamari Damacy game, and, as is embodied in the game itself... I really really like collecting things... ^_^;;

(Katamari Damacy is why I own a PSP! Even though all I play is Disgaea!)