Beautiful Katamari
Review
Puzzling with sticky balls... hmm...
by Chris Davis
reviewed on X360
Keep on playing
One of the things the previous Katamari games have been lacking in however is the replay value of the game. Beautiful Katamari attempts to rectify this in several ways, specifically utilizing the Xbox 360’s achievement system. Cousins and presents hidden throughout each level will have you returning to roll each level several times in order to get everything; especially if you are a gamer score whore. One will notice that the overall gamer score limit for the game is 1250, which will confound players. Until they realize that several of the achievements are not possible without downloading more levels. Namco promised to release new content in the future, with several levels already available in Japan at 200 points ($2.50) a piece, but who knows how long it will take for them to transition to the rest of the world.
High Plains Roller
Beautiful Katamari isn’t a revolutionary title in any way; Katamari Damacy three years ago took that title for being one of the very few quirky Japanese games to have a strong following outside of Japan. What Beautiful Katamari does for the series is give players the most polished Katamari experience ever created. The graphics are the best the series has put out to date, with hi-res textures abound on almost every surface. That is not to say that the visuals are one of the best on the market; far from it. The game still utilizes the cel-shaded technique used in the previous games and doesn’t look anywhere near the quality of games like Gears of War. Instead everything is polished to a mirror shine with nary a bad texture in sight.
Thanks to the power of the Xbox 360, players will also find at least triple the amount of objects to roll up in comparison to its Playstation 2 brothers. This is a very welcoming inclusion as the previous titles had you at times hunting for things to roll up. The frame rate is also very solid though there are some very miniscule slowdowns at times when picking up an exorbitant amount of objects. Probably one of the most outstanding features of Beautiful Katamari in terms of graphics are the load times within the levels, or lack thereof. Previously in the series players, when transitioning to larger-scale levels would have to endure a load time that could last as much as 30 seconds long. Thanks to what Namco could accomplish with the Xbox 360, players will find a completely load time free experience; the entire game is designed to be a streamlined experience with little or no interruption when transitioning.
One of the items of interest that players have found enticing over the years has been the audio of the game, particularly the music. Namco certainly knows exactly how people will feel when encountering the game for the first time and has an appropriate track list that’s just as quirky as the game itself is. Everything from Jpop to an orchestrated anthem is included with some tracks being remixed versions of music from previous Namco titles. While you can select what song you want to play before beginning a level it doesn’t play the actual track so unless you already have the track list memorized it’ll end up being a trail-and-error experience trying to find which one you want.
I’ve Got the Biggest Balls of Them All
Beautiful Katamari isn’t your typical game. If it weren’t for its quirky nature then the game probably wouldn’t have succeeded here in the States at all, let alone outside of Japan itself. With a nice replay value, enjoyable gameplay and simply sharing it with others, the game its overall something you will enjoy having in your library. Though I wouldn’t blame you, given the line-up coming up over the next 2 months, if it was suddenly replaced one day with something like Assassin’s Creed or Mass Effect. At a typical price of $39.99 at launch it’s definitely friendlier to the wallet than a lot of the other titles coming out this year but it’s probably better to make this one a rent.
8.0
fun score
No Pros and Cons at this time
