Beautiful Katamari

Beautiful Katamari, which is the first title in the franchise to appear on anything other than a Sony branded console, retains the uniquely goofy nature of the original game, from the King's barely coherent trademark ramblings, to the upbeat soundtrack, and that's good news for Xbox 360 owners indeed.

The basic gist behind the Katamari games goes like this: using the analog sticks, you propel a sticky orb around the world, gathering small items like candies and poker chips until you grow the clumped mess into a devourer of people, cars, buildings, and more.

Blind Man's Bluff

You have to build up your katamari as big as possible so the King can turn them into planets, stars, and other celestial objects. The gameplay is simple, but the charm comes from the whole package: the colorful visuals, the strange characters and the bouncy soundtrack all make for a unique experience. When you're not rolling across the Earth collecting objects and accessories at the King's behest, you'll visit the Princedom, where you can view the current state of the Cosmos, look up your spot on the Xbox Live leaderboards, initiate an online multiplayer match, or give rescued cousins a shot at the ball.

Unfortunately, while it is a fun title, Beautiful Katamari suffers from some of the same goofs that plagued the other titles. You'll still get stuck in tight spots because the camera swiveled behind a wall or table, co-op control still amounts to pretending you share a single uncomfortable body with a twin, and a few of the levels are filled with frustrating opportunities to abruptly end your hard-won progress because you ran over the wrong item. Even the much-anticipated online multiplayer battles run dry quickly because of diminished object variety, and an unalterable match time limit.

Collision Insurance

Beautiful Katamari's collision detection also seems slightly more obtuse than its predecessors, fussily refusing to pick up some objects right away. Insult is added to this injury when you fail a level and are forced to endure a chew-out session with the King instead of just jumping right back in for another try. If the level were reloading in the background, this might be amusing but as it stands, it's just pointlessly irritating.

Furthermore, anyone looking forward to graphical improvements will question why the frame rate of a game that's little more than a sharper refinement of the original occasionally sputters, or why there's a dearth of sound effects in a world otherwise overflowing with strange personality. Luckily, what the game lacks in visual fidelity and object detail it easily makes up for in sheer quantity and random insanity; the variety of bits and pieces you can uproot and cart around is truly incredible.

In spite of its plainly apparent faults, Beautiful Katamari is a lot of fun, even if the formula hasn't evolved much since the original. The game is also rather short, but when every outrageous environment is so chock full of goodies, and the atmosphere so relentlessly positive, it's still hard to resist playing just one more time.

PROS: Simple but compelling gameplay. Sharper graphics, hidden goodies and online leaderboards are great.
CONS: The camera is wonky, the frame rate stutters and the collision detection is questionable.

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