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- Beautiful Katamari
Beautiful Katamari
- May 08, 2007 13:55 PM PST
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We head to Tokyo to roll around a giant sticky ball.
Check out our first-look preview on Beautiful Katamari
Jump directly to the screen gallery
Yes, We Played It
At Namco Bandai's offices in Yokohama, Japan, we rolled through a couple stages of Beautiful Katamari and from them, got a solid impression of what the game will offer the 360 crowd. First, the colorful, cartoon-y look of the game remains identical to the rest of the series. But the tech driving the game has received a substantial upgrade.
Both Katamari games on the PlayStation 2 relied on physics technology to control the response of Katamari movement. The problem was that the PS2 wasn't the most powerful bit of hardware for real-life physics simulation, so with a lot of on-screen objects, Katamari would often slow to a snail's pace. Not a problem with the 360 (we're assuming the PS3 performs equally well, but that version wasn't on display).
Controlling the Katamari is as easy and pushing both analog sticks.
More than enough horsepower allows Beautiful Katamari to perform fluidly with even more on-screen items, and better yet, there's no loading while your Katamari grows to the next stage. Also, draw distance has been vastly improved making the game and its stages feel less like you're confined to a specific area because, at times, Katamari stages can become claustrophobic.
Playing the game is exactly the same as it was on the PS2, one of the best unique uses of the dual-analog control scheme. If you've never played, here's how it works: you push both sticks to roll the Katamari straight forward. You move left or right by easing off the opposite analog sick. For example, if you want to turn left, you'll keep the left stick pushed forward while easing back on the right stick. You can also click both sticks for a quick 180. It's all pretty intuitive, so once you've given it about five minutes or so, you'll be rolling up farm animals and useless junk to your heart's desire.
The stages in Beautiful Katamari have the same overall look of the previous games, but they're much bigger. You'll start in a small-ish area and once you've reached a certain size, you can bust into another area to pick up bigger objects until you're eventually picking up buildings, land masses, and on and on it goes.
In tribute to Katamari, we conjured up a little list of things that wouldn't be around today if it weren't for Katamari's special little (or big) sphere of influence. Click here to jump directly to the story.
