It's not every day a game comes along that's so original and so good, especially when it's as strange and simplistic as this.

Rolling a ball (or a Katamari) around a stage picking stuff up as you roll over it might sound silly, and it is to be fair, but it sure does make for a great game. You start off on a place called the Princedom, that's like your base or your little village if you like. From here everything is available like options, stats, save game and this is also where you select a mission to go on called a 'request'. Cousins also like to loiter round here. These requests include tasks such as rolling up specific items which in turn increases the size of your Katamari. Sound simple but some levels can be challenging. You get points at the end of each completed run and you can choose to play again to better these scores anytime you wish. Hidden in the levels are cousins: little characters that look both silly and cute, which you can change between anytime, and presents:… more »

It's not every day a game comes along that's so original and so good, especially when it's as strange and simplistic as this.

Rolling a ball (or a Katamari) around a stage picking stuff up as you roll over it might sound silly, and it is to be fair, but it sure does make for a great game. You start off on a place called the Princedom, that's like your base or your little village if you like. From here everything is available like options, stats, save game and this is also where you select a mission to go on called a 'request'. Cousins also like to loiter round here. These requests include tasks such as rolling up specific items which in turn increases the size of your Katamari. Sound simple but some levels can be challenging. You get points at the end of each completed run and you can choose to play again to better these scores anytime you wish. Hidden in the levels are cousins: little characters that look both silly and cute, which you can change between anytime, and presents: stuff for your cousins to wear. The number hidden in each level can very and finding them all is not a task for the faint hearted. This does help though with variation and replay value, although replaying the same soon becomes a bit tedious. As you progress through the game more requests become available and the potential size of your Katamari dramatically increases from 30cm to sizes well over 500m. Before you know it you're picking up whole cities.

The graphics aren't great for a 360 game and they're not much better than the PS2 version but they do the job. There's also a crazy Japanese song list which is strangely amusing. Achievements take a bit of time and effort and there's dlc too, bringing the total to 1250G. Multiplayer is fun too but just what you'd expect.

That pretty much sums up Beautiful Katamari. It's a great game played in smaller doses. Such a different, weird and wonderful concept for a good game must deserve a place in anyone's collection.

80%

After impatiently waiting for it to be released in the U.K. I was sightly disappointed. It's nowhere near as fun as the PS2 release We Love Katamari. The camera was awkward in comparison and movement was no where near as fluid as on the PS2. This is possible because of the placement of the analog sticks on the 360 as opposed to the PS2. It's more cluttered as well. The music wasn't as good or catchy as WLK and the game was completed within 4 hours. With games like these that are quickly completed, I will go back and play them again and again...not so with Beautiful Katamari. In the end, I plugged back in the PS2 to play We Love Katamari. The really sad thing is I looked so forward to this title's release, even buying extra points in preparation for the downloadable content (to which those in the U.K. are still waiting for). I'm just really disappointed with the game. People have complained about the game being timed, it always was and that isn't the issue. One would think that the… more »

After impatiently waiting for it to be released in the U.K. I was sightly disappointed. It's nowhere near as fun as the PS2 release We Love Katamari. The camera was awkward in comparison and movement was no where near as fluid as on the PS2. This is possible because of the placement of the analog sticks on the 360 as opposed to the PS2. It's more cluttered as well. The music wasn't as good or catchy as WLK and the game was completed within 4 hours. With games like these that are quickly completed, I will go back and play them again and again...not so with Beautiful Katamari. In the end, I plugged back in the PS2 to play We Love Katamari. The really sad thing is I looked so forward to this title's release, even buying extra points in preparation for the downloadable content (to which those in the U.K. are still waiting for). I'm just really disappointed with the game. People have complained about the game being timed, it always was and that isn't the issue. One would think that the 360 game would have improved upon the PS2 one considering the graphics are relatively the same and the power of the 360 far surpasses that of the PS2. If you really want to play this game, wait until its been out a few months and pick it up used. Better yet, pick up We Love Katamari for the PS2 instead.