Beautiful Katamari (2007)

Sorry for putting this in the "updates" section instead of the "review" section. Just started on this website a few days ago. Adding it again here.

I love the core loop of the Katamari games. The only Katamari game that I've played before this was Katamari Damacy on the PS2 and that game is one of my favorites of all time. Rolling over things is eternally satisfying and chill. Beautiful Katamari is essentially the same game as Damacy. You start small and become much larger. I am unsure if this is a good thing or bad. An Xbox 360 game should probably be bigger and better than the PS2 equivalent, but this feels like it could have just been DLC for the original game.

The reason that I am giving this game 4 stars instead of 5 (which the first one would get) is because of the focus on rolling up certain objects. It may just be me, but I want to just go around rolling random things up and make my Katamari larger. Focusing on certain items over others is most heavily enforced in the Mars level. You need to collect hot things and not collect cold things. I really feel like this level goes against the core gameplay of Katamari because you have to avoid collecting large clumps of objects, for fear of cold items being in there.

Overall, I would recommend this game to anybody. I love Katamari and thing the idea of rolling items into a ball is fantastic.

Colourful and bright. The simple controls/gameplay is offset by the timer, and it is surprisingly challenging at times: I still can't get more than 50 points for a few stages, and the King of the Cosmos is always mocking me )-: There's no one-size-fits-all strategy that you can use to ram through the stages, as I found early on. Following the same path in different stages, while tempting, would not work out. If the King wants things from the ocean, you're going to have to divert your path to pick up fish and boats instead of happily smashing into cars and gorillas. The time limit is a killer early on when players are still inexperienced; I still have issues with it myself.

It was also rather short. There are a few "worlds" accessible from the game map, islands with adorable little pop-up buildings that represent stages. Before I knew it I had travelled to the cosmos and won the game. I was so confused, maybe because I was expecting it to be longer or the map bigger. Oh well. The collectible and bean points system offers some replay value, and is especially effective for perfectionists like me who can't stand poor scores. There are also varied modes to choose from, giving it additional diversity that keeps you going back for more surprises. All in all, a fun way to kill time.