Wierdest plot ever?
Beautiful Katamari has quite possibly the strangest plot I’ve ever encountered in a game. The King of All Cosmos was playing tennis, and hit a stupidly fast (and presumably rather inaccurate) serve that has ripped a hole in the universe. This has caused a black hole to open up and swallowed up all the planets, stars, moons etc, except for Earth. Not one to fix his own mistakes, you (the Prince) have to fix things.
Your task is to roll a sticky ball (a Katamari) around on earth and gather up objects to make new moons, satellites, planets etc. Gameplay is very simple – there are no buttons to press, you just use the sticks to roll and rotate the katamari much like controlling a tank. Push both sticks forward to go forward, back to go backwards, and push one up and one down to rotate. When you start a level your katamari will be relatively small and can only pick up small objects like coins and sweets, but as you collect more objects and you katamari grows in size you can pick up bigger and bigger things.
It’s a lot like marmite really
Graphically I can only describe it as “cute”. It certainly doesn’t tax the 360 at all but it is bright and cheerful none the less. It feels somewhat like moving through a Lego world at times with the rather blocky animals and people walking around, but this really doesn’t detract from the game once you’ve got rolling. The sound consists mainly of an annoyingly catchy J-pop soundtrack which you’ll be whistling or humming in no time, and some downright annoying beeps and squawks when the king is talking.
So – what’s it like to play? It’s a lot like marmite really. I don’t mean that as insult by the way – it’s just one of those “love it or hate it”
things. Once I’d got to grips with the controls I began to find it quite enjoyable, but my joy soon turned to frustration. The big problem in the early stages of the game is the camera. I frequently found myself stuck in a corner or under a table or chair, unable to see where I was because the camera was behind the object. There is a sort of “viewport” feature that is supposed to open up a window in the obstructing object to let you see yourself, but I found that more often than not it just didn’t work and had to just randomly mash the sticks until I re-emerged. I also found myself getting stuck in plain site occasionally because I had got into an object like a tray of sweets and couldn’t seem to roll back out. Once you progress a bit and start rolling around the garden, town and eventually world, these problems don’t occur so much and it is really quite good fun.
Sadly my experience with online play has not been so much fun. Most of the time I have been unable to find anywhere to play, even if I choose “All” countries instead of just the UK. The rare occasions I have actually got into a game I suffered terrible lag that made the game unplayable, as it would freeze for a few seconds every time I tried to move. There is also offline multiplayer where you can have two people controlling the same katamari (each person takes control of one stick – a real test of coordination and cooperation), or have vs. battles, although I haven’t tried these modes.
To sum up – it’s pretty but not beautiful. If you’re into your HD gaming then this probably won’t impress you, and if you have a short fuse then the initial frustration may be too much. If you persevere though, it can be pretty good fun.
The Bad: Frustrating at times and some poor camera angles. Not had much luck with online play.
