Beautiful Katamari

by Bandai

• Rolling in 720P Katamari leaps into the next generation with an upgrade into the HD era with increased visual depth and seamless Katamari growth All new soundtrack New levels and objects present the player with more craziness to conquer
• New Characters New cousins join the fun to bring the total to over 50 playable characters each with their own quirky animations and style
• Offline Multiplayer Share the experience with another player as you race to collect more objects than each other Tired of battling it out Make peace and work together in co op mode to roll the same katamari
• Online Multiplayer for the first time Compete with your friends to roll up everything or as many specific objects as possible As you wait for more online players take part in the mini games that populate the lobby and spread the world of Katamari Damacy
• Downloadable Content The world's ever changing as your game will continue to give you joy through downloadable content ready to give you a fresh experience very time you fire up your system

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000P297JI
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.8 x 0.5 inches ; 3.2 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: October 15, 2007
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (73 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,209 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

The King of All Cosmos and the Prince have returned this time in amazing Next Generation brilliance! The game that took the video game world by storm is set to continue rolling with new stages, cousins, and visual style. Play as the Prince or one of the cousins, new and old, to roll up objects in all-new stages and missions as you explore this brand new creative exploration. With this new era, the hit style of gameplay is able to present an experience only hinted at in previous versons. Seamless katamari growing and animated presents add to the experience that has captivated hardcore and casual gamers everywhere.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

54 of 56 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Short and sweet October 19, 2007

By Movie Fan

Fun: 5.0 out of 5 stars   

I was really excited to learn that Katamari was coming to the 360. I thought we would be able to roll the biggest Katamari ever at lightning fast speeds, have 3 times as many areas to explore, a killer new soundtrack and tons of online playability. Unfortunately, Katamari fails to deliver on several of these expectations.

First, this game, like the other Katamari games: Katamari Damacy, We Love Katamari and Me and My Katamari, is a BLAST to play. For those who don't know, you play as the Prince of the Cosmos who has been sent by the King of the Cosmos to use a sticky ball known as a Katamari, to roll up items in the world to create stars, satellites and planets to re-populate the solar system after the King has done something to mess up the galaxy (always something funny). The Katamari starts out small and at first you can only roll up small objects, but as the game progress you'll be able to roll up people, cars, buildings and even landmasses (and much later... entire planets!). This kind of unique gameplay is addictive and fun to say the least. Here's where the game falls short...

I defeated the game in a day and a half (that includes obtaining the online achievements). The game is very short compared to other Katamari releases. Also, you end up re-visiting several maps that are being passed off as new levels simply because they have a few different items in them. With the 360's power, I really expected there to be tons of levels and none that repeated themselves, which isn't the case here.

The sound was a let down also. Most of the sounds are recycled from old Katamari games and the soundtrack is the weakest in the series. The Katamari games are none for their killer soundtracks: Minna Daisuki Katamari Damacy, but there are only 2 or 3 good songs that stand out. They even seemed to run out of new songs worthy of the game, because you'll also hear cuts from "We Love Katamari".

The online portion of the game is the biggest letdown. You can play thru all 5 levels in under 20 minutes and the object of each stage is to collect as many of a specific item as possible before the game ends. Online opponents can run into each other, knocking their foes items off their Katamari, but all this gets boring and repetative... after you play all the stages. I was really hoping for an online competition, where cousins could compete to roll the biggest Katamari for the King in either an online version of the one player game, or a specific game for xbox live, but it didn't happen.

With that said, there is a lot to praise. The game looks amazing in HD. I disagree with some gaming critics who think the graphics should have been redone to take advantage of the 360's power, but to me, if you change the look...it's not Katamari. In this version, the items and characters pop with a vibrant colorfully clarity you don't get in previous games. I also got one of my wishes for the game, you will be able to roll the biggest Katamaris ever! I wont give anything away, but the last stage is absolutely amazing. The replay value is very high with the game too. To trully beat a stage, you need to find all the cousins and presents and be awarded 100 points by the King. Obtaining 100 points on a stage, will unlock an infinite mode, that lets you play that stage without being timed! Just press "X" to quit. This is a great way to locate presents and cousins you may have missed, as well as plot a strategy to grow your Katamari at a faster rate, when it does matter.

Overall, I'm pleased with the purchase. Die-hard fans of the series will love this version of Katamari, but I think you'll feel like the game could've been so much more.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Price Makes it Worth a Purchase if You are a Katamari Fan November 27, 2007

By J. A Carty

Fun: 4.0 out of 5 stars   

I love the other Katamari games but I found this one a bit of a disappointment. The graphics are exactly the same as the other games in the series even though this game is on a new system and the stages look very similiar. Speaking of the stages, however, they may look similiar but there seemed to be a lot less that was interesting and funny to roll up.

The game was fun to play because the controls were quite simple to use, but the game is quite short and does not contain anything new. It is pretty cheap so if you like the Katamari games this is probably worth a purchase. If you are new to the series of games and have one of the other systems I'd think about getting one of the other games as you will probably get a longer game play out of them.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars It Would Be a Fine Sequel, If You Could Actually Play All of It June 13, 2008

By Erik Wennstrom

Fun: 2.0 out of 5 stars   

The creative force behind Katamari Damacy and We Love Katamari did not work on Beautiful Katamari, so I didn't expect this game to have as many new gameplay mechanics as those games. But a new Katamari game full of new levels with new objects and maybe a few new challenges sounded appealing to me anyway. As near as I can tell, there is such a game on this disc. Unfortunately, you can't play all of it just by buying the game.

When I first played through the game, I thought it was a bit short. Even including bonus unlockables, there are only about 9-12 levels and several of them are very similar to each other. Almost every level on the game has the same kind of goal: get as big as you can while picking up as many objects of a particular type (drinks, cold things, "powerful" things, etc.) as possible. The only exceptions are one level where you have to raise the temperature of the katamari by picking up hot things and avoiding cold things (very difficult), one where you need to pick up as many "rings" as possible (which is pretty fun), and a bonus level where the type of object you need to pick up changes every minute or so. There are no get-an-exact-size challenges (like Saturn in the previous installment), no pick-up-only-one-X levels (like the CowBear level), no katamari-on-fire levels, no underwater levels, no snow levels, no pick-up-lots-of-one-item (as in the firefly level), and not much clever at all. So when I completed the game, I was slightly disappointed that there wasn't much more to do.

That's when I heard about the "downloadable" content. There actually are more levels in the game, but you just can't play them unless you pay (about $3.50 each level) to "download" them. I put "download" in quotation marks, because the levels are already on the disc. You just can't play them unless you pay extra money. In theory, this wouldn't be a big deal; it just saves downloading time, I suppose. But since the game already seemed short to me, it felt like they created a complete game, and then locked up some of the levels. And that's just obnoxious.

Even so, the game wasn't completely unenjoyable, even if it was cut short, and I'd already spent the money, so I kept playing. I completed all of the levels, including the bonus level. I started collecting presents and cousins, and I planned on collecting every object in the game, as I'd done in the previous installment. But when I got all the cousins and presents, a funny thing happened: nothing. No unlocks, no achievements, not even a message saying "good job!" This struck me as strange because they had listed achievements for collecting all the cousins and presents, and the game even gave progress mini-achievements (10 cousins, 20 cousins, etc.) So I dug around a bit and discovered that you can't even get the achievements without buying the downloadable content. That was the last straw, and I put the game back on the shelf. I really want to play those last few levels (which include some of the challenge types that I thought were missing), but I'm just so pissed off that they needed to squeeze an extra $10-$20 out of me that I can't justify spending the extra money.

Buying the downloadable content would be sending a message to Namco that they can take full games, lock up some of the levels, sell the game at full price, and then charge extra money to unlock the rest of the game. And as much as I love the series, I can't condone that kind of behavior.