This review will probably be shorter than my past few, mostly because it's Katamari! If you don't know what it is, then it's really easy to describe, and if you do know what it is, then you probably already have an opinion on it, so it's not really that worth dribbling on about here. I'd already loved the first two games, especially the second one, and this game reaffirmed that well-deserved love. The only part that made me sad was to learn that this was really the last real Katamari game on a console, with the PS3 one just being a compilation and not so much a new game of its own ;A;

It's Katamari Damacy: You use both joysticks as tank controls to roll around a big ball that sticks to anything smaller than it that you roll into. It's wacky, it's Japanese, and it's very very fun. The King of the Cosmos is his usual campy, cocky self, spitting tons of weird lines of both praise (of himself) and of demeaning (you, his son). The art style is more or less the same as the PS2 games, which I'm inclined to forgive not only because this was a fairly early 360 title, but also because it means the game has a really good frame-rate that rarely dips, and was immediately noticeable for me. Only in the very final levels when you get SO big that you can see most of the map at once does the game start to chug at all, and even then it certainly doesn't harm gameplay.

In comparison to the first game, it blows it out of the water. The first game had a bit more personality in the writing and had more, better music, but this game just has SO much better levels. There are fewer of them, yes, but gone are the totally wank "collect the biggest X in this area," or "collect only X as much as you can" stages that plagued that game. Now in addition to the missions where you gotta roll a Katamari to X-size, you also need to focus somewhat on the theme of that level (be it toys, cold things, powerful things, energy things, etc.) but that usually isn't too hard.

In comparison to the second game, though it has been a while since I played it, I do recall that game having more levels. I could be remembering it wrong though. Beautiful Katamari I would say is at least on the level of that game, though perhaps not quite as good because that game's writing was very self-referential and sillier, and it had more stages. This game keeps that game's local co-op mode though, so that's nice. The 360 version does have a level full of 360 controllers and consoles though, which made me giggle quite a bit X3. This game is also HARD like the past couple games. Especially the last 3 or 4 stages, you really gotta work to get the Katamari big enough for the goal-size.

Verdict: Highly recommended. It's Katamari! It's silly, it's wacky, and it's above all: fun. Even if you suck at it (like I kinda do, though I like to think not too badly), you'll have fun with the cool environments, neat art style, and fantastic music. I can also speak from experience to the fact that the co-op mode is a fantasticly fun thing to do with someone who doesn't play video games too often, or even with one who does. I will admit, this is really just a slightly lesser version of We Love Katamari but on a 360. However, if you can get past that, then it's a fantastic game that's still a boat-load of fun.

"Wow, I wonder what this Katamari game will bring to the series?"
>is a katamari game
>idontknowwhatiexpected.jpg

I think this game's big shtick is that the power of the Xbox 360 enables at least a thousand items to be onscreen at any given time. It's impressive on a technical level, but I feel like having this much shit going on at any given moment makes the game feel really busy, and detracts from the level design pretty hard. We're still working with Me and my Katamari's new scoring system, judging you based on size and a specific "type" of items rolled up. When there's so much to roll up, it really makes trying to focus on a specific type feel like a fool's errand.

It's not hard to feel Keita Takahashi's departure from the series in this one, the King's dialogue is very cookie-cutter, and the game is generally just going through the motions. I remember this game catching flack for being one of the earlier offenders for on-disc DLC, which really hurts it in the long run. All of the unique "gimmick" stages are locked behind paywalls, $1 for each. The game really needed this content to be free from the start. I beat this in an hour and a half, a single sitting.

That all said, I'm still shocked that this game has a decent leg up on the PS3's Katamari Forever. Beautiful Katamari runs at 60 FPS, has online multiplayer, and even an iDOLM@STER song. That sure is something.

Good:

Gameplay is easier with more objects, but as a result way more fun. Better map design. Higher resolution and 60fps was a good decision.


Not Good:

Close to being the least replayable katamari game-- way too few maps.

Verdict:

Mastered the game-feel but needs the variety of We Love.
8 / 10

Finally, the peak of Katamari.

I wasn't expecting much out of this game since Me & My Katamari was a huge disappointment and I pretty much thought the franchise would never be as good as it once was, but oh so wrong I was.
This game could be just considered "more Katamari" but you can call any Katamari sequel "more Katamari", Me & My Katamari was just "more Katamari" and it sucked! This game pretty much perfected the Katamari formula we all loved by making good levels where you just grow big and gimmicky levels that don't feel shoehorned in or unfun like how some of We Love Katamari's stages were.
And if anyone cared about the multiplayer aspects of Me & My Katamari it's all back with leaderboards and coop/vs modes or at least it used to have it I have no idea if the servers are still on for this game.

The reason why I'm not giving this game a 5/5 is that it's the shortest game of the franchise which is unfortunate since the stages were oh so good. They also added a few gimmicky stage reusing stage layouts which is fine on its own but as DLC it kinda sucks for a really short game.

It’s a lot of fun and most levels are great. The graphics are beautiful and hold up as good as the Reroll games. It also has a larger sense of scope than the previous games, with a lot more objects and explorable areas on the maps.

It is almost my favorite in the series, but there are 7 stages locked behind (granted, cheap) DLC. These DLC levels are also the ones that switch up the formula.. without them, the game has little variety and is probably more like 3 stars. A couple of levels are also stinkers (Uranus and Sun, I’m looking at you). If everything was on disc I’d probably score it a bit higher.. if it ever got a Reroll, I would probably give it 5 stars. This is also probably a hot take, but I think it has the best music in the series. The Lonely Rolling Star remix here is a banger. At the very least, look up the OST.

A must-play for Katamari fans, and a good buy for platformer fans.

Note: The game has a bit of slowdown, but I played it on an Xbox One X. It is probably a safe bet that it’s not there on the Series X.

Beautiful Katamari is a pretty decent game that is brought down by a short run time, locking a significant amount of content behind a pay wall, and a lack of new and compelling ideas that push the series forward in any meaningful or significant way leaving this feeling shallow and barren when compared to the brazen orginality, creativity and thoughtful design of katamari damacy and we love katamari. Much of what this game offers is owed to these two games making for a game I can understand people really loving especially as a entry point to the series but for me this had a couple of interesting levels such as the temperature one, an awesome ending that fullfills the orginal vision for the last level in the orginal katamari, and another fantastic soundtrack that is trapped in a fun but flawed expirence. Also this game has a horrible unstable framerate, sometimes its silcky smooth and other times its slogging along at a really low framerate showing that this was probably rushed out the door.