One thing I doubt anyone knows about me is that I love the Katamari Damacy Series. I've been only able to play half of it sadly (not counting that mediocre mobile game), and the series seems to be dead, but I adore the games of this series that I have played.
Beautiful Katamari also happens to be one of the first Xbox 360 games I played at the young age of 4. The console would go on to give me many great experiences in my really early life and this weird-ass game was at the forefront of that.
Clear nostalgia aside, I think this game is amazing, having only a few flaws I'll touch on in a bit. I've returned to play bits and pieces of it here and there on completed save files over the years and have played the game start to finish a handful of times. Something must be enjoyable about it to keep me coming back, and that's what this review will cover.
There is a story to this game. The King of All Cosmos is playing tennis with his family while on a vacation when he makes a serve so powerful that it rips the fabric of the universe, creating a black hole. Everything except Earth gets sucked in, leading to you, the prince, getting called upon to roll a katamari around to pick up objects and recreate stars, planets, constellations and the like.
The story of this game is simple enough to get you rolling, and that's what it needs to be. However, I felt that it was a bit lacking. The game doesn't need a sweeping narrative or anything, but Beautiful Katamari doesn't really do much with its story.
Compare this to We Love Katamari (the best game in the series), which has a minimal story too, but uses these overly dramatic cutscenes to show snippets of the king's backstory. There may be a story there, but they're presented in such an over-the-top and bizarre way that you can't take them seriously. That's the joke. Beautiful Katamari has a plot, but no fun with it.
The gameplay is more of the same twinstick rolling that Katamari Damacy is famous for. Push both sticks forward to roll forward. Backward to roll backward. Left or right to strafe. So on and so forth. Pick up items with your katamari to make it grow. Pick up larger things as your katamari grows and meet a certain requirement within a time limit. There's not really anything new to make this game shine, and that's okay. The Katamari formula was great as is, and I personally think it didn't need changed.
The music in this game is amazing. It's all very peppy, with lots of catchy J-pop songs. My favorite is easily Sayonara Rolling Star, for taking a more calm and somber tone while still feeling right at home in the game's soundtrack. Katamari Damacy was originally created to make people happy, and Beatiful Katamari's soundtrack embodies that mantra of being happy perfectly.
The game's levels are designed masterfully, being areas with many nooks and crannies, all chock-full with items that will help you meet your goal. You also run across some very weird stuff. The tutorial level, Egg School, sees you rolling up little plastic toy pieces, angels, and even the puzzle pieces that make up the floor and wall of the map, the removal of which show that you're rolling in a building the king is holding up.
However, the most glaring flaw of this game is in its levels as well. The levels lack variety. Aside from one or two levels, all objectives are "roll around and pick up stuff to reach this certain size." This isn't bad, but previous games, like We Love Katamari, had more varied objectives. That makes the lack of objective variety here disappointing.
On a side note, I think this game is a great first game for any kid. The simplistic controls and imaginative environments can appeal to almost everyone and spur a young mind's imagination. I remember my little sister loving Egg School's odd locales as a toddler, and my mind was blown at a young age when I saw you could roll up the whole world in Schloss Kosmos, the game's final level. The game is also pretty easy, but not patronizing.
Beautiful Katamari is amazing. The gameplay is tight. The scenery is weird. The music is amazing. The nostalgia runs strong. However, the game has a story but fails to do anything interesting with it like previous games and level variety is lacking. Also, the game has some minor frame skips, but they're far from common. However, nostalgia aside, I feel these flaws are relatively very minor, and the game was one I'm proud to have been introduced to at such a young age.
9/10 - It's an amazing game that captivated me when I was very young, but is marred by some minor issues.
Beautiful Katamari also happens to be one of the first Xbox 360 games I played at the young age of 4. The console would go on to give me many great experiences in my really early life and this weird-ass game was at the forefront of that.
Clear nostalgia aside, I think this game is amazing, having only a few flaws I'll touch on in a bit. I've returned to play bits and pieces of it here and there on completed save files over the years and have played the game start to finish a handful of times. Something must be enjoyable about it to keep me coming back, and that's what this review will cover.
There is a story to this game. The King of All Cosmos is playing tennis with his family while on a vacation when he makes a serve so powerful that it rips the fabric of the universe, creating a black hole. Everything except Earth gets sucked in, leading to you, the prince, getting called upon to roll a katamari around to pick up objects and recreate stars, planets, constellations and the like.
The story of this game is simple enough to get you rolling, and that's what it needs to be. However, I felt that it was a bit lacking. The game doesn't need a sweeping narrative or anything, but Beautiful Katamari doesn't really do much with its story.
Compare this to We Love Katamari (the best game in the series), which has a minimal story too, but uses these overly dramatic cutscenes to show snippets of the king's backstory. There may be a story there, but they're presented in such an over-the-top and bizarre way that you can't take them seriously. That's the joke. Beautiful Katamari has a plot, but no fun with it.
The gameplay is more of the same twinstick rolling that Katamari Damacy is famous for. Push both sticks forward to roll forward. Backward to roll backward. Left or right to strafe. So on and so forth. Pick up items with your katamari to make it grow. Pick up larger things as your katamari grows and meet a certain requirement within a time limit. There's not really anything new to make this game shine, and that's okay. The Katamari formula was great as is, and I personally think it didn't need changed.
The music in this game is amazing. It's all very peppy, with lots of catchy J-pop songs. My favorite is easily Sayonara Rolling Star, for taking a more calm and somber tone while still feeling right at home in the game's soundtrack. Katamari Damacy was originally created to make people happy, and Beatiful Katamari's soundtrack embodies that mantra of being happy perfectly.
The game's levels are designed masterfully, being areas with many nooks and crannies, all chock-full with items that will help you meet your goal. You also run across some very weird stuff. The tutorial level, Egg School, sees you rolling up little plastic toy pieces, angels, and even the puzzle pieces that make up the floor and wall of the map, the removal of which show that you're rolling in a building the king is holding up.
However, the most glaring flaw of this game is in its levels as well. The levels lack variety. Aside from one or two levels, all objectives are "roll around and pick up stuff to reach this certain size." This isn't bad, but previous games, like We Love Katamari, had more varied objectives. That makes the lack of objective variety here disappointing.
On a side note, I think this game is a great first game for any kid. The simplistic controls and imaginative environments can appeal to almost everyone and spur a young mind's imagination. I remember my little sister loving Egg School's odd locales as a toddler, and my mind was blown at a young age when I saw you could roll up the whole world in Schloss Kosmos, the game's final level. The game is also pretty easy, but not patronizing.
Beautiful Katamari is amazing. The gameplay is tight. The scenery is weird. The music is amazing. The nostalgia runs strong. However, the game has a story but fails to do anything interesting with it like previous games and level variety is lacking. Also, the game has some minor frame skips, but they're far from common. However, nostalgia aside, I feel these flaws are relatively very minor, and the game was one I'm proud to have been introduced to at such a young age.
9/10 - It's an amazing game that captivated me when I was very young, but is marred by some minor issues.