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It would seem like a game were the whole point is to pick up stuff to get bigger would be boring, but it is super addictive. Katamari is my favorite video game series.
From the get-go, this game had issues. But there are some negatives here. Why it was released on the XBox 360 is another gripe of mine considering it had a very loyal playstation audience is yet another mystery. Somehow, you have less game-play even though the game's on an IMO better overall system. That's my question.
There are a lot of ways to make this creative title even more creative. Like, give him a meter, and when the meter's ready, he can 'throw' it or something. Seems so obvious to me and probably a lot of others, but they didn't make the enhancement. You'll recognize the quirky characters right away and in general, the game-play - which is a bit of a trick to master at first - remains somewhat constant.
And it's still fun to try to catch different items and break your time goals. With the current generation of games, I've seen this happen to a few titles. The ones there are good, but it's not even the same as "We Love Katamari", which had a neat under-water level. Another big gripe that I have is that the lack of size of the game is a massive disappointment. And there's no reason why the actual rolling and game-play can't be smoother. Maybe it's a result of the controller, but the speed role is vital for getting through a lot of the levels and it's severely impeded and sometimes downright irresponsive.
All in all, it's still a fun game that you can wind up spending hours playing - especially if you're a true Katamari afficionado. But you'd think that with so much more power available with the system, they could enhance a lot of different things.
I know they have deadlines nad everything, but sometimes I wish the developers/companies would say: "Hey, let's take a little longer and really make this game better instead of rushing it out to market." I mean really - one of the easiest enhancements that they could've made to the game-play would be giving the Prince the ability to use the katamari as a boomerang on occasion. I hope they do come out with another one for the PS3, and that it will be better than this one because honestly for those that never played the first two (the psp version was iffy as well.)., I don't think you're really getting the best experience with this edition of the series.
But then again if you're a true afficionado, you'll definitely be disappointed in the lack of development. Sonic was one of them (for the PS3) but most disappointing to me, so was this installment of the Katamari series.
With this game being on the 360, there should have been plenty of room for the developers to have some more fun themselves in creating more levels and environments to roll with. For example, there's no reason why the camera angles have to be so spotty & confusing at times.
Then buckling down and playing it is where the other issues came to play.The best thing about it is that the game does try to stay true to the basics. First and foremost, I can understand the graphics not being dramatically different from the PS2 version - that's a part of the charm of the game to me.
Also, if you are prone to motion-sickness at all, I would advise sticking to PS. Thinking it was something I ate, I tried playing again a week later, and again one time after that, with the same result. My roommate in college had the first two Katamari games for PS2, and they were so much fun that I decided to buy the XBox360 version for myself. While the first two Katamari games didn't bother me at all, I quickly realized that Katamari on XBox makes me VERY nauseous after about ten minutes- I had to stop playing to be sick. This may sound silly, but I have never had that problem with a video game before (except Super Monkey Ball), so I thought it was worth mentioning. However, I was very disappointed. I found the camera angles while playing very difficult to work with- the game was much easier to play on Playstation.
Go now. Seriously GET THE GAME. If you die before playing this game, you have failed at life and should be ashamed. I'm into action games such as Halo 3, Call of Duty, Gears of War, and so on. GET THIS GAME. I played this game over and over again. But this game is better than all of them. It was extremely hard to find in store, so if you want to buy it, get it on amazon.
This makes appreciating the level design and exploring the nooks and crannies of each level impossible. While I admire the fact that this wacky franchise continues on to a next-gen system, and the same quirky humor can be found in many of the Kings rants and throughout the levels, they have just tweaked this game too much to really appreciate it. We have played/beaten the first two Katamari games many times, and even we found the controls, camera angles and level goals insanely difficult. Maybe the next one will be better.
And when the camera gets stuck behind walls and stuff, I literally cannot see where I am on the screen.I do love finding all the presents and cousins in the levels, but with the problems in this game, these rewards just aren't as sweet when I find myself cursing the King and his stupid demands.It sucks to say this, but this could have been a lot better. I am disappointed, and will just go back to the previous versions of this game I already own. I can't really turn corners and I get stuck a lot.*I find my Katamari gets stuck in between items or walls/corners/shelves a lot more than before. I am a tense player, so I find myself clutching the control, thus making my character flip all over the Katamari.
How can you see what you are rolling up with his big hovering face and lines of text in the middle of the screen. A difficulty setting would make this problem moot.*The controls feel even messier than they did before, if that is even possible. I found myself actually saying "I hate this" when I couldn't even complete the third mission. I'm sure there are many clever things in the game, I'm just frantically skimming past them looking for small enough things to absorb.
You fail more mission than you pass, and even then you barely scrape by. *The king talks way too much. It is too difficult to click the button to make him go away without disrupting your momentum.*The level goals are insanely tough.
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