Beautiful Katamari

Hello fellow readers!

I've just realised how long its been since I've done a review. I do apologise for the delay...I've simply been uber lazy recently but hey...I finally got my review done so please enjoy!

I thought with my next review I go all Japanorama on ya and do a review of Beautiful Katamari which is available for the Xbox 360. Now this game has come out for the Playstation 2 and the PSPa and has become as rare as rocking horse poo (yea I said it!). Now your probably all thinking why of all the games released would this be so darn popular? Well I'm hoping to explain all in the following review.

Beautiful Katamari, the sequel to Me & My Katamari, follows the story of the King's son the Prince as he tries to save the world. Unfortunately the King has created a black hole while playing a rigours game of tennis (yeah that's exactly what happened). The black hole has gotten bigger, it has sucked up all the planets and stars, so its your job to roll up various Katamari's in order to replace them.

There are in total thirteen levels with the option to buy more via Xbox Live. Each of them have different time constraints, different size katamari's to build and different types of items to collect to create a planet. With each level, your Katamari starts at different sizes and your placed into different locations. The initial size of your Katamari you start off with and the time your given can usually dictate as to how far you can progress. But here is a challenge to all my readers, can you make your Katamari bigger then the target?

Now here is a tip for you guys to get a higher score. After each roll, if you have just reached your target size, the King usually gives you a rubbish score and tells you to do better...which is pretty naff. The only way to avoid this, get a better score and to get a sparkling review from the King you need to completely smash, and I mean SMASH the target. If you can get the biggest size Katamari as you can, be it double, triple or even ten times the size needed. This may take you a couple of goes but believe me its all worth it! Now don't worry about only going over certain items for what has happened is that in each level the majority of stuff you need to get just so happens to be what you actually need. So get rolling everyone!

I got this game when it first came out and I recently thought to play it. Now I must say I did forget how fun this game is. I've even got non Katamari fans to give it a whirl and now there just as addicted to it as I am!(and yes my sweet that comment was about you!)

The game play is very simple so even the less experienced gamer can give it a shot. You control the Katamari using the two analogue sticks, which allows you to move forward, backward and even to flip over the Katamari when you get stuck (which can happen a lot)...and that's it. As your playing it, you do find yourself getting even more excited when your Katamari is big enough to pick up more weird and wonderful items...like people, spaceships and even continents! The Japanese pop sound track compliments the game to a 'T' and believe me you'll be trying to sing to each and every track before you even know it.

If I was to moan about the game...I guess the only thing I could think of is how mean the King can be when it comes to scoring your Katamari after you finished the level. At first it was mega annoying that after playing the same level at least 3 times and only collecting the items required you can't get a score over 40. But if you follow my top tip which is above, you'll see your score improve dramatically.

Now this game may sound extremely random, which it is, but it's definitely one of those gaming gems I'd recommend everyone to at least give the demo a try. The demo is still available from Xbox Live. With all that taken into consideration I give Beautiful Katamari a handy U.F.G score of...4.5 out of 5! Keep on rollin'!