 "I love Katamari" | 2009-05-11 |
| - Reviewed By User: A253AD6STO8T4W |
| Katamari is my favorite video game series. 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. |
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 "How Did they Downgrade a Game on an Upgraded System?" | 2009-03-20 |
| - Reviewed By bordersj2 |
That's my question. With the current generation of games, I've seen this happen to a few titles. Sonic was one of them (for the PS3) but most disappointing to me, so was this installment of the Katamari series. From the get-go, this game had issues. 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. 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. 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.
But there are some negatives here. 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. But you'd think that with so much more power available with the system, they could enhance a lot of different things. For example, there's no reason why the camera angles have to be so spotty & confusing at times. 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. Somehow, you have less game-play even though the game's on an IMO better overall system. Another big gripe that I have is that the lack of size of the game is a massive disappointment. 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. The ones there are good, but it's not even the same as "We Love Katamari", which had a neat under-water level.
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 then again if you're a true afficionado, you'll definitely be disappointed in the lack of development. 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. 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. There are a lot of ways to make this creative title even more creative.
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. |
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| "Not impressed" | 2009-03-13 |
| - Reviewed By mmmbop000 |
| 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. 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. Also, if you are prone to motion-sickness at all, I would advise sticking to PS. 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. Thinking it was something I ate, I tried playing again a week later, and again one time after that, with the same result. 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. |
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| "GREATEST GAME EVER" | 2009-03-08 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2UD2AMEH559HK |
I'm into action games such as Halo 3, Call of Duty, Gears of War, and so on. But this game is better than all of them. I played this game over and over again. It was extremely hard to find in store, so if you want to buy it, get it on amazon.
Seriously GET THE GAME. If you die before playing this game, you have failed at life and should be ashamed. Go now! GET THIS GAME! |
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| "The most frustrating game in the series." | 2009-03-05 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2R666YCXPKJA1 |
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. I found myself actually saying "I hate this" when I couldn't even complete the third mission. We have played/beaten the first two Katamari games many times, and even we found the controls, camera angles and level goals insanely difficult.
*The king talks way too much. How can you see what you are rolling up with his big hovering face and lines of text in the middle of the screen? It is too difficult to click the button to make him go away without disrupting your momentum.
*The level goals are insanely tough. You fail more mission than you pass, and even then you barely scrape by. This makes appreciating the level design and exploring the nooks and crannies of each level impossible. 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. A difficulty setting would make this problem moot.
*The controls feel even messier than they did before, if that is even possible. I am a tense player, so I find myself clutching the control, thus making my character flip all over the Katamari. 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. 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. Maybe the next one will be better! |
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 "Dated, and too short" | 2008-09-15 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2KQDT7WF3ITP7 |
| I'm going to fully explain why this title deserves what i've given it, a 2 star.br /First of all, i'm not a fledgeling roller, i've played and beaten the previous two katamari games on the playstation. and i have to say this one simply does not do them justice.br /br /-the game gets a star for the menus, and ease of play, the game is directed in a different manner than most hardcore games while maintaining a nose to the grindstone type of play. br /br /- it also gets a star for replay value, while not as high as previous katamaris, If you're really into it you keep trying to beat your times and sizes. Also this game has enourmous amounts of unlockables to find and outfit your cousins with.br /br /-Now is where i'll explain why its lacking,br / -It loses a star because of its overall play. The 360 controller feels odd with the sticks so far apart and the ability to quick dash is harmed. That is a vital component to speedily beating the challenges. The game is also very very short, only a few levels are brought to the 360 with loads of cousins and presents in each making the game get very repetitive as you must play the levels large amount of times before finding sometimes upwards of 10 unlockables.br /br /-It loses a star for innovation. Being the third in its series, the game fails to innovate much, the second game brought snoballs fireballs, and even a sumo wrestler to the game for some odd but very challenging missions. This game focuses mainly on rolling stuff up, its much faster too, the katimari moves at a much faster clip and as such the timer is reduced, making the game obscenely quick. you don't roll for long and you have to get to rediculous sizes quite often within a small time limit. The story in this also is quite underthought and has more of a boring quality. The other two were boring as well but in a way they kind of made up for it by making a bit of an inkling where the game was going or just providing a backstory like the second one.br /br /-If i could i'd remove 2 stars for this, in previous games, the king of all cosmos would speak to you in game to say random things as wow or something to indictae the game was moving on. In addition he'd make quick comments about cousins. His head shows up on the screen and he speaks rap sound text for a few seconds then goes away. In this game he commonly shows up and drones for sometimes a minute or two, blocing your vision and speaking so much nonsense that while funny the first few times it becomes so irritating i found myself "telling"(loudly) him to shut up. Especially with the large amounts of presents and cousins, over half of any given objective could have his head in the center of your screen. It wouldn't be so bad if he was in a corner or a ticker tape but he's dead center and takes up about 1/4 of the screen. that's a lot in a game and it really takes a lot from the experience.br /br /-Overall the game felt unfinished, and not complete, namco didn't push the game to even attempt to be better than the previous one and mostly seemed to target fans for their hard earned money rather than giving them a good time. Its a good rental but its not even worth owning, the game can be completed in a few hours with little to no replay value. Buy we love katamari for the ps2 instead.br / |
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