Post by Gilvan Blight on May 5, 2008 10:16:40 GMT -5
Quickly: fun, less loading time, but not enough levels.
[glow=blue,2,300]Summary:[/glow]The first Katamari game on a non Sony Platform. Takes advantage of the 360s power to go from a small room to outer space without loading times.
This is the same Katamari game as the first Katamari game. You get placed into a world and roll a Bumble Ball around. When it bumps into things, if they are small enough they stick to the ball, get enough things on your ball it gets bigger and can pick up bigger things. Add a time limit and a size target and you are done. This edition does add one additional feature, the missions ask you to roll up a certain type of item, say plants for one level. You get ranked on how quick you hit the target, how much bigger then target you go and how many of the requested item type you picked up. The better you do the better you score.
In addition to normal scoring there are also presents to pick up and additional Cousins. Each of these lets you modify the character you play but have no actual impact on gameplay. The game also tracks what items you have picked up and gives you an overall percentage of possible items picked up. All of these along with Katamari Size are tied into the Xbox Achievement system.
The background this time around is that there is a Black Hole about to suck up the solar system. It's already gotten most of the planets and now threatens earth. You need to re-build the planets by rolling up the right type of thing, based on what planet (e.x. Mercury wants Sea items). Eventually you need to roll up everything, including the solar system into one giant Katamari and plug the black hole.
[glow=green,2,300]The Good:[/glow]I've loved this series from the get go, Katamari games are just insanely weired, Japanese and fun. The biggest plus for this game is the fact that there are no more loading screens. No getting stopped in the middle of a level because you have gotten big enough to unlock a new area. Everything is seamless. The new story is amusing, and the new levels are huger then ever before. The additions of achievements to try for is a nice touch as well. Online play also exists which is rather cool, though not as much fun as you would expect. There is a mode where if you are on Xbox live it sends data every time you complete a level to some server that is keeping track of the size of the Worldwide Katamari. That's always cool to see. The total size of every Kat. added together world wide.
[glow=yellow,2,300]The Bad:[/glow]The graphics are still about the same as they were on the PS2. Every now and then you see a new object like an Xbox and it's well rendered and looks pretty cool, but everything else is the same old blocky abstract polygon shapes. The controls are a little hard to use due to the two thumb stick position on the 360, I found dash especially hard to do. I also found the levels much harder in this version. I can beat them but with Katamaris only barely big enough. This gets discouraging over time, and doesn't really make me want to keep re-playing to do better.
[glow=red,2,300]The Ugly[/glow]Not enough levels. Compared to We Love Katamari this game has maybe 20% of the re-play value on 30% of the number of levels. There are only about 12 levels to play and on each there is the initial goal, then you can try for biggest katamari and fastest Katamari. That's it. Also pretty much every level is identical. Sure you are rolling up different things but you are always just rolling stuff up. We love Katamari had things like rolling around a sumo and finding food, rolling a ball of fire and having to avoid water, an always moving Katamari, etc. The only level that's really any different is the bonus Uranus level unlocked when you beat the game. Even then it's just that the Katamari gets replaced by a growing King. To add insult to this injury you can download new levels, for 300 points each! That's about $5 Canadian for one more level, which is just like the other levels where all you do is roll up stuff and try for a specific type of item. No where near worth the price. There are quite a few of these levels and maybe if they were discounted as a pack I could consider picking them up, but as it is, there is no way I will be getting any DLC.
[glow=purple,2,300]Overall:[/glow]It's cool that Xbox players can now enjoy a game that was previously only available on Playstation system. The games no where near as good as the last PS2 release of We Love Katamari though. The new additions of online play, Downloadable Content and more Cousins and presents doesn't measure up to the sheer number of levels and variety of levels in We Love Katamari. There are so few levels in this game you could probably get through it in one sitting if your Katamari-Fu is good enough. I do suggest the game if you don't have any other way to play this amazing series, but if you have a PS2 just pick up We Love Katamari, it's the better game.
[glow=blue,2,300]Summary:[/glow]The first Katamari game on a non Sony Platform. Takes advantage of the 360s power to go from a small room to outer space without loading times.
This is the same Katamari game as the first Katamari game. You get placed into a world and roll a Bumble Ball around. When it bumps into things, if they are small enough they stick to the ball, get enough things on your ball it gets bigger and can pick up bigger things. Add a time limit and a size target and you are done. This edition does add one additional feature, the missions ask you to roll up a certain type of item, say plants for one level. You get ranked on how quick you hit the target, how much bigger then target you go and how many of the requested item type you picked up. The better you do the better you score.
In addition to normal scoring there are also presents to pick up and additional Cousins. Each of these lets you modify the character you play but have no actual impact on gameplay. The game also tracks what items you have picked up and gives you an overall percentage of possible items picked up. All of these along with Katamari Size are tied into the Xbox Achievement system.
The background this time around is that there is a Black Hole about to suck up the solar system. It's already gotten most of the planets and now threatens earth. You need to re-build the planets by rolling up the right type of thing, based on what planet (e.x. Mercury wants Sea items). Eventually you need to roll up everything, including the solar system into one giant Katamari and plug the black hole.
[glow=green,2,300]The Good:[/glow]I've loved this series from the get go, Katamari games are just insanely weired, Japanese and fun. The biggest plus for this game is the fact that there are no more loading screens. No getting stopped in the middle of a level because you have gotten big enough to unlock a new area. Everything is seamless. The new story is amusing, and the new levels are huger then ever before. The additions of achievements to try for is a nice touch as well. Online play also exists which is rather cool, though not as much fun as you would expect. There is a mode where if you are on Xbox live it sends data every time you complete a level to some server that is keeping track of the size of the Worldwide Katamari. That's always cool to see. The total size of every Kat. added together world wide.
[glow=yellow,2,300]The Bad:[/glow]The graphics are still about the same as they were on the PS2. Every now and then you see a new object like an Xbox and it's well rendered and looks pretty cool, but everything else is the same old blocky abstract polygon shapes. The controls are a little hard to use due to the two thumb stick position on the 360, I found dash especially hard to do. I also found the levels much harder in this version. I can beat them but with Katamaris only barely big enough. This gets discouraging over time, and doesn't really make me want to keep re-playing to do better.
[glow=red,2,300]The Ugly[/glow]Not enough levels. Compared to We Love Katamari this game has maybe 20% of the re-play value on 30% of the number of levels. There are only about 12 levels to play and on each there is the initial goal, then you can try for biggest katamari and fastest Katamari. That's it. Also pretty much every level is identical. Sure you are rolling up different things but you are always just rolling stuff up. We love Katamari had things like rolling around a sumo and finding food, rolling a ball of fire and having to avoid water, an always moving Katamari, etc. The only level that's really any different is the bonus Uranus level unlocked when you beat the game. Even then it's just that the Katamari gets replaced by a growing King. To add insult to this injury you can download new levels, for 300 points each! That's about $5 Canadian for one more level, which is just like the other levels where all you do is roll up stuff and try for a specific type of item. No where near worth the price. There are quite a few of these levels and maybe if they were discounted as a pack I could consider picking them up, but as it is, there is no way I will be getting any DLC.
[glow=purple,2,300]Overall:[/glow]It's cool that Xbox players can now enjoy a game that was previously only available on Playstation system. The games no where near as good as the last PS2 release of We Love Katamari though. The new additions of online play, Downloadable Content and more Cousins and presents doesn't measure up to the sheer number of levels and variety of levels in We Love Katamari. There are so few levels in this game you could probably get through it in one sitting if your Katamari-Fu is good enough. I do suggest the game if you don't have any other way to play this amazing series, but if you have a PS2 just pick up We Love Katamari, it's the better game.