I first saw the Katamari game when a TechTV reporter put it “head to head” versus the Slingbox a few years ago. I didn’t quite understand the comparison, but the game looked silly, yet interesting.
Using the awesomeness that is Xbox360 Live with free game demos, I downloaded a preview of Beautiful Katamari two weeks ago. Despite the 3 minute time cap to the demo, I played it quite a few times, and my wife tried it too. She described it as “the stupidest game she’s ever seen. but a lot of fun!”
I bought it yesterday at Best Buy, and didn’t get a chance to play it until late at night. I was exhausted and ready for bed, but couldn’t possibly let my brand new game go unopened! So bleary-eyed I put it in, and played through a couple of levels and some online multiplayer games.
Awesome awesome awesome.
The multiplayer was especially fun, although we had some frequent bandwidth problems. I’d like to see a bit more detail on the bandwidth issues so I could understand exactly what the problem is (me or someone else). That is my single flaw with the game.
It’s fun. It’s silly. It’s family-safe, yet not too stupid that adults won’t enjoy. The Engrish is great (I have no idea if it’s intentional or not, but either way). The graphics are nice, not outstanding, but the gameplay is so superb it’s irrelevant.
The best part about the online multiplayer? Instead of losing to 12 year old kids who shoot me in the head while I’m still figuring out how to aim, I can lose to 5 year olds who can roll the ball real good.