katamari forever review

I love love LOVE the Katamari series so it's no surprise that I am having a blast playing the latest release in the franchise, Katamari Forever on the Playstation 3. The game hit stores this Tuesday and I personally think it is a great followup to the Xbox 360 game Beautiful Katamari. If you've played the series before then picking up Katamari Forever is totally simple and intuitive, and if you've never tried rolling the katamari before, it's easy to get into it quickly. The gameplay mechanics are more of the same rolling and bouncing but now with an added "Prince hop" using the six-axis PS3 controls. There are also two new bonus items that can be found in most levels that give you fleeting magnetic power, sucking all available objects nearby right to your katamari. The music is the familiar J-Pop-y sound from the other games and while I do love it for the most part, I did worry about going insane a few times after my tenth or eleventh try through some of the longer, more challenging levels. The animation is one of the real high points of this new game: first, it is rendered in full 1080p so if you've got the HD setup already then it is gorgeous to behold. The game also has a cell-shaded "hand-drawn" look to it that makes it distinct from Beautiful Katamari, and there are also different filters you can apply to change the way each level is animated, which I think is a great customization option. There are some levels that will be familiar to you if you've played Beautiful Katamari but the challenges are new and there are also many new and innovative levels and challenges. The plot of the game is just as weird as ever and now includes two series of short movies that occur after beating certain levels. The wacky dialogue paired with Namco-Bandai translation makes for one hell of a weird gaming experience but I am totally smitten. If you've got a PS3, pick this game up for sure - it's even $10 less than most PS3 titles!