Story
I know, there has never been a true story to any of these games, but I feel obligated to let you know what the King has done this time. During a seemingly innocent game of tennis, the King got all riled up and hit the ball with all of his cosmic might! This sent the ball flying into the sky with such force that it ripped the sky and created a black hole. The Prince's mission, as per usual, is to fix the King's mess by rolling up tons of stuff to, eventually, plug that black hole with your huge katamari. Sadly, there are no silly little intermissions at certain intervals as there were in Katamari Damacy or We Love Katamari. That is one thing I truly missed, but it wasn't so bad that it disappointed me outright. The game has a few other things in it that more than make up for it.

Graphics
The graphics are exactly what you expected them to be. If you were expecting them to be "mindblowing" on the Xbox 360, you've got another coming. I have seen where many people have dogged the game for looking almost exactly like the previous entries. This time, however, the textures and overall look is a lot sharper. Another noticeable difference is the lack jagged lines. Jeebus bless antialiasing, something the PlayStation 2 was never good at. Still, I love the look of this series and I am just fine with it looking exactly the same. Seriously, what did people expect? Even though I am happy with the look, one thing that did bug me a little was the sight of items fading into view. That is not something I expected on the 360, especially in relatively short distances from the katamari. It's a minor gripe, but a noticeable one at that. Thankfully, the music is better than ever.

Music/Sound
The same old sound effects are back, but the music is new and Beautiful Katamari has one of the best soundtracks in the series. The music is varied and exhilarating. It really gets you going and all excited about rolling a ball around to pick up stuff. Fortunately, this fantastic soundtrack can be accessed via the Katamari Memorial after you beat the game. From there, you can select any track you want and play it to your little hearts content.

Extra Stuff
The soundtrack, however, is not the only thing you can find in the Katamari Memorial. Should you have any desire to see the introduction, prologue and epilogue, you may do so from this area. You will also be able to play the minigame that commences during the closing credits. This minigame is actually pretty fun. You shoot stuff and roll it up. Good times! Anyways, after you beat the game, you gain access to a level where you can make Uranus. Not surprisingly, the King of All Cosmos is all about Uranus. It would seem that he's quite obsessed with it and even goes so far as to say it's a fun place. Hmmm, methinks something is behind that.

Gameplay/Controls

The gameplay in Beautfiul Katamari is still as simple as it always has been. You use the analog sticks to control the katamari. A few buttons help you see things from the air or allow you to switch directions instantly. Same old stuff and lots of truly bizarre things to roll up. I do not really have anything to complain about, though it seemed really easy to get stuck in places this time around. Maybe it was just me, but it seemed like I could get stuck more easily in places that I should have been able to roll out of. I will be playing the game again and again, so we'll see if this continues to be an issue. Otherwise, that's my only complaint...almost.

My other complaint about this game was the lack of stages and the recycling of the same one for the first few missions. I do realize that this is something that has always been done with the series, but because there are far fewer stages to roll in than the previous games, it just feels like too many of the requests took place in the same area. Perhaps I'm just nuts, but let us hope that we get some more stages via the Marketplace or something.

Now, I did lie, I have one more complaint. The camera can be quite the bitch. In tight spaces, the camera usually hollows out an area through which you can see your katamari if it goes behind something, but many times it just doesn't do that. In turn, that blocks your view thus wasting precious seconds trying to get out from behind something that you can see, especially if you are stuck somewhere. At least the King has some pretty awesome lines this time around, though one can certainly tell that this was written for North American audiences as opposed to the quirky literal translations we were treated to in Katamari Damacy and We Love Katamari.

Multiplayer
I didn't get to dabble with this as much as I would have liked, but what I did play in this mode was fun. You roll your katamari around in versus mode to see who can create the bigger ball. Along the way, you can 'attack' your opponent and knock some of their stuff off. This can be done either online or locally. Besides that, there is coop, which is exactly the same as We Love Katamari. You work together to create a katamari of sufficient size by having one person control the left, and the other controlling the right. Expect lots of yelling, unless you have worked out a good system or are telepathetic. In that case, coop can be a blast.

Final Thoughts
Beautiful Katamari is a fine game and a great entry to the series. People looking for something new will be disappointed, but for those who welcome something familiar, you will be most pleased. Even though the game has fewer levels than its predecessors and can be finished in the course of an afternoon, there is always downloadable content to look forward to. I just hope it comes out soon, but I will cringe if it costs a whole lot for a stage or two. So do yourself a favor, go forth and buy it from our store. Enjoy the music and roll around in bliss...unless you get stuck in some places like me.