Wow, Beautiful Katamari is fucking awful

[Mondain]

First off, I really find that the 360's analog sticks work real bad with this genre of game, it was clearly made with the Dual Shock/Sixaxis family of controllers in mind. It's so much more uncomfortable and awkward to rapidly turn around, especially when you apply constant pressure to the two sticks at the same time.

Now onto the game, it's nothing but the PS2 engine in HD. After about 30-40 minutes spent on it I was shocked to see that it already shows 20% of completion being done. It uses a lot of the same music and some of the same menu/presentation screens too, when the King of All Cosmos is about to rate your katamaris especially.

When you're in the game it isn't impressive at all, this is a game engine that was made with the PS2 and SDTV resolutions in mind and it just doesn't really draw you in. Not to mention that there is some severe slow down at times that isn't due to you colliding with objects (wtf?), and even objects that draw in. HELLO, HOW THE FUCK IS THIS POSSIBLE ON 10x BETTER HARDWARE?

What a disgusting, lazy job from Namco. At least I guess that level design seems to be OK. If you like the past ones don't get it until it's under ten bucks, otherwise avoid. If you've never played the series then get the much cheaper (and better) PS2 games.

The music is boring as hell too, seems to consist mostly of boring ballads sung by women. The title screen music (the one that's featured in the demo) is the only one that seems to be remotely catchy so far.

[bud]

ds2 > 360 controller because of the stick placement, imo.

the 360 controller doesn't even have a name

[GilloD]

ds2 > 360 controller because of the stick placement, imo.

the 360 controller doesn't even have a name

Peanutbutter Fandango.

[bork]

First off, I really find that the 360's analog sticks work real bad

How many times do you need to troll the Xbox 360 already, dude?

DO NOT FUCKING START FLAME WAR SHIT. 

[hyp]

i thought the demo was decent, and i owned both the ps2 and psp versions of the game.  i'll probably pick it up anyway.  what did you expect mondain?   katamari was never a graphical powerhouse to begin with.  at least the shit looks sharp and hi-res.  as long as it plays like katamari, i don't see what the problem is.

[Himu]

ds2 > 360 controller because of the stick placement, imo.

the 360 controller doesn't even have a name

I like the xbox analog stick placement. having analog sticks adjacent to eachother makes the controller feel so cramped now.

[MrAngryFace]

I dunno, if im not lookin at the controller I dont really notice that the analog sticks aren't directly in line. Then again I never played Katamari on the ps2 so there ya go.

[demi]

with a twist of this knife, we'll take your life

there will be justice in murder

[Beezy]

the 360 controller doesn't even have a name

Most controllers don't.

[MCD]

ds2 > 360 controller because of the stick placement, imo.

the 360 controller doesn't even have a name

Depends on the game.

i found 360 controller better with NGB.

[MrAngryFace]

360 controller stick placement is ideal for FPS titles, and probably a few other genres as well. Claiming the DS2>360 pad just cause the DS2 excels with a game previously exclusive to the console is dumb.

[Himu]

Endless mode is when you have no time limit

[hyp]

Love the way you can see how many people have been online, and what the world's collective Katamari has grown to.

that's pretty slick.  are there online leaderboards too?

[Smooth Groove]

360 controller has the best analog sticks and the best placement of them.  The PS3 sticks are too loose.  Having the left analog stick higher up makes the most sense since most modern games don't use the D-pad for movement anyways. 

[TVC15]

Wow, quick cash in sequel is quick cash in sequel, stop the presses!

I just nabbed the game.  I am not particularly expecting much.  I find it puzzling how one could favor one set of analog sticks over another, though.  I'm not a shill on either side of the fence, and both PS3 and 360 analog sticks work just about the same to me.  Some people prefer the placement of sticks on one or the another, but it's never made a difference to me.  Going by the way Jotaro talks, you'd think they performed fundamentally differently.

[Mupepe]

I dunno, if im not lookin at the controller I dont really notice that the analog sticks aren't directly in line. Then again I never played Katamari on the ps2 so there ya go.

same here.

the controls work fine for me.

[Mondain]

i thought the demo was decent, and i owned both the ps2 and psp versions of the game.  i'll probably pick it up anyway.  what did you expect mondain?   katamari was never a graphical powerhouse to begin with.  at least the shit looks sharp and hi-res.  as long as it plays like katamari, i don't see what the problem is.

err, no slowdown and no objects that pop-in would've been nice even if this is a PS2 port, it's not as if all the environments, characters and items can't all be contained in the 360's RAM while the game runs at 60 FPS at every single spot

and really, this game was made to be played with a Dual Shock 2, the 360 stick is nice for FPSes, but to veer in Katamari I really find that the Dual Shock works better and is more comfortable with the way that the joysticks' caps are designed

personally, I vastly preferred the Controller-S to the 360 pad, especially when it comes to the d-pad and the analog sticks

[zeergoth]

i thought the demo was decent, and i owned both the ps2 and psp versions of the game.  i'll probably pick it up anyway.  what did you expect mondain?   katamari was never a graphical powerhouse to begin with.  at least the shit looks sharp and hi-res.  as long as it plays like katamari, i don't see what the problem is.

err, no slowdown and no objects that pop-in would've been nice even if this is a PS2 port, it's not as if all the environments, characters and items can't all be contained in the 360's RAM while the game runs at 60 FPS at every single spot

and really, this game was made to be played with a Dual Shock 2, the 360 stick is nice for FPSes, but to veer in Katamari I really find that the Dual Shock works better and is more comfortable with the way that the joysticks' caps are designed

personally, I vastly preferred the Controller-S to the 360 pad, especially when it comes to the d-pad and the analog sticks

Oh, Mondain

[Van Cruncheon]

why don't you present this control stick alignment conundrum at the next frat party you crash, mondain?

oh wait

[Mupepe]

why don't you present this control stick alignment conundrum at the next frat party you crash, mondain?

oh wait

WEDGIE TIME

[TVC15]

why don't you present this control stick alignment conundrum at the next frat party you crash, mondain?

oh wait

[Mondain]

too busy trying to find a cunning way to spend a few minutes alone with one of the club's girls I have a semi-crush on right after the events to bring videogames into the mix

[demi]

too busy trying to find a cunning way to spend a few minutes alone with one of the club's girls I have a semi-crush on right after the events to bring videogames into the mix

lol

[TVC15]

too busy trying to find a cunning way to spend a few minutes alone with one of the club's girls I have a semi-crush on right after the events to bring videogames into the mix

[hyp]

err, no slowdown and no objects that pop-in would've been nice even if this is a PS2 port, it's not as if all the environments, characters and items can't all be contained in the 360's RAM while the game runs at 60 FPS at every single spot

how bad are the slowdown and framedrops compared to the ps2 version?

[Mondain]

if I remember correctly the PS2 versions run at a constant 30 FPS, right? on this version it runs at 60 FPS and then really seems to constantly drop to 30 FPS, and even less

[TVC15]

I only did the first 2 rolls.  For better and worse, it's Katamari.  Same ol' Katamari.

[Smooth Groove]

I love how Mondain doesn't even deny that he was lying about having a social life. 

[Mondain]

too busy trying to find a cunning way to spend a few minutes alone with one of the club's girls I have a semi-crush on right after the events to bring videogames into the mix

lol

it's hard because there's always tons of people around for any given activity who could pry into the conversations, and then as soon as it's over and the night comes she goes back to her home without me having the time to do anything... I do have her e-mail address which is also probably her MSN but I dunno, it seems like it'd be bound to be perceived as a cowardly way to get in contact with a person of the opposite sex, and of course, you can't witness the look in her eyes and the body language caused by the two of us being seemingly alone together for a moment or anything like that, which is a crucial element for the assessment of potential interest

[Van Cruncheon]

lol

[TVC15]

if I remember correctly the PS2 versions run at a constant 30 FPS, right? on this version it runs at 60 FPS and then really seems to constantly drop to 30 FPS, and even less

There is nothing constant about the PS2 framerate, especially in the later stages when you're rolling a big katamari. The 360 framerate issues are a little disappointing, but nothing unusual for the Katamari series, so I tend to filter them out.

I never had very high expectations for the game, really, or any Katamari sequel.  It's always been evident that it was something where mixing up the formula really wasn't all that possible.  I'm not shocked that this game might be kind of half-assed.  I mean, just a year ago, Namco was swearing up and down that there would be no more sequels.  This was probably thrown together with a compressed development schedule using like, all pre-existing assets. 

But I mean, as long as you get the basic elements right, Katamari is Katamari.

The music's been a bit slow so far, but there was one track I particularly liked.

Most of the new music isn't thrilling me, either.  I think I have been spoiled by previous entries because I really don't think most of it is really bad, just weak in comparison.

I'm reading Japanese reports on mixi that the online part has terrible lag - anyone tried it yet?

No.  I probably never will.  I never saw the attraction of multiplayer Katamari, really.

[demi]

too busy trying to find a cunning way to spend a few minutes alone with one of the club's girls I have a semi-crush on right after the events to bring videogames into the mix

lol

it's hard because there's always tons of people around for any given activity who could pry into the conversations, and then as soon as it's over and the night comes she goes back to her home without me having the time to do anything... I do have her e-mail address which is also probably her MSN but I dunno, it seems like it'd be bound to be perceived as a cowardly way to get in contact with a person of the opposite sex, and of course, you can't witness the look in her eyes and the body language caused by the two of us being seemingly alone together for a moment or anything like that, which is a crucial element for the assessment of potential interest

wut

Just ask her if she has MSN...

[Smooth Groove]

too busy trying to find a cunning way to spend a few minutes alone with one of the club's girls I have a semi-crush on right after the events to bring videogames into the mix

lol

it's hard because there's always tons of people around for any given activity who could pry into the conversations, and then as soon as it's over and the night comes she goes back to her home without me having the time to do anything... I do have her e-mail address which is also probably her MSN but I dunno, it seems like it'd be bound to be perceived as a cowardly way to get in contact with a person of the opposite sex, and of course, you can't witness the look in her eyes and the body language caused by the two of us being seemingly alone together for a moment or anything like that, which is a crucial element for the assessment of potential interest

wow, wtf did I just read?

[Mondain]

And I just completed it this morning after having barely played it. That's it???

This stands as one of the shortest and easiest games of modern gaming, this side of Parappa the Rapper 2.

I swear, We Love Katamari has at least 3-4 times more challenges. This game is a complete crock of shit.

[hyp]

this game isn't nearly as bad as mondain says it is.  and for the most part, it runs 60fps with drops to about 30fps (in your typical katamari fashion) but everything is v-sycned so it's hardly bothersome. 

not much lag online from what i played, and the feature set is decent.  and seriously, what was your issue with the controls?  i'm perfecting my rolls and have had NO issue maneuvering my katamari through each stage.  graphics are clean as fuck too, i've never seen a PS2 game this sharp.

[demi]

So I'm going to assume there's no endless mode because no one is fucking answering me.

There's an Eternal Mode, but no sign of an Endless Mode

[TVC15]

So I'm going to assume there's no endless mode because no one is fucking answering me.

Doesn't getting the endless mode usually require doing like everything in the game and shit?

[hyp]

^^ oh fuck that.

[Mondain]

this game isn't nearly as bad as mondain says it is.  and for the most part, it runs 60fps with drops to about 30fps (in your typical katamari fashion) but everything is v-sycned so it's hardly bothersome. 

not much lag online from what i played, and the feature set is decent.  and seriously, what was your issue with the controls?  i'm perfecting my rolls and have had NO issue maneuvering my katamari through each stage.  graphics are clean as fuck too, i've never seen a PS2 game this sharp.

are you joking? the framerate drops are constant whenever there's lots of objects that collide at the same time and it's EXTREMELY noticeable and distracting whereas it barely was on the original PS2 games, it seems to frequently go from 60 to 30 and then 15 FPS, and this is the Xbox 360

and the PS controller is plainly better for this game because of the form of the little joysticks, it's also easier and more comfortable to press and hold on both of them at the same time and to turn

if you've just begun playing the single player mode then watch out because the slowdown gets a whole damn worse in the later levels and there's already about one hour of gameplay left and it's not even a joke

[TVC15]

You are high, Jotaro, or you would be if you were hip.  There's no way this game is worse in the framerate or slowdown department than the PS2 games.  Barely noticeable in the PS2 games?  Maybe it was back then you were high.

[hyp]

*sigh*

[Mondain]

I don't think they ran at 60 FPS, am I right in saying that Katamari and We Love Katamari ran at 30 FPS? in this case if the framerate constantly changes then of course it's going to be less noticeable

I never played them and wondered WTF IS GOING ON, IS MY SYSTEM FAULTY? like it happened on 360

it's just PS2 graphics in HD running on 360, there's no excuse for any slowdown

[TVC15]

Hmm, the excuse is that it's a quick cash-in game developed in like less than a year, using entirely old assets.  I'm sure the game could have been running perfectly if they gave a fuck about it.

[demi]

I'd be pissed that I actually bought it! Can we excuse Jotaro's piracy tirades now that he's a legitimately poor college - excuse me, university student now?

[Mr. Gundam]

Hmm, the excuse is that it's a quick cash-in game developed in like less than a year, using entirely old assets.  I'm sure the game could have been running perfectly if they gave a fuck about it.

They've talked about another Katamari game (not Beautiful Katamari) hitting the PS3 (and probably everything else) in the future. If it's true, I hope they actually take their time and make it worthwhile.

[TVC15]

I thought Beautiful Katamari was confirmed for PS3 and Wii, too?  I thought MS just paid for an exclusive because they thought all the cool kids were still down with rolling?

[Mondain]

I think that Katamari will forever be dead from now on, the only quirky Namco game that will be worth a damn will be Takahashi's PS3 title "Nobi Nobi Boy".

[Mr. Gundam]

I thought Beautiful Katamari was confirmed for PS3 and Wii, too?  I thought MS just paid for an exclusive because they thought all the cool kids were still down with rolling?

It's weird, I've heard that too. The last I heard was that BK is 360 Exclusive, but that the PS3 would be getting another Katamari later on. Maybe the "another Katamari" really is BM, just to appease the money dudes at MS for the moment. And really, how hard would it be? A PS3 version already exists in some form.

That was a very strange move on Microsoft's part, nabbing BK like they did. Viva Pinata had a much better chance at snagging niche game players...

[y2kev]

I can't play this game. The sticks being asymmetrical just ruins it for me. I'm adjusting, but it sucks. Also, lol at the graphics. The slowdown is bizarre too.

[Mr. Gundam]

I think that Katamari will forever be dead from now on, the only quirky Namco game that will be worth a damn will be Takahashi's PS3 title "Nobi Nobi Boy".

Has anything else been released on Nobi Nobi Boy since Takahashi first unveiled it?

[Hitler Stole My Potato]

I guess this is the "official" Katamari thread around here.....


Has anyone felt that this game is a hell of a lot harder than the previous games?  I don't know if it's because it's been awhile since I've played a Katamari game or what but I'm having a hell of a time just meeting the minimum requirements to finish a stage.  I'm building the sun now and I have to roll a 500m Katamari in 10 minutes and I'm not getting anywhere near that by the end.  Fucking frustrating.

[TVC15]

Well, I *meant* to play through it this weekend, but Puzzle Quest kind of took over.

I've been through 4 levels, and my usual Katamari progression is:

1st real level after tutorial.  Beat it fairly easily.
2nd level.  It's tight, but I either beat it in the nick of time or I have to replay it once
3rd level, I am in the groove and things are easy from here on out, with the exception of a few levels.

Once you get to the 10+ minute stages, the game seems to take it easy on you, probably because they know that it's a bitch to replay 10+ minute stages.  New Katamari, I haven't gotten that far yet really.

[Mondain]

yeah, most of the times even when trying real hard you don't get a lot more than the minimal requirements, but it's still easy as pie to win the missions and complete the game hella fast

the only frustrating mission is the one where you must get the Katamari as warm as possible

and hey, people in the GAy thread are agreeing with my points... once again, my cynics were owned

[MrAngryFace]

Yes the people in GAF are good backup. God damn youre a moron.

[Smooth Groove]

and hey, people in the GAy thread are agreeing with my points... once again, my cynics were owned

Looks like you owned yourself.  All you ever say about GAF is how stupid it is, yet you rely on gafools to win you shitty "360 sucks" arguments? 

[Mondain]

as a collective GAF is indeed extremely dumb, and most posters are unbelievably naive, but it's just individual posts from random gamers in this case, not only that but by browsing huge Beautiful Katamari topics in other random gaming forums they'd surely also echo these points

[TVC15]

So you see, all the smart people agreed with him!

[hyp]

i beat katamari this weekend.  i enjoyed it, what can i say... i'm  still a fan of the series.  once again, slowdown was nothing out of the ordinary for the series, and for the most part it plays decent.  the final stage is fucking awesome and i absolutely love the credits mini-game.  i would have knocked it technically if they disabled v-sync, but they didn't so i was a happy camper.  seems like there's a ton of replayability as well.

[AdmiralViscen]

So you see, all the smart people agreed with him!

 

[Sho Nuff]

The shitty level flow makes this game way the fuck harder than it should be. Do not approve