Katamari Forever Rolls Up A PreviewS

I totally forgot Katamari Forever was going to be at E3, but when I trundled up to Namco's booth and saw it languishing unattended, was glad I found myself with half an hour to kill.

Why? Because while the past few Katamari games - the ones without the input of creator Keita Takahashi - were sucky, this isn't a "new" Katamari game. It's a re-release of the original, with a handful of new levels thrown in.

So we know it's good!

The key here, then, comes not from new challenges, but from the new graphics "filters" the game brings, along with its HD graphics that turn one of the PS2's most visually appealing games and makes it one of the PS3's most visually appealing games.

I played a couple of levels, both of which ran for ten minutes, and tried out two graphical styles: a cel-shaded one, which looked kind of awful, and a Valkyria Chronicles/coloured pencil filter, which looked great.

As for the game...it's Katamari. You roll, you pick things up, you endure a bollocking from the King, you do it all again. The only real change you get from having the game on the PS3 is that you can flick the Sixaxis up to jump. Which doesn't really change anything.

With the graphics looking good on a PS3, I may well end up getting this game: remember, the original was never released in PAL territories, so I'd never actually played the first game until yesterday. Sad, I know.