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We're just outside of Tokyo, Flynn and I, taking a day after TGS to explore Kamakura—a city famous for its temples, and of course, the Great Buddha. After a spontaneous, mislead and treacherous hike through the deserted wilderness, we pop out on the side of a busy street loaded with bus caravans. We'd arrived at the Great Buddha.
And when we finally laid our eyes on the 93 ton, 700+ year-old statue Flynn said, "Never in my life did I think I'd see this. I remember rolling it up in Katamari..." It was a special moment.
Hit the jump for our Frankenreview on Beautiful Katamari for the Xbox 360: every review you ever need on a game from a franchise famous for rolling up the Great Buddha.
Posters are boring! If you are going to capture savvy Tokyo shoppers' wallets, you must capture their imagination. What better way than to do that through crazy in-store displays. Later this week, Beautiful Katamari will go on sale in Japan. To whip Akihabara shoppers up into a frenzy, Sofmap has a display case with a katamari made from figurines. Besides the ubitiquitus iDOLM@STER toys, there are figurines of girls wearing sailor uniforms and swimsuits. The sign on the display reads something like:
That's mine...!! A katamari of evil corruption!!
My game purchases this week will be woefully small as not only am I staying with a friend in NYC who is a non-gamer and therefore has no consoles, but I am leaving on Wed. for LA to go to E for All. But one thing I will definitely be picking up is Beautiful Katamari just so I can hold it in my hand and wish I could play it. What's on your must have purchase list this week?
Beautiful Katamari (X360)
The Prince and The King are back for more Katamari rolling goodness.
Heroes of Might and Magic V: Tribes of the East (PC)
Now with more Orcs.
Fury (PC)
PvP to your heart's content.
Crash of the Titans (PSP)
Crash is back and making waves on the PSP.
Tony Hawk's Proving Ground (X360, PS2, WII, PS3, DS)
My kid can ollie over your honor roll student.
Spider-Man 3 (PSP)
Trapped in the web of love.
Victorious Boxers: Revolution (WII)
Beat the crap out of people while simultaneously wearing your arms out.
SWAT: Target Liberty (PSP)
Take out terrorists threatening NYC.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - Game of the Year Edition (PS3)
Together again for the first time... on the PS3
Guilty Gear XX Accent Core (WII)
All hail Bridget.
Some of our more eagle-eyed web surfing readers spotted on the official Namco Bandai Games web site "TBD" release dates for PLAYSTATION 3 versions of both Eternal Sonata and Beautiful Katamari. The latter also included hints about the rumored Wii SKU. Both titles are currently only confirmed for the Xbox 360. Not long after the stories on each title were posted, Namco Bandai hive workers pulled the listings for the non-Microsoft consoles, leaving only the Xbox 360 release dates up.
Clerical error or something far more sinister?! It's hard to think "sinister" when one is discussing an RPG occuring in the mind of a dying Polish composer or rolling things up with a katamari, so we'll remain simply skeptical of the listings. Maybe we will know more after our trip to Tokyo next week.
Thanks to our tipsters for the heads up.
First this, now this: The Bandai Namco Games US page lists Beautiful Katamari as a PS3 title and a Wii title. Previously, the game was supposedly a multi-platform title, but then the PS3 version was apparently abandoned due to porting issues and sluggish PS3 sales. Since this past spring, there has been rumblings of a Wii version, and the game's designer confirmed it was under consideration. Still, Beautiful Katamari was then announced as an Xbox 360 exclusive, and the released box art even carries the "Only on Xbox 360." According to Bandai Namco's site, the PS3 game's release date is TBA as is the Wii one (Xbox 360 should be out in October). Does that mean "Only on Xbox 360" is totally meaningless? If this is true, guess so!
Literally. Beautiful Katamari will feature a new Roller Roaster mode in which players need to roll up massive amounts of "hot things," like pizza, coffee and pictures of Crecente. Laws of physics would generally argue that in order to reach 10,000 degrees Celsius, one would need more than a multitude of 100 degree Celsius objects in close proximity. But shhh, don't tell the King.
The 4-player "Thingy Battle" sounds like a good time, in which you compete to roll the most of any one thing. And there are also loads of leaderboards in the game—so many that we expect a Beautiful Katamari Leaderboard spinoff down the road.
Thought the BioShock demo was enough? Wrong. The Beautiful Katamari demo rolled onto Xbox Live this morning, catchy music and cute graphics in tow. The Xbox 360 exclusive won't be out until this fall. So, go on. Download it. DO IT.
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Grand Theft Auto IV — ...Take Two had wanted to continue its long-standing practice of giving Sony a lengthy timed exclusivity on the game, but they didn't want it.
Newsweek says that former Sony Computer Entertainment president Ken Kutaragi's "radio silence" on the issue left Sony's American execs without the authority to make deals, and nothing happened. Same with...
gag order
rumor
roll out
katamari
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