As you can see below, the Katamari theme extended beyond just the bride and groom. The entire bridal party were decked out, there were Katamari invites, gifts, lamps, flower accessories, even an adorable little Katamari cake. To get an idea of the scope of the madness, check out this gallery.

Katamari Damacy wedding [Offbeat Bride, via The Epitome of Profundity]

As someone who owns the soundtracks to the first two games, I'll be taking a good, long look at the soundtrack to this one (known as Katamari Tribute in Japan), which will come as a 2-disc set clocking in at 36 tracks.

Anyone interested in importing, it'll be out in Japan on July 23, and will sell for ¥3150 USD$33.

I Love Katamari takes up 82 MB and features four gameplay modes — Story, Time Attack, Exact Size and Eternal. Only three reviews up so far, one complains about the frame rate, but that seems a problem of the iPhone and not the application itself.

Anyway, it's Katamari on your mobile. Had no idea this one was in the works.

I Love Katamari [Link opens iTunes. thanks Veselov, Falsoman and others]

Being totally honest with you, I'm beginning to get a bit bored making just games. I wanted something in a different area, but quite similar. Being able to move physically, to exercise, I thought that would be a good idea to start with.

Defining the word creativity is difficult in a sense. Even the likes of God of War, for instance, it is really well made. It's a great graphic game with an interesting story. It's not fair to tell them that their games have no creativity. Having said that I do feel many games do lack the wow factor in a sense.

There's nothing surreal about it. I think if Katamari is considered so creative then to me it feels like the video game industry in general has lost its direction.

Katamari Sculpture [via gaygamer]

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.

Gamespot
Beautiful Katamari doesn't look much like an Xbox 360 game. If anything, it looks like the PS2 game engine upscaled to the brink of exploding...we hoped for visuals that represented some kind of significant advance over those in previous games. The world and things that dwell within it just look kind of fuzzy up close, and while there are plenty of colorful backdrops and square-shaped people, again, all of it seems ripped right out of the PS2 games.

Gamepro
Beautiful Katamari suffers from some of the same goofs that plagued the other titles. You'll still get stuck in tight spots because the camera swiveled behind a wall or table, co-op control still amounts to pretending you share a single uncomfortable body with a twin, and a few of the levels are filled with frustrating opportunities to abruptly end your hard-won progress because you ran over the wrong item.

Gametap
...for Mars, you've got to roll up a katamari that hits 10,000 degrees. The katamari is continually getting cooler, and if you roll up cold things, the temperature goes down even more quickly. And then there are the environment hazards to watch out for, like those panicked fireman who might throw water on you and put out the katamari completely. It's a fun new twist on the katamari levels.

Gameinformer
This installment is also void of the wacky human-based story, and the King of All Cosmos seems to be bored and doesn't have the witty one-liners you know him for.
1up
The big addition to this Xbox 360-exclusive title is online versus play (as well as some future downloadable content and online leaderboards). Here you jump in a match with three others and compete to nab the most of a certain item in the given time. The big change-up from single-player action is the addition of a lock-on button that allows you to target opponents before dashing into them, knocking items off for the taking. This mode offers nothing more than forgettable fun, though, at best...
Hmm, I really hoped for this to be an HD feast for your eyes, even if the mechanic was getting a bit stale. Sounds like a pass if you've played the games before and aren't craving more Katamari.

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.

[Meanwhile, I spent over three hours to get 35 percent of the BioShock demo, before shutting it off and going to bed last night. So, reader people, please clear a space so I can snag BioShock. Kthxbye.]

The lucky bastards over at GameSpot got a chance to do a hands on with the new Beautiful Katamari and brought back some details with them. The game will be available via Xbox Live Arcade and from the looks of it, the gameplay and art style that make Katamari great have remained untouched. There will be a ton of new content though, including eight new playable characters, new music and all new levels. It will be presented in glorious 720p HD and will also include achievements to help pump up your anemic gamerscore. As in the other games, Beautiful Katamari will have a central area where you can access all your cousins, royal presents and save/load your games called Princetown. Clever, eh?

The best news of all is that Beautiful Katamari will be rolling on to XBLA sometime in October making it a mere four months away. I just hope that it's appearance on XBLA will bring with it an appropriate price tag and some good downloadable content somewhere down the road.

No word from Gamespot on the rumored Xbox exclusivity, but if Newsweek's finger-on-the-pulse guy, N'Gai Croal, is right, we should hear all about it come E3. Flynn De Marco

Beautiful Katamari Hands-On [Gamespot]

The announcement of My Beautiful Katamari was met with mixed reactions. Some, like me, were excited for yet another round of candy colored Japanese bizarreness while others thought it wouldn't be the same so why bother and yet still others could have cared less.

If you're a member of the first group however, have I got a treat for you. Brand spankin' new gameplay footage of the upcoming game complete with trademark kooky music. Even his Royal greatness, The King of All Cosmos is on hand with his nonsensical ramblings. So grab your cup off coffee, lean back and enjoy an easy Saturday morning kickoff with a little Katamari deliciousness. Flynn De Marco

Just in time for Earth Day, which is today (living in Taipei, where a layer of suspicious-looking black gunk coats every exposed surface on my roof, I didn't even notice), Game Daily brings us a list of the top 10 planet friendly games. A couple of my pet favorites are on here: Katamari, Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon (I'm not sure farming has ever looked so fun and environmentally friendly as it does on my DS) all make the list, along with some unexpected choices like Grand Theft Auto.

And what comes in at number one? Why, Captain Planet and the Planeteers, of course. Maggie Greene

Top Ten Planet Friendly Games [GameDaily]

It's been a while since I posted a game cake, but this one definitely deserves it. This is probably the best representation of Katamari Damacy in cake form that I have yet seen. I was always fond of that star-like icing decoration. It reminds me of all those character cakes my Mom used to make me when I was a kid. It's a bit of an antiquated style, but in this case , it works perfectly.

As much as I like the cake though, I can't help being drawn to the Prince of the Cosmos figure. Did the cake maker make that? And if not... Where the hell can I get one?! Flynn De Marco

Katamari cake [Wonderland]

Website Orange Lounge Radio has a pretty good track record with reporting rumors that usually turn out to be right on target. Their newest addition to the rumor mill is that Namco has announced to retailers that a new Katamari game, entitled Beautiful Katamari, will be arriving on all three next gen consoles this fall. They even go so far as to list release dates and prices. According to their source, the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions will hit on October 17th at $39.99 followed swiftly by the Wii version on November 14th for a slightly cheaper $29.99. Their source is listed as a "someone who works in video game distribution" and if you doubt their word, they have put together a little FAQ explaining exactly why you should believe them, including this post on Xboxic which seems to corroborate the story.

Once again, rumor is rumor, but this is one I'm crossing my fingers turns out to be true.

Beautiful Katamari rolling onto the PS3 & XBOX 360 in October, Wii in November [Orange Lounge Radio - Thanks Eric]

Just in time for winter comes these insane mammary-like Katamari earmuffs. There's even a secret compartment where you can stuff twenty dollar bills. The pattern appears in the December issue of Shojo Beat magazine, so you can make them if your into having large funbags on the side of your head. Brian Ashcraft

You Can, Uh, Make This [ThirtyKnitter via Boing Boing]

Halloween may be over, but that doesn't mean we can't show you these awesome (ly freaky) costumes of the King and Queen of All Cosmos. Can't...stop...staring...at...king's...sexy...legs. Jason Chen

Homemade King & Queen of All Cosmos Katamari Damacy costumes [MAKE]

By posting this, we acknowledge one thing: Our inbox will be bombarded with countless game pumpkins. That's okay, but make 'em good, gosh dernit. Frodo from the Weekly Geek Show carved his a Katamari pumpkin, a Triforce pumpkin and what looks like Ken Kutaragi. Nice work, Frodo! Brian Ashcraft

Admit, It Kinda Looks Like Kutaragi [WGS]

So. Yesterday, Florian posted a naughty pic and got everyone at work in trouble, including himself. He actually felt tremendous guilty about the pic and sent us a handwritten chicken scrawl fax in which he wrote "I shall not post photos of impaled naked people ever again on Kotaku" 539 times. Today, we bring another impaled photo from a reader with the clever name "Anonymous"—it's a Katamari birthday cake that has a Prince with stick rammed up his tooter. Delicious. Brian Ashcraft

Before this delightful Katamari rip-off ad from Travelers Insurance, it had never occurred to me that any frail meat puppets caught in the onslaught of a Katamari would find all of their limbs horrifically snapped and mangled; their bodies pulverized into a slurry by the relentless pressure of the rapidly building layers on top of them. Ghoulishly, this thought thrilled me, so I am disappointed that the commercial ends with everyone walking away from the Katamari just a-okay.

As an ancillary note, I have a question: I've only played a bit of the first Katamari. Do any of the levels allow you to build a Katamari so big that you eventually manage to roll-up the planet you're on, then continue to build your katamari until you make a star of all creation, sucking up black holes and galaxies? Eventually, you get so big that you realize that the entire universe is but one small molecule in an infinitely recursive cosmos, and you can actually continue to expand your universe throughout infinity? That really does seem like the natural conclusion of the concept. Florian Eckhardt