As the extreme and possibly insane cynic might ask, "Isn't there already a colossal ball of junk on Xbox Live Arcade?" To that we answer, "No sir, but there soon will be. Although, Feeding Frenzy was a bit rubbish, wasn't it?" The destined arrival of Bandai Namco's next Katamari game on Xbox Live Arcade is announced in a rather blasé manner by the first sentence in Gamespot's hands-on preview of the title: "The big, huge Katamari ball of junk just keeps on rolling, this time with a new installment called Beautiful Katamari slated to hit Xbox Live Arcade in October."
The news sticks to yesterday's word from Newsweek's N'Gai Croal that Beautiful Katamari would be an Xbox 360 exclusive, and neatly contradicts previous XBLA portfolio manager Ross Erickson's "total crap - not happening". Something obviously changed in the months since then, an observation not befitting of the Katamari franchise, it seems. Gamespot's Brad Shoemaker labels the game as "more of the same," noting the presence of new levels, high-definition graphics, 4-player online gameplay and, perhaps most importantly, an original soundtrack. Despite losing momentum in terms of moving the series forward, we suspect there's still plenty to heart about Katamari -- especially if the price is right.
