Katamari Tribute will come out in North America this fall under the name Katamari Forever. The “tribute” part in the Japanese title is appropriate since Katamari Forever takes levels from the previous games and remixes them.
Old levels take place in the King of All Cosmos’ mind and lack color. You see, the King knocked his noggin and has amnesia. When you roll up junk color comes back to the world and the King’s memory recovers a bit. One of the old levels I saw was the gingerbread house stage from We Love Katamari. The stage looks better in 1080p, of course, and the visual filters like wood are especially cool, but what else is there? Truly devoted collectors will find items floating in the sky. Using the Prince Hop you can make the Katamari jump by flicking the controller up or hitting a shoulder button. Another feature is temporarily called a King Shock. Touch one a broken heart and the Katamari sucks up objects near by as if it was a junk magnet.
New stages take place in the present where RoboKing, a robotic version of the King of All Cosmos created by the cousins, goes bonkers and destroys all of the stars. Yes, you have to make all of the stars again. Instead of only rolling up junk one new level has players terraform a desert to a forest. Players start this stage by soaking their Katamari in water. Once the ball is wet you roll over sand and plants sprout, sort of like Katamari meets Flower. While rolling you lose water which means you have to return to a pond to refill your Katamari.
Katamari Forever has “more than 30 levels” and as of now there are no plans for downloadable content. Katamari Forever doesn’t have the online multiplayer introduced in Beautiful Katamari either. It does have offline multiplayer, online leaderboards, and new cousins to collect.
Published: Apr 30, 2009 11:29 am